The Department of Homeland Security announced this week that it will send North Carolina an additional $116 million in federal funding to help the state rebuild areas still devastated by Hurricane Helene.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency will send the money to help with reconstruction efforts. The development comes as estimates to rebuild affected areas in western North Carolina have ballooned overall by over $800 million since the disaster hit in the fall of 2024.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who oversees FEMA, said the funding will help repair and restore schools, public safety facilities, utilities, and community services.
“North Carolina communities are rebuilding stronger, and today’s approvals show this Administration’s commitment to cutting red tape and getting recovery dollars out the door faster,” she said in a statement.
Over $1 billion has already been issued to aid recovery efforts, as well as more than $549 million in grants to survivors, according to Noem’s office.
The latest federal aid package includes $34.7 million allocated to the North Carolina Department of Transportation for road and bridge repairs across more than 300 sites.
Major pieces of infrastructure across the region remain washed out 16 months after the hurricane hit, including Interstate 40. The latest estimate to fix the highway, which snakes through North Carolina’s section of the Pigeon River Gorge, is now more than $900 million more than NCDOT estimated last June, due largely to sweeping engineering costs. Restoring about five miles of the highway’s eastbound lanes is currently projected to cost roughly $2 billion.
“We had limited information to put an estimate together,” Chris Peoples, NCDOT’s chief operating officer, told the state Board of Transportation last week. “We’ve got a contractor on board now. We’re working with them on progressing designs. We’ve got more geotechnical information.”
HOW THE PRIVATE SECTOR LED THE ‘FRONT-LINE’ RESPONSE TO HELENE’S CLEAN-UP
FEMA’s latest allocations also included roughly $26 million for federal buyouts of damaged and destroyed properties through the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. The move prompted praise from Gov. Josh Stein (D-NC), who said, “The first WNC homeowners have been approved for the homeowner buyout program.” However, on Wednesday, Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) pressed for more relief.
“I will continue to work closely with all federal, state, and local leaders to continue to identify projects that qualify for federal reimbursement, and I will be in constant contact with FEMA to get these dollars to Western North Carolina communities,” he said.
