Hundreds of millions in Helene funding on the agenda as lawmakers return to Raleigh

State lawmakers are back in session Wednesday, their first return to Raleigh since storm damage from Helene ravaged western North Carolina in what was among the worst natural disasters in state history.

Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore held a rare joint press conference to discuss the state’s response to the storm and to announce a bill that would provide about $273 million in disaster funding — likely the first of several spending plans to rebuild road networks and restore utilities.

The state has $4.75 billion in general savings, often referred to as a “rainy day fund,” as well as hundreds of millions more in other specifically targeted savings reserves that might be used for emergency response. More spending is expected to be authorized in the coming weeks.

“This is just the first step,” Berger said Wednesday.

The full extent of damages from Helene is still unknown due to limited communication and because parts of the state are cut off to traffic, but it’s likely to be in the billions of dollars. Hurricane Florence caused $17 billion in damage to eastern North Carolina in 2018, according to state estimates.

“We still don’t know what we don’t know up in the hills, in the hollows,” Sen. Tim Moffitt, R-Henderson, said Wednesday. “We’re still working with folks that are very tough, that say they’re not going to leave their homes, and it has yet to set in on them that they’re cut off from the civilized world. We’re doing our best to get to them.”

The state government won’t be asked to pay for all the damages. Some could be covered by insurance. And much will be covered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Small Business Administration and other federal government sources.

FEMA has already doled out tens of millions of dollars to western North Carolina residents, and applications for aid are still open.

People can apply for FEMA aid for everything from property damage to buying food, water and baby formula. Democratic President Joe Biden recently added Mecklenburg and Swain counties to the list of counties eligible for FEMA housing aid, bringing the total to 27 of North Carolina’s 100 counties.

Elections, schools, power and water

Disaster recovery efforts aren’t just about money to rebuild homes, roads and businesses. In a letter to state lawmakers Monday laying out disaster relief requests, Gov. Roy Cooper’s budget director Kristin Walker also included a lengthy list of temporary policy changes for state agencies that he said “will enable them to work more nimbly and with greater efficiency.” Her requests touched on aspects of state government ranging from probation hearings to landfill access, child care center inspections, DMV fees and more.

GOP leaders said they plan to approve much if not all of those requests from Cooper’s office. “We don’t need these efforts tied up in bureaucracy and delay,” Moore said Wednesday.

Public schools will likely need changes to state law tweaking their calendar rules about the number of days schools must be open and when — as well as making sure teachers still get paid. In much of the state, especially in rural counties, the local school system is usually one of the biggest employers.

North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt has been working on a series of recommendations to the legislature, including funding to keep paying teachers and other school personnel and flexibility for remote learning or extension to the school calendar. She is expected to request more than $100 million to help the Helene-impacted schools.

With voting already underway in North Carolina, state elections officials have begun making some changes to help elections continue with tweaked rules for some of those western counties — and it’s also possible that the state legislature will make further changes to election rules.

Berger said the state elections board has already made emergency rules for 13 counties most heavily impacted by the storm but lawmakers plan to expand that to all 25 counties under emergency declarations. The new rules for that region make changes to mail-in voting rules and will also loosen the rules for poll workers, to allow more people to serve and help ensure polling places are open and don’t face long lines.

After Florence in 2018, the legislature passed an initial spending bill quickly following the storm. Weeks later lawmakers passed another, more extensive disaster relief bill once more was known about the exact needs the storm damage had caused. It’s possible a similar strategy is used this year.

Likewise, it’s also not clear yet if lawmakers will step in to help Duke Energy restore power to the 84,000 customers in western North Carolina still without power as of Tuesday afternoon — a number that could represent tens of thousands of families as well as local businesses.

The company wrote in an update that the damage in western North Carolina is unprecedented, and that while many do now have power back, the remaining work could be a long and expensive process: “Extremely difficult and targeted work lies ahead before the company can restore additional customers in the hardest-hit communities.”

In some cases, power might not be able to be restored until roads are rebuilt to allow equipment up into mountainous communities, the company wrote. In other cases, it will need to rebuild its own infrastructure such as power lines and substations.

The company wrote that it has been working closely with state and federal government officials to plan its next steps in trying to get power turned back on in the whole region.

Many residents in the affected areas have also been under boil water advisories, since more than two dozen water treatment plants were affected by the storm. Likewise, wells could be contaminated by the floodwaters and mudslides that often contained sewage, pollutants, dead animals and other contaminants.

In previous state budgets lawmakers have spent hundreds of millions of dollars helping local governments upgrade water and sewer infrastructure; more funding could be on the table now.

Sen. Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell, represents several mountain counties and also previously served as the mayor of Spruce Pine. He said Helene was the worst storm he’s ever seen, and that rebuilding efforts — including at the local water treatment plant — are expected to take years.

“Mitchell County’s water treatment system for the entire county, both towns, is gone,” Hise said. “It does not exist. It’s unsalvageable. That’s a four-year process, and we don’t have a temporary solution right now.”