Community efforts to repair private roads and bridges underway in NC, hopeful for FEMA funding

By Carl Blankenship

Hurricane Helene washed out or damaged thousands of private roads, driveways and bridges in late September across multiple states, but many families are still waiting for help to rebuild access to their homes.

In North Carolina, former Gov. Roy Cooper’s office estimated the damage to private accesses at $460 million, but about 2% of that total had made its way to property owners for access projects as of December 16, according to data provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The state has been clear that its priority is restoring public roadways and infrastructure, but the scale of the damage will need more intervention.

Cooper’s office hoped for a $25 billion federal windfall to help pay for a full disaster recovery — including $350 million for private roads — but the state was awarded only $309 million in total by the end of his administration, none of which was designated for private roads or bridges.

On December 20, Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed a bill that includes more than $100 billion in funding to help communities recover from recent disasters, especially Hurricane Helene. The law obligates $29 billion to refill FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund and sends $9.3 billion to North Carolina across all disaster assistance programs. While the final law did not include specific language for repairing private roads and bridges, an earlier version of the end-of-year legislation would have allowed FEMA to reimburse state, Tribal or local governments for repairing or replacing private access infrastructure damaged by Hurricane Helene in North Carolina. This would have created a significant aid program for this issue, but was cut in negotiations for the final legislation. 

FEMA told The Appalachian Voice that under current regulations, nonprofits, not individuals, may be able to get reimbursement for materials used in repairs through an entity receiving public assistance money such as local and state governments.

The day after his inauguration on January 1, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein signed an executive order — with bipartisan support from state legislators — delegating to the Division of Emergency Management the ability to hire repair contractors for private bridges and roads without following the state’s usual, time-consuming procurement requirements, and allowed regulators to waive some rules to expedite permitting and inspections for those projects.

FEMA’s individual assistance program has approved $9 million for private access projects, which pay homeowners directly. That figure represents payments to 3,074 households, but there are still about 3,500 applications in process. The agency is making progress, however. It processed about 200 more applications in the week after holding a briefing on the issue on Dec. 10.

There are also major limitations on the individual assistance program. Property owners are only eligible for a maximum $43,600 to help pay for all damage to a home through the individual program. Repairs to make a house inhabitable again after a disaster can quickly surpass the $43,600 limit, and the extra expense of rebuilding a private bridge can be devastating to household budgets just to restore everyday and emergency access.

With no significant federal support for private roads in sight, community nonprofits and other grassroots community efforts sprang up to try and fill the void. Lansing’s Bridge to Recovery has been running down a list of about 260 projects to restore access to homes in Ashe County, and has completed 50 so far.

Board member Emily Davis’ family only saw some creeks around her family’s home flooding. The day after the storm she and her husband Leeth, also a board member, left home to try and get in touch with friends they had not been able to contact.

“We went into Todd, Creston and Lansing, and couldn’t believe what we saw,” Davis said.

They returned home to load up their side-by-side and chainsaws to try and help. They found one area with seven houses isolated from the main road because of destroyed culverts. Neighbors built a footbridge with scraps of wood from a pallet so they could walk out, but their vehicles were trapped at home. The neighbors told the Davis’ they were the first people they had seen since the storm passed.

“It ripped our hearts out,” Davis said. “How could we, just random neighbors riding around in a side-by-side, be first responders for these people who have been completely cut off.”

Davis, a structural engineer, said it was terrifying and restoring access to homes was obviously a major need.

“I immediately knew that there would definitely be no state or federal funding if at all, and definitely not any time soon for these residential accesses,” Davis said.

Private accesses do not fall under the purview of the North Carolina Department of Transportation, municipal or county transportation authorities. Even when looking for help on the state’s websites, they point to FEMA’s individual assistance program as the route to find some relief.

Bridge to Recovery started as an informal effort compiling information on damaged access points throughout Ashe County and directing volunteer equipment operators based on the information the group could collect. It is now incorporated as a nonprofit and Lansing’s mayor is sitting on the board as well.

Among the accesses the organization has restored are two 40-foot-long bridges, foundations for a 50-foot bridge, culverts and driveways. 

Davis said FEMA has been helping coordinate relief efforts among the groups on the ground and she believes they are trying their best, but many of her neighbors told her their claims were denied and she believes some residents would not seek FEMA’s help regardless.

“There’s a trust issue there I think for a lot of mountain folk who have always done it for themselves,” Davis said.

The Washington Post published a story on Dec. 15 outlining that only 15% of households in the North Carolina disaster area have applied for FEMA assistance at this point, about half the amount in other states which saw less damage from the storm. The Post interviewed residents about their distrust of the agency.

The storm also caused damage locals never expected. Rev. Rob Morris, executive director of Christmount, a retreat of the Disciples of Christ in Black Mountain, said the organization never carried flood insurance in its 75-year history, and never thought it would be necessary. 

Christmount also contains a 90-home neighborhood. When mudslides hit part of the neighborhood, roads washed out along with water and sewer lines beneath them. Morris said “countless” trees came down. The storm destroyed five bridges, a 25-foot water tank, downed power lines and destroyed a 50-yard section of one road.

Christmount is on the hook for all its repairs. The neighborhood functions like a tiny municipality with its own utilities and roads to maintain on its own dime. The storm also cost the retreat center about $115,000 in revenue due to cancellations. Morris said unexpected support showed up within a day of the storm and the center has logged about 1,300 volunteer hours.

“I’d say the vast majority of those folks had no previous connection with Christmount, the neighborhood or the neighbors,” Morris said. “They just got in their cars and trucks and came to the area to help.”

Christmount has managed to build temporary roads and bridges and is now working on rebuilding main roads and clearing debris from creeks. Its water system was down for a month, but it received help from Winston-Salem’s utilities department to rebuild.

“That was really a game changer,” Morris said. “That was a lifesaver because we thought we were going to be down for about three months.”

While owners in the neighborhood are responsible for their own FEMA claims for their homes, Morris said the organization has had a good working relationship with the agency and may be eligible for 100% reimbursement to repair its damaged infrastructure, though Christmount will have to pay up front. The rough estimate for the damage is $2 million.

“As a nonprofit we have a board of directors and they have really helped compartmentalize and categorize the response efforts,” Morris said. “So I’ve got one person who took on FEMA and has just done nothing but work with them and do their training. And tell you what, for [folks who are out there on their own] it’s overwhelming because there is no way that one person can navigate this whole system by themself.”

FEMA specifically pointed to Bridging Together, a partnership between Mennonite Disaster Service and Lutheran Disaster Response, as a partner working with FEMA and other disaster-relief organizations to identify people who need access restored to their homes.

The partnership estimates more than 5,000 bridges need to be replaced and aims to build some of its own. The Mennonite Disaster Service design has been used for more than 130 bridges already. The first in North Carolina, built in Iron Station in June, survived Helene.

The simple design places concrete abutments outside of a stream’s channel with steel piles driven into bedrock and steel beams with concrete or wood decking across the top. The design can be adjusted for height and length depending on the site. Volunteers can build a bridge in a week, but they don’t come cheap. Each bridge runs about $50,000 in materials, and the partnership has no funding directly from FEMA at this point.

Rev. Ruth Ann Sipe, a disaster response coordinator for LDR Carolinas, said if a household received the maximum individual assistance it could, it would likely not have enough money left to build a bridge.

Sipe said the partnership is only relying on FEMA for information, not money, and is being entirely supported by private fundraising. LDR Carolinas was awarded $2 million by the Community Foundation of North Carolina to support the program. She is hopeful FEMA will provide financial support at some point.

“At this moment we’re starting with grant funding and donations that we have received toward this project,” Sipe said. “And we’re going to stretch that as far as we can.”

Bridging Together planned to begin building bridges in January, but its first project was pushed back due to a permitting issue, and now it is hoping to begin in February. The community foundation grant will help build bridges in North Carolina’s Avery, Buncombe, Madison, Mitchell, Rutherford and Yancey counties.