I want you to stretch a bit here and banish the federal government from your mind for a moment. I know that's hard when you're talking about botched hurricane recovery efforts, especially over the past 4 years, but give it a shot.

Right now, we're not talking xPOTATUS or FEMA or any of the myriad government workers who descend on a disaster, stay in hotel rooms, and can generally do okay jobs...or not.

We're talking about state workers. The state officials. The state bureaucrats who are entrusted with the funds and responsibility to see to it that the citizens and residents of their state affected by whatever the natural disaster is that has befallen whatever area of that state get taken care of and made as right as they can be.

That's their only responsibility, and most of these state people are paid pretty well.

In North Carolina, thanks to xPOTATUS, the cackler, and a bloated, biased bureaucracy that couldn't find it in their hearts to get off the couch, less mind dispense sorely needed help to devasted areas, less mind ruined residences with Trump signs, all the focus was on the feds.

This is a pretty typical story.

Most people like their personal FEMA rep (though I've heard some rough stories there too) but the pace of decision-making seems to be painfully slow at that agency.

Army Corps of Engineers got some serious love from the mayor.

h/t: ABC News 13

— Matt Van Swol (@matt_vanswol) February 4, 2025

Naturally.

No one had the time to take a look at the state of North Carolina itself. Turns out that was a lucky thing for them, until one little local station got nosy.

SAY...WHACHALL BEEN DOIN' ALL THIS TIME?

Turns out...they've been doin' nuthin'. While sittin' on a buttload of cash.

Well done to @WRAL for tracking this down.

This is insane. pic.twitter.com/OElBFb6bOd

— Matt Van Swol (@matt_vanswol) February 3, 2025

This is so even as the state and its newly elected officials fret about the Trump administration's plans to reduce federal spending.

...Some state relief money isn't flowing quickly, either. The $100 million state lawmakers set aside for loans to local governments with cash flow issues is still sitting in the office of state treasurer Brad Briner. Briner spokeswoman Loretta Boniti said the office had to create a program to manage the money, but she says loans should become available soon.

The same day Trump visited North Carolina, he announced the creation of a council to review FEMA. “The Federal responses to Hurricane Helene and other recent disasters demonstrate the need to drastically improve the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s efficacy, priorities, and competence, including evaluating whether FEMA’s bureaucracy in disaster response ultimately harms the agency’s ability to successfully respond,” Trump said in an executive order.

...Moore, the congressman and former state House Speaker appointed to Trump’s FEMA review council, said he reached out to the White House and was told Trump didn’t intend to shut down disaster relief funding.

The state is also expecting money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for disaster recovery efforts, but that money also appears to have been stalled by Trump’s order.

"I have serious concerns that we will have trouble accessing those funds," Krebs, the Stein adviser, told state lawmakers on Thursday. "We have executive orders that are encouraging those to move forward, but we have executive orders that also put those funds on pause.”

I would think the federal government under a Trump administration would also be expecting the state to do everything in its power to maximize the dispersal of funds it already had on hand, even as they came to the feds for more.

Governor Stein is working with the legislature to get more state funds approved, telling legislators that the work he needs $1B immediately and that more would have to follow.

..."I appreciate what the General Assembly has done so far, but it's time for us to step up and get them the money they need right now to rebuild," Stein said Monday, speaking from a food bank in Henderson County, south of Asheville. "We can't forget western North Carolina – and I will do everything in my power to ensure that the state shows up for them."

Helene did an estimated $60 billion in damage to western North Carolina — double the state government's entire annual budget and far exceeding previous records for storm damage in North Carolina.

The federal government is expected to spend at least several billion on recovery efforts; North Carolina leaders are hoping for $20 billion or more from FEMA and other federal agencies. But the bigger question for state leaders is how much to spend on top of the federal aid.

About that 'exceeding previous storm damage' - that's causing quite a bit of consternation and friction in itself because North Carolina still hasn't completed rebuilding what they'd committed to from storms dang near ten years ago. In fact, the state is still on the hook for rebuilding costs from two hurricanes, Florence (2018) and Matthew (2016). 

Republicans in the legislature are loathe to start handing over additional piles of cash to the same Rebuild NC black holes that need another $200M to 'finish up' from Matthew and Florence.

And there is no way they want the folks in the Western part of the state enduring the same decade-long agony.

North Carolina’s new leader for rebuilding homes after hurricanes Matthew and Florence said Thursday that his agency’s long-delayed work should finally be done by the end of the year — but only if the legislature is willing to put another $200 million into the efforts.

Pryor Gibson, who took over the work after the embattled former leader was pushed out in November, also offered advice to the legislature Thursday on how the state can learn from mistakes during the years-long delays to those eastern North Carolina recovery efforts, and apply those lessons to Helene recovery in western North Carolina.

Lawmakers were looking for more than just advice, however, as they grilled Gibson during a multi-hour joint legislative committee hearing focused on disaster recovery.

“Somebody has to be held accountable,” said Rep. Brendan Jones, R-Columbus. “We can’t go through this again with families in the west.”

The entire recovery evolution for those two storms has been an unmitigated disaster according to reports.

Nearly a decade after Hurricanes Matthew and Florence struck eastern North Carolina, more than 1,000 homes remain under construction, leaving many residents still in temporary housing such as hotels, motels, or trailers. As state officials now navigate recovery from Helene, Matthew and Florence failures cast a dark cloud over the process.

The North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency (NCORR), the agency responsible for overseeing disaster recovery efforts, has faced widespread criticism for delays and mismanagement. In this followup to Carolina Journal’s examination of NCORR’s challenges and setbacks, we outline how states like South Carolina, Mississippi, and Florida have handled similar recovery efforts.

During hearings of the Hurricane Response and Recovery Subcommittee at the North Carolina General Assembly in 2022 and 2023, Col. J.R. Sanderson, senior government advisor for SBP (formerly the St. Bernard Project), testified about South Carolina’s recovery work. Sanderson led the project in South Carolina from 2015 to 2019, helping the state recover from Hurricanes Joaquin, Matthew, and Florence.

At that time, the South Carolina Office of Resilience reported that its Disaster Recovery Division had rebuilt or repaired more than 3,000 homes since 2015. In contrast, North Carolina had completed only 789 out of 4,100 projects—just 25%—since 2016.

By March 2023, NCORR had begun working with SBP as well, but Sanderson told a legislative committee that what he saw in the state agency’s project management was troubling.

“This is a $70 billion industry in America today,” Sanderson testified in 2023. “Seven out of every ten grantees are failing.”

He told lawmakers that he’d grade NCORR’s action plan with an ‘F’ for lacking clear outcomes and failing to align goals with proper execution methods, emphasizing that successful recovery programs require a focused action plan guided by a needs assessment.

It seems to me that, while it might appear heartless, cruel, and stingily partisan, maybe having 'a plan' before expecting the legislature to hand you a checkbook is not such a bad thing when there is an abysmal track record already in evidence.

All while the state treasurer's office is sitting on a cool $100M because his office hasn't 'created a plan' yet to hand the first relief dollar out after *checks notes* five months?

HELLO

I don't know what his office is waiting for - I'm glad there doesn't seem to be any rush for him - but it's THE perfect example of what the legislature wants to avoid, isn't it?

Good God almighty.

These people floor me.