Farmers still waiting on Helene recovery
A Sept. 27, 2024 screenshot from the state’s flood map network shows the extent of flooding from Hurricane Helene just south of Canton around 4:45 a.m.
FIMAN photo
The message at the Haywood County Farm Bureau’s April 1 legislative breakfast was unmistakable — more than 18 months after Hurricane Helene, recovery is moving, but not at the pace or scale many farmers say is necessary to stabilize their operations.
Held annually, the breakfast serves as a touchpoint between Haywood County’s agricultural community and the policymakers charged with supporting it.
This year’s gathering, however, carried a different weight, shaped by the long tail of a disaster that continues to define planting decisions, financial outlooks and the viability of farms across the region.
Kaleb Rathbone, a Haywood native working in North Carolina Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler’s office, provided a detailed overview of recovery efforts, describing a system that has delivered substantial funding while still struggling to fully address the scope of losses.
“You know, we’re two years out past Helene, but there’s still a lot of gaps,” Rathbone said. “We’re trying our best to cover those, seeing how the ag community has circled around this issue.”
Rathbone said the state has appropriated roughly $440 million for agricultural recovery with more than $280 million already distributed through direct payments and infrastructure programs. That funding is being supplemented by a $221 million federal block grant administered through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, intended to fill gaps left by earlier relief efforts.
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He described three active disaster programs operating simultaneously, including two state-funded initiatives and the new federal block grant, each targeting different categories of loss. Infrastructure damage, timber loss, market disruption and long-term revenue impacts for perennial crops are all being addressed through separate application processes, reflecting the layered nature of agricultural recovery.
Even with those programs in place, Rathbone emphasized that timing and accessibility remain challenges, particularly for smaller operations navigating complex application requirements while trying to rebuild.
Federal representatives echoed both the progress and the limitations of current recovery efforts, pointing to ongoing legislative work while acknowledging the uneven pace of assistance.
Kai Laughter, a spokesperson for Sen. Ted Budd, said proposed legislation called “The Disaster Recovery Improvement Act” would create a task force composed of federal officials, governors and local leaders to identify gaps in disaster response and make recommendations to improve future recovery efforts. The goal, he said, is not to expand government but to better coordinate it.
Regardless, the legislation would expand government and appears largely duplicative of the FEMA Review Council — a group chartered by President Donald Trump in January 2025 that has blown through deadlines, had its original one-year charter renewed twice and has failed to produce the recommendations Trump demanded. Republican Senate Candidate Michael Whatley is the only representative from North Carolina on the council.
Recent funding approvals offer a mixed picture. Laughter noted that $165.9 million in public assistance has been approved for North Carolina, but the total amount of funding remains far below the $60 billion in damage claimed by state estimates.
For farmers still dealing with the aftermath of Helene, those distinctions underscore a broader frustration — the difference between funds that are technically approved and those that are practically available.
Chris Burns, representing Congressman Chuck Edwards, pointed to areas where federal programs have functioned more effectively, particularly within the Department of Agriculture.
“USDA is doing a great job,” Burns said.
Burns added that USDA programs have been more efficient in distributing funds, particularly those tied directly to agricultural losses. He encouraged farmers to apply for available assistance before looming deadlines.
The comparison highlights a recurring theme in disaster recovery — variability across agencies that can leave farmers navigating inconsistent timelines and requirements.
At the local level, those delays translate into tangible challenges, from repairing infrastructure to restoring production capacity. For many farmers, recovery is not a single milestone but a prolonged process shaped by both policy decisions and physical realities.
Haywood County Commissioner Tommy Long, who also represents the state’s heavily rural, westernmost counties through the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners, framed the issue through his own experience as a cattle rancher during and after the storm.
Long described the immediate aftermath of Helene as a period of relentless work, moving equipment, tending livestock and navigating damaged infrastructure with little rest. At one point, he said, he’d been up for roughly 48 hours.
Those experiences inform his perspective on recovery, which he believes has been driven more effectively at the state level than at the federal level.
“I will say that the state has done more by accident to help us than the federal government has done on purpose,” Long said.
Long acknowledged efforts by federal representatives, including Edwards, to secure funding and push for reimbursements, but said the pace of federal response remains a concern, particularly as local governments enter budget season.
“We’re on hook for about $17 million and they can let their purse strings down pretty soon,” he said, referring to Haywood County’s storm-related outlays that hadn’t been reimbursed.
Later that morning, a release from Budd’s office noted that $12.5 million in public assistance funding had just been approved for Haywood County, but the gap between obligation and reimbursement continues to strain local resources, forcing counties to front costs while waiting for federal dollars to arrive.
Speakers throughout the morning emphasized that recovery is not solely about replacing what was lost but about sustaining operations long enough to remain viable. For farms that rely on seasonal income and tight margins, delays in assistance can have cascading effects.
Rathbone noted that newer programs are attempting to address those longer-term impacts, including provisions for future revenue loss tied to perennial crops that take years to return to full production. He said the federal block grant includes categories designed to cover not just immediate damage but also the extended economic consequences of the storm, including losses tied to agritourism, direct sales and storage disruptions.
Those additions reflect lessons learned from earlier disasters, where traditional aid models often failed to capture the full scope of agricultural loss.
Still, the need to navigate multiple programs, each with its own criteria and timeline, remains a challenge for farmers already stretched thin by recovery efforts.
Laughter said the goal of federal legislation is to identify and correct those gaps but acknowledged that systemic changes take time.
Burns encouraged farmers to stay engaged with federal offices and to seek assistance when encountering obstacles in the application process, emphasizing that advocacy can help move cases forward — despite Edwards’ failure to deliver the assistance residents, farmers and local governments in his district have been calling for over the past 18 months.
At its core, the conversation returned repeatedly to a central tension — the difference between policy intent and lived experience.
On paper, hundreds of millions of dollars have been allocated and distributed. In practice, many farmers continue to operate in a state of uncertainty, balancing recovery efforts with the demands of a new growing season.
The Farm Bureau’s legislative breakfast, in that sense, functioned less as a progress report than as a checkpoint, a moment to measure how far recovery has come and how far it still has to go.
Funding is flowing, but unevenly. Programs are expanding, but remain complex. Recovery is underway, but incomplete.
For the farmers gathered in the room, those realities are not abstract policy questions but daily calculations — whether to repair, replant or wait, whether to invest in the future or focus on surviving the present.
As another season begins, the storm’s legacy continues to shape those decisions, ensuring that even as recovery progresses, it remains far from finished.
