FEMA

ATLANTA (AP) — U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has pledged to start paying out tens of billions in aid to victims of Hurricane Helene later this month. But delays are already making it hard this year for some farmers to plant crops. Congress set a deadline of March 21 to hand out the money when it passed a $100 billion disaster relief package. The September 2024 storm cut a swath from Florida into North Carolina, causing more than $10 billion in estimated damages to farmers. A Georgia farmer says farmers need aid to repay 2024 debts so they can borrow anew to plant crops this spring.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina legislators appear to be closing in on legislation to provide more funds to help the mountains recover from Hurricane Helene. A measure advanced by Senate Republicans on Tuesday would spend another $533 million for Helene relief. The House passed a bill last week to spend $500 million. But the Senate measure provides even more funds to address lingering home construction projects from Hurricanes Matthew and Florence, as well as relief from other disasters in 2024. House and Senate leaders say a final supplemental bill could reach Gov. Josh Stein’s desk very soon. Legislators already have appropriated $1.1 billion for Helene relief since October.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Another $500 million would be spent toward Hurricane Helene recovery efforts in North Carolina in legislation approved unanimously by the state House. The measure would add to the funds the Republican-controlled General Assembly already approved in late 2024 and help with home and road repairs. The $500 million is less than half the amount that Democratic Gov. Josh Stein has requested. The bill next goes to the Senate, where GOP members have their own spending ideas. House Republicans offered a successful amendment Tuesday to address some Democratic concerns. State officials say Helene caused a record nearly $60 billion in damages and recovery needs.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina House members have advanced a Republican package to boost state recovery funding after Hurricane Helene by another $500 million. Committees met Tuesday and Wednesday to consider and vote on the legislation. A House floor vote is expected next week. The package remains less than half of what new Democratic Gov. Josh Stein sought in new recovery spending earlier this month. Senate Republicans also will have their own Helen spending ideas. The legislature already appropriated close to $1 billion since last fall to address the historic flooding. Both Stein and Republican lawmakers want to get more Helene spending out the door early this year.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina governments are receiving over $1.65 billion in federal block grant money to help address historic levels of damage caused by Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina. Officials say the money is from Community Development Block Grant funds contained in a bill approved by Congress last month. Most of the grant money will go to North Carolina state government, with the remainder to the city of Asheville. Gov. Josh Stein and the head of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development held a public event Tuesday in Asheville to discuss the funds.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is allocating more than $100 billion in emergency aid to address extensive damage caused by hurricane and other disasters. The money is in a bill passed early Saturday by Congress after this week’s scramble to find consensus on a government spending bill. The money is being provided after back-to-back hurricanes slammed into the Southeast. But the funding will go to much more than just Helene and Milton recovery. There’s also disaster assistance for farmers, money for damaged roads and highways and money for block grants administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

LYONS, Ga. (AP) — Farmers in Georgia are still reeling more than two months after Hurricane Helene blew away cotton, destroyed ripened squash and cucumbers and uprooted pecan trees and timber. Agribusinesses in other Southern states saw costly damage as well. The University of Georgia estimates the September storm inflicted $5.5 billion in direct losses and indirect costs in Georgia alone. In rural Toombs County, Chris Hopkins just finished harvesting his ravaged cotton crop and figures he lost half of it, costing him about $430,000. Poultry grower Jeffrey Pridgen in Georgia’s Coffee County had four of his 12 chicken houses destroyed and others badly damaged. Farmers say more government disaster assistance is needed.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — American farmers and small business owners are among those who will suffer if Congress cannot agree on a new spending bill after President-elect Donald Trump abruptly rejected a bipartisan plan that included more than $100 billion in disaster aid. The money is urgently needed after Hurricanes Helene and Milton slammed the southeastern United States one after the other this fall. In North Carolina, small business owner Jessie Dean is still waiting for a U.S. Small Business Administration loan after her building was completely destroyed three months ago. She says she is determined to build back, but she speaks to friends every day who are weighing whether they can go on.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional leaders have unveiled legislation that will keep the federal government funded through March 14 and provide more than $100 billion in emergency aid to help states and local communities recover from Hurricanes Helene and Milton and other natural disasters. The stopgap measure will prevent a partial government shutdown set to begin after midnight Friday. It kicks final decisions on this budget year’s spending levels to a new Republican-led Congress and President-elect Donald Trump. Passage of the measure is one of the final must-pass bills that lawmakers will consider this week before adjourning for the holidays and making way for the next Congress.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The chief operating officer for the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency is no longer working in the position as of Wednesday. An office spokesperson confirmed Laura Hogshead is out of the role and Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s legislative lobbyist Pryor Gibson will serve in the interim. Hogshead’s departure comes after a scathing rebuke of her work by GOP state lawmakers during a Monday hearing. The recovery office is facing a more than $220 million deficit to continue housing projects in parts of eastern North Carolina impacted by Hurricane Matthew and Hurricane Florence. Republican legislators say the office has mismanaged its funds.