Tag: Hurricane Helene

DOT timetable on Helene damage

While the N.C. Department of Transportation is going to move heaven and literal earth to get Western North Carolina’s road network rebuilt, it might take it as much a decade to close the books on Hurricane Helene. That’s the word from Transportation Secretary Joey Hopkins, who told the agency’s oversight board on Wednesday such a […]

Written by on November 7, 2024

Buncombe lowers lodging-tax revenue forecast

Buncombe County expects lodging tax revenue of $24.2 million for fiscal 2025, $10.1 million lower than previously forecast, according to the Explore Asheville tourism promotion group. The 29.4% reduction reflects the impact of Hurricane Helene, and that “before the storm, merchants and business owners were already reporting weakened sales,” the tourism group said. Lodging tax […]

Written by on November 1, 2024

State channeling aid to Helene-affected UNC students

Legislators and UNC System officials are trying to help students of the system’s three western universities with their bills in the wake of Hurricane Helene. The second-round relief package included a $5.5 million allocation that will cover spring tuition (or its in-state equivalent) for all students at UNC Asheville, the institution hardest-hit by the storm. […]

Written by on October 30, 2024

Legislators added $604.2 million in disaster aid money

Legislators on Thursday added another $604.2 million in disaster aid money to the state’s response to Hurricane Helene, to go with the $273 million they allotted to the cause earlier this month. The new package cleared the Senate on a 46-0 vote and the House on a 108-0 vote. At least on the Senate side, […]

Written by on October 25, 2024

Helene recovery: A $53.6 billion question

Gov. Roy Cooper and his aides believe western North Carolina’s recovery from Hurricane Helene will ultimately consume about $53.6 billion from governmental and private sources. Of that, about $41.1 billion is the direct cost of the damage and another $7.6 billion is the prospective indirect cost of mitigating its follow-on effects on affected communities, such […]

Written by on October 24, 2024

A suggestion for the Helene AAR

Andrew Dunn, former comms chief for Dan Forest’s 2020 gubernatorial bid, recently restarted his “Longleaf Politics” Substack and on Monday offered his take on a to-do list for legislators’ future after-action review on Hurricane Helene. These include looks at: The coordination of initial disaster response. The communications playbook officials follow for getting word to the […]

Written by on October 22, 2024

DOT and Helene

State Transportation Secretary Joey Hopkins says his agency has awarded an $8 million contract to Tennessee-based Wright Brothers Construction to stabilize the hurricane-damaged westbound lanes of Interstate 40 near the Tennessee line. The deal includes incentives to have the work completed by January, Hopkins said He added that the company’s offer had come in below […]

Written by on October 16, 2024

Theory meets the real world

There’s more to say about Monday’s item on First Street Technologies’ pre-Helene report on disaster risks and the banking sector, namely that its view is to all appearances an outlier. Its basic point — that major disasters can stress banks financially via loan defaults or the loss of their customer base — is one academics […]

Written by on October 16, 2024

Bank Resilience during disasters

Western North Carolina’s banks, like those in disaster areas before it, are resilient and should pass Hurricane Helene’s test with flying colors, the president of the N.C. Bankers Association says. “I understand how it could be hard to understand how the circumstances won’t have a detrimental effect on the banks in the area,” said Peter […]

Written by on October 16, 2024

Disasters and banks

The same week that Hurricane Helene ravaged western North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina and Georgia, a Washington-based climate-risk modeler issued a report that warned of disaster-related risks to the financial sector. First Street Technologies says it’s likely small and community are “potential weak points in the broader financial system” because geographically concentrated loan portfolios are […]

Written by on October 14, 2024

Some hurricane-related tax relief

House Bill 149, the Helene relief bill, includes a section that’s designed to give people and businesses affected by the hurricane a bit of breathing room on the taxes. One part of that offers a waiver of interest on underpaid state and local taxes of various sorts, including individual income taxes. The other part allows […]

Written by on October 11, 2024

Post-mortem comes later, legislators say

Another point legislators stressed this week as they rolled out the Helene relief bill is that a deep-dive after-action review of the effectiveness of the relief effort in the mountains is a job for the future, not now. “There’s a time and there is a place for us to figure out what went wrong,” said […]

Written by on October 11, 2024

Republicans push back on New York Times article

Republicans in the General Assembly are pushing back on a New York Times article that contends their deregulatory instincts may have exacerbated the damage Hurricane Helene inflicted on western North Carolina. The article (republished by WRAL) focused on recent battles about the control and content of the state’s building codes, and about restrictions on development […]

Written by on October 11, 2024

House and Senate pass $273 million hurricane relief bill

Senators and House members came together on Wednesday to pass a hurricane relief bill that represents a $273 million down payment on the state’s efforts to help Western North Carolina recover from Hurricane Helene. The bulk of the money, $250 million, will become the state match for federal disaster assistance. Part of that is also […]

Written by on October 10, 2024

Legislators helping legislators

It’s obvious to anyone who’s looked at a legislator’s social-media feed (or U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards’ official website) that the legislative branches at both the state and federal levels are a key link in the response effort. Squeaky wheels and grease, as they say. What’s less obvious is that legislators, at least in the General […]

Written by on October 10, 2024