Republican Sen. Thom Tillis met with business owners, city officials and county officials from Kinston, Goldsboro, Seven Springs and Greenville to discuss how flood relief efforts are progressing six months after Hurricane Matthew.
"You know, it's key to me since I’m an operations person, I want to make sure all the needs that are out there in the pipeline for reimbursement or recovery or grants that we are on top of it and getting them processed as they need to be processed," Tillis said.
Primary among the concerns laid out during Thursday's meeting were a feeling of confusion among residents and small business owners about reimbursement and buyouts from the Federal Emergency Management Agency as well as some frustration over the pace at which those reimbursements are being paid out.
In Seven Springs, town officials recently had to resubmit paperwork with FEMA, as Mayor Stephen Potter said the town's paperwork was lost when their FEMA representative left the organization.
Potter said an aide of Gov. Roy Cooper visited the town earlier this month and placed the county on a high-priority list for relief.
Seven Springs experienced multiple washouts from flash flooding, and the Seven Springs Volunteer Fire Dept., which operated 24 hours a day for weeks after the flood, is still waiting on reimbursement for fuel, tires and vehicle usage directly following the flood, despite not being able to fit trucks inside the fire department building which had also flooded.
Fire Chief Jeremy Price said he would like to move the fire department out of the flood plain and onto higher ground, but the damage done to the department didn't meet the qualifications for aid from FEMA, meaning any relocation efforts have to start with reimbursement.
"We need that reimbursement money so we can try to relocate. We are also looking for grants and other assistance," he said.
Tillis said he plans to work with his staff and FEMA to create a form counties can use to keep track of what residents, businesses and other organizations are waiting for assistance.
Speaking about the needs to be better prepared for flood events in the future, Neuse Sports Shop President Russell Rhodes said the National Flood Insurance Program liability limits weren't high enough to cover the damages he incurred when the Neuse River flooded.
"My business alone — and I know there are other businesses too — we lost more than $1.5 million," Rhodes said.
Not only was the $500,000 liability limit not enough to cover the losses he sustained, Rhodes said the program took longer than it should have to pay out.
"I've just been paid what was owed for that process, and I was approved three weeks after the event," he said.
A representative of the Piggly Wiggly on U.S. 70, just two lots down from the sports shop, said he was also approved for an insurance claim after the flood, but has not yet been paid.
Rhodes also warned that unless some proactive steps are taken, the next time a flood occurs in Lenoir County, it is likely to be just as bad, if not worse than it was last year.
"We could at least snag or drag the river, and it should be dredged. We have a situation now where we know it is going to flood again," he said. "If you had a drain pipe in your house and it flooded every couple of years, you’d put in a bigger pipe. We need a bigger, deeper ditch. We flood at 14 feet, it needs to be 24 feet.”
Tillis said he would like to see more proactive steps be taken to prevent flood events from occurring in the future, he currently wants to focus his efforts on relief for those impacted by last year's flood.
Tillis said the Senate is already working on appropriating money for flood relief in this year's budget.
“We got $334 million in the year-end budget last year, now we are working on next phase," he said.
How much North Carolina will get is yet to be determined, however.
Last week, Cooper requested Congress give nearly $1 billion to be used for flood relief.
Tillis praised Cooper for his work in communicating the needs of flooded areas, and said he expects the final amount will be "in line" with what the governor is asking for.
"What it will come down to is they have to aggregate all of the needs from Louisiana, West Virginia, South Carolina — you know there were a lot of floods last year. I think whether or not we will have to make another supplemental request versus get what we requested in total really depends on the needs of the other states.”
Dustin George can be reached at 252-559-1077 or Dustin.George@Kinston.com.
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