Counties across Western North Carolina are struggling to get approval to remove debris from private property more than a year after Hurricane Helene (downgraded to a tropical storm after slowing down over land), according to a report at a recent Mitchell County Board of Commissioners meeting.
County Manager Allen Cook reported that getting state and federal approval to begin removing storm debris from private property has been endlessly delayed.
“We had a debris meeting — I typically do those bi-weekly — every week for the last six months, I ask about private property debris removal,” Cook said. “So, our citizens need to know that is still moving through FEMA on the private property debris removal.”
When the county first began the process for removing debris from private property last summer, residents were asked to register their debris-removal needs so that these could be passed on to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“And I think we have about 1,000 projects in Mitchell County thereabouts that have been marked for private property debris removal,” Cook said. “But the state is still reluctant because they’re dependent upon FEMA to know when that releases.”
State authorities are unwilling to authorize debris removal until they are confident that FEMA will reimburse the cost.
“So we are still waiting on it — it has not been discontinued or stopped,” Cook said. “Sometimes I hear those rumors in the community is they’re not going to do PPDR or it’s not going to move forward — we’re still hearing that it will move forward.”
Cook noted that the county has just recently received FEMA reimbursement for removing debris from the roadsides.
Disaster relief loans
The commissioners voted to approve an amendment to the county’s disaster-relief cash-flow loans from the state of North Carolina.
Mitchell County has received three of these loans to deal with the recovery effort from Helene. County Finance Officer Mavis Parsley said that those loans amounted to around $7.5 million.
“These loans were designed to help us meet our needs to do recovery and projects until FEMA money started flowing in, which was great,” Parsley said.
According to the original loan terms, the interest-free loans would not require any repayment until the county’s 2026-27 budget year, which will begin this summer. However, in light of ongoing struggles to get funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the state has offered an amendment extending the no-payment period.
“Our first loan payment on that was going to be right at $750,000, or 10 percent. So, the state has recognized the need has continued for this cash flow loan money and we are all still working to get our FEMA reimbursements,” Parsley said.
Parsley expressed confidence that the county will eventually get the federal reimbursement necessary to pay these loans back.
“This amendment, which they have graciously agreed to do, is deferring any payments on these loans until 2030,” she said. “So the way this will work, in my mind, and I hope I’m telling this right, but basically this was to help us get through this short period of time. At some point, FEMA will give us our funds and at some point we’re going to pay these loans back to the state.”