By Nathan Rams​​ey, Executive Director of Land of Sky Regional Council  

Over 16 months after Helene threw a gut punch at Western North Carolina, we have made significant progress. But the hill to climb for our recovery is steep. With 108 lives lost and damages of almost $60 billion, Helene was the most damaging disaster in our state’s history. 

Helene was more than three times more damaging than any disaster to have hit North Carolina. Helene’s name has been retired because it ranks as one of the most costly and deadly hurricanes in American history. 

We can rebuild our communities, but we cannot bring back those who lost their lives due to the storm. Their families and friends will live with their passing each day. First responders gave their life trying to save their neighbors. Neighbors helped neighbors. Many met their neighbors for the first time the morning of Friday, September 27. 

How you cared for each other is still the most powerful and emotional memory from this storm. When I think of my neighbors who passed away and those who suffered unspeakable loss, it gave me strength to see how Western North Carolina came together to help each other in the most trying times ever. And then to see so many from across our state and nation come to our aide was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. 

Many gave of their time, talents, and treasure to help people they did not know. I’ll never forget the chills that I got when helicopters started flying over my home headed to communities who were cut off from the outside world. At that time, I could see that help was on the way.

In the days, weeks, and months after the storm we saw our community help each other in the most extraordinary ways. When some question the goodness of people and talk about the negative things in this world, what we experienced during Helene was a reminder that the good in the world can be far greater. All the things that separated us suddenly didn’t matter and we truly realized we were all in this together. 

We have moved forward because we have all been pulling in the same direction. Government, private sector, philanthropy, churches, and many others stepped up to help us in ways that have been unprecedented. Early on I thought many of the volunteer groups who rushed to our aid would probably leave us when the next disaster hit America. But we have learned that so many faith and volunteer groups are in this for the long-term. I don’t know how we could have made it without them. 

Congress enacted disaster supplemental funding legislation which opened up billions of dollars in potential recovery funding. The N.C. General Assembly and Governor Josh Stein have made over $2 billion in state funds available for our recovery. Private groups (faith-based organizations, nonprofits, and philanthropy) have provided at least $1.4 billion dollars in support. We are grateful for this support, and we can never say “thank you” enough. 

But the past 16+ months have also been incredibly frustrating. Federal funding has been very slow to arrive in our communities. While state funding is by far the most ever provided to support disaster recovery, it has not been enough to meet critical needs. Many small businesses cannot take on more loans to stay afloat and direct business grants have been much less than they need. Local governments are facing recovery costs which are in many cases multiple times their annual budgets. They do not have the cash flow to support rebuilding our public infrastructure because the money isn’t there to help them. 

Despite the N.C. General Assembly providing $150 million in zero interest loans to local governments, the demand was over $600 million. The scale of the destruction from Helene is beyond comprehension. Just to rebuild WNC highways will cost over $5 billion and that will require at least $1 billion in state funds to match federal funding. 

Rebuilding I-40 alone will cost $2 billion and this critical transportation corridor won’t be back to normal interstate standards until 2028. Helene exacerbated our existing challenges of housing and workforce availability. Our region has the highest housing costs in our state, and we lost over 10,000 housing units that must be rebuilt. And the available land to build housing is less as there are probably flood-prone areas that we should not rebuild, if possible, to help us be stronger when future disasters hit WNC. 

Many workers have left our region because they cannot wait until our economy fully recovers. Our businesses need those workers to maintain operations and grow. Based on employer surveys, businesses tell us workforce and housing are their top two challenges. For our economy to grow going forward we need more housing and more workers.

While we need additional federal and state funding, it is clear there will not be sufficient government resources to help us rebuild. That probably happens in every disaster but federal data shows that less federal resources have come to WNC than comparable disasters of this scale. Recently, we have seen the Department of Homeland Security increase the flow of federal funding to WNC and we hope this trend continues. 

While the state has been very supportive, there are many needs that we know federal dollars cannot legally fund. We will need additional state resources as just the match requirements for the federal funding could be in excess of $1.5 billion. Federal funding has multiple layers of regulations and historically is slow to arrive in the best case. State funding can be much quicker to deploy and more flexible to meet community needs.

We sincerely appreciate the support from our Congressional delegation, President Trump, NC General Assembly, Governor Stein, and those who have enabled billions of dollars in federal and state funds to support our recovery. We hope more support will be forthcoming. 

But for our region to fully recover and to overcome almost $60 billion in loss, we must attract more private and philanthropic capital as government dollars alone won’t be enough. Most importantly, we must work together in WNC like never before and we must continue that collaboration for the long-term as our recovery will take many years. 

We must realize that we are all in this together. Rural communities need urban areas to prosper and vice versa. What happens outside of your home county is important as our recovery won’t be successful unless every county in WNC fully recovers. We are interdependent more than we know. We must collaborate at a higher level than ever as we cannot do this alone, and if we do, we will waste critical resources due to redundant service delivery. 

This doesn’t mean everything needs to be regionalized but it does mean we must work beyond local government boundaries. Businesses, workers, and other aspects of our economy don’t recognize the artificial boundaries we have created. For our recovery to be successful, we must look beyond the community where we live to continue helping others in need. 

I’m confident we can do this because you have already worked together like never before. We must keep it up.

The laws of physics remind us to move larger objects we must bring to bear a larger power. When we work together, that is a force multiplier. Alone we may not be able to move the barriers before us, but when we are all pushing and pulling in the same direction, things much larger than us will start to move. 

This race won’t be won quickly but the turtle beat the hare because the turtle never stopped moving forward. Let’s not stop moving forward together.  

Nathan Rams​​ey is the Executive Director of the Land of Sky Regional Council, which is a multi-county, local government, planning and development organization. It reaches county and municipal borders providing technical assistance to local governments and administers projects and programs which benefit our region’s citizens. For more information, check out its website www.landofsky.org.