Greene and Lenoir County residents still in hotels four years after Hurricane Florence

Lavonne Merritt, of Wendell, NC, speaks to the joint legislative commission.

The North Carolina General Assembly Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations, Subcommittee on Hurricane Response & Recovery met Wednesday to review the state’s recovery from recent disasters, including Matthew and Florence that left thousands of North Carolinians without a home. Many are still without a home in 2022 despite millions left in unspent funding. 

The North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management (OSBM) administered over $50 million in state funds for Hurricanes Matthew and Florence's recovery and over $136 million in recovery for other state disasters. 

“Our team routinely meets the contractors on job sites, communicates directly, site visits unannounced to be aware of challenges that exist on each site,” said Richard Trumper, Director of OSBM Disaster Recovery. 

NC House Majority Leader John Bell (R-Wayne) questioned the real impacts of COVID-19 on the recovery with more than 2,000 days since the last natural disaster until the start of the pandemic. “We should have been a whole lot further along.”

Trumper responded by saying he joined OSBM in 2019 and spoke of how he got the program started, built momentum, and used most of their funding. 

NC Office of Recovery and Resiliency (NCORR) assists disaster survivors and local governments with disaster recovery and improving resiliency. Laura Hogshead, NCORR Director, outlined 4,054 families participating in an eight-step program and only 776 homes have been completed since the program's inception in 2019. Hogshead stated difficulties with bureaucracy and processes with funding sources were a primary reason for the long wait times.

“When we dig into processes, and we make process arguments and tweaks, we lose sight of some of the reasons we're here,” said Senator Jim Perry. “Process isn't working for what we all need.”

Hogshead attributed the delays in putting disaster victims back into their homes to COVID-19, supply chain shortages, and tight labor markets. 

Greene County residents, William and Geraldine Williams spoke to the commission and shared their struggles with RebuildNC of NCORR. After they lost their home due to flood damage, their stored items were ruined due to rat infestation of the storage unit. 

Greene County residents, William and Geraldine Williams.

“They told me they weren’t responsible for the damages to our stuff,” said Geraldine Williams. 

“We’ve been led on for years,” agreed William Williams. The Williams are still in a hotel which has exacerbated Geraldine William’s medical issues. 

Another example of the problems with RebuildNC was Marie Edwards from Kinston. She agreed to move out of her house and into a hotel in 2019. A contractor came out to repair her roof. The roof remained unfinished including a large hole in the roof that allowed rain water to ruin what was left of her items. The house then had to be gutted, and the contractor discovered that the house had termites and agreed to build a new house. 

“They've been telling me they are going to build my house ever since the end of 2020,” said Edwards. “They give me dates every time, and nothing goes through.” Edwards is still in a hotel. 

The Saint Bernard Project (SBP) is a non-profit that focuses on disaster recovery and resiliency and works to reduce the time between the disaster and recovery. JR Sanderson, Senior Government Adviser for SBP outlined an action plan that will help North Carolina recover from natural disasters more efficiently. 

Sanderson disputes NCORR difficulties by sharing what was done in South Carolina using the same federal resources. He stated South Carolina’s completion rate far outpaced what NCORR anticipated to be able to do moving forward. NCORR has done about four homes per month. During Sanderson’s time in South Carolina with Disaster Recovery, over 100 houses a month were completed. He gave NCORR’s action plan an F.

"We have families who have been living in hotel rooms for over two years,” said Perry. “We should require those in charge of disaster recovery to also move into hotels until they get the impacted families back into their homes. I can promise you that experience would increase their sense of urgency."