It’s been six months since Hurricane Florence hit North Carolina and, in those six months, there has been significant progress in recovery.

State officials have said Florence was the costliest disaster in the state’s history with more than $1.2 billion in federal assistance being provided to Florence survivors.

This includes National Flood Insurance Program insurance payments; FEMA grants for temporary rental assistance, basic home repairs, and other needs not covered by insurance; and U.S. Small Business Administration disaster loans for homeowners, renters, and businesses.

“Hurricane Florence was a devastating storm that swamped homes, businesses, farms, schools and entire communities,” said Gov. Roy Cooper. “But the devastation was quickly followed by amazing acts of bravery and kindness from first responders, volunteers, and neighbors helping neighbors, and impressive cooperation among local, state and federal partners to get help to those in need. People hit hard by Florence are determined to recover and we’re determined to rebuild North Carolina stronger and smarter.”

FEMA and its federal partners were on the ground assisting state and local governments even before Hurricane Florence was making landfall. FEMA delivered more than 2.7 million meals and 2.6 million liters of water to the state.

North Carolina Emergency Management’s Business Emergency Operations Center (BEOC) was actively engaged with its private sector partners which provided resources and services following the storm and $20 million in cash donations to volunteer organizations to aid North Carolinians.

At peak operations, more than 1,500 federal employees supported the disaster recovery in North Carolina.

“Much progress has been made,” said FEMA’s Federal Coordinating Officer Albie Lewis. “We know much work remains and FEMA and its federal partners will continue to support North Carolina along the way.”

As of March 1, more than $128 million in individual assistance, grants were approved for rental assistance to households, home repair or replacement, personal property, and other expenses. There has also been more than $394.1 million in low-interest disaster loans for more than 9,000 homeowners, renters, businesses and private nonprofit organizations approved by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

FEMA is still working with hundreds of families who were among the most severely affected by housing them in 660 FEMA-supplied temporary housing units on private sites and in commercial mobile home parks.

According to a press release, recovery has significantly progressed due to the volunteers of faith and community-based groups who donate their time and skills to help survivors. Those numbers include serving more than 1 million meals, more than 18,000 snacks along with goods and services provided to thousands of people and pets in need from the voluntary organizations.

There have also been 32 long-term recovery groups comprised of nonprofits and volunteer agencies engaged in their communities to help assist survivors who still have unmet needs.

Other numbers include:

— An estimated $593.1 million in flood claims have been paid by the National Flood Insurance Program. More than 15,000 flood insurance claims were filed.

— FEMA has paid nearly $6 million directly to hotels for the emergency sheltering of 872 families; 675 have moved on to longer-term housing.

— The state and FEMA staffed and operated 23 Disaster Recovery Centers to provide one-on-one assistance to those affected, which were visited by more than 42,000 people.

— Disaster Survivor Assistance teams went door to door to 113,069 homes in damaged areas to provide information on FEMA assistance.

— Public Assistance, which funds the rebuilding of infrastructure and public structures as well as reimburses local government for emergency response during disasters, has received 511 eligible applications; 175 projects have been funded for more than $98.7 million.

— More than 150 private sector partners coordinated with FEMA to provide helpful disaster assistance information to 1.4 million North Carolinians.

For information on North Carolina’s recovery from Hurricane Florence, visit ncdps.gov/Florence and FEMA.gov/Disaster/4393. Follow us on Twitter: @NCEmergency and @FEMARegion4.

https://www.laurinburgexchange.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_fema_logo_image.jpg

Staff report