Public addresses ongoing recovery
By Steve Herring
Published in News on August 17, 2017 5:50 AM
Full Size
News-Argus/STEVE HERRING
Tim Harrington, whose Arrington Bridge home, was flooded during Hurricane Matthew, asks questions of Wayne County commissioners the public hearing on disaster relief grants.
The floors in Tim Harrington's Arrington Bridge Road home are still buckled.
The electricity only works "halfway."
Tuesday he came to Wayne County commissioners hoping for guidance on what to do next as he tries to recover from the damage left in the wake of Hurricane Matthew.
He left without any -- at least from the county, but he did speak with leaders of a local volunteer disaster relief group.
Harrington was among those who spoke during a Tuesday morning public hearing before Wayne County commissioners on disaster relief grant applications.
There were no specifics on applying.
Rather, the hourlong hearing focused on explaining the regulations, eligible activities and potential uses of Community Development Block Grant funds for Hurricane Matthew recovery.
The specifics will not come until later when commissioners will be required to hold more hearings should the county decide to apply for any of the grants.
"I don't know any more about which way I should go or what I should do now than when I walked in here, Harrington said. "I guess that is typical of government."
His frustration was shared by commissioners who talked for nearly 30 minutes before opening the hearing to public comment.
Some of the commissioners expressed frustration that it is taking so long to get help to the people who need it, the so-far inadequate level of funding to address the level of disaster and the restrictions tied to some of it.
Harrington, whose wife suffers from cancer, said he was flooded by Hurricane Floyd in 1999, too. He stayed because he likes the community.
"I don't know which way to hop," he said. "I put in for the buyout, but I love where I am at because I am close to the base, and I am military retired."
Harrington said he has received $25,000 from flood insurance, but that $10,000 of that will be eaten up by replacing his heating and air conditioning system.
"I haven't even gotten to my floors that are buckled," he said. "Where am I going to put my wife while construction is being done?
"It has been 10 months, and it sounds like it is going to be another year. I don't know if I should go ahead and start taking care of the floors and stuff like that. It don't look like I am going to be elevated."
The county had sought nearly $37 million for acquisition (buyout)/elevation (house raising), but was awarded approximately $9 million.
The county's 331 applications include 24 for elevation ---- none of which were accepted ---- and 307 for acquisition of which only 85 were accepted by the state.
Ray Urban and Beverly Stiles of the volunteer group Long Term Disaster Recovery-Wayne County spoke about that organization's goals.
"Our job is to help people with their unmet needs," Urban said. "So after all of the government programs have been exhausted, whatever, then we try to find resources to help them solve their problem. We work closely with Lutheran Services Carolina.
"Their job is to go out and meet with folks like this gentleman back here and collect their information. They have case managers. Right now there are four case managers working in Wayne County. They may bring a case to us, and then we work with whatever resources are available. Basically it is faith-based communities, other organizations that may have funds to help people like this gentleman."
The case managers work with individuals from start to finish, said Stiles, Long Term Disaster Recovery-Wayne County chairman.
Stiles encouraged Harrington to contact the group, and after the hearing she and Urban met with him.
David Harris, of RSM Harris Associates, the county's consultant on CD grants, outlined the different grants that are available to the county.
The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development provided $198 million to the state earlier this year.
A large portion is earmarked for four counties hit hardest by Hurricane Matthew -- Wayne, Robeson, Cumberland and Edgecombe, County Manager George Wood said.
Of that Wayne is eligible for $25.4 million and the county has presented a preliminary proposal, Harris said.
All programs and categories of activities are designed and targeted to benefit low-to-moderate income persons, he said.
The second source is the state's annual allocation of funds in the amount of $42 million for what would normally be regional appropriations.
The fund was revamped because of the hurricane, and the state set aside $10 million for HUD-eligible activities such as housing, water, sewer, street and drainage.
It will be on a separate application cycle that has yet to be established, Harris said.
In addition to the $10 million, the state has $21 million through the state Department of Environmental Quality that has been set aside for standard water/sewer improvement extension to serve low- to moderate-income households.
"What they have done with that $21 million is prioritize $10 million of it for water/sewer improvements within those 50 disaster-designated counties," Harris said.
The county has yet to receive any information from the state concerning an additional $31.86 million in HUD disaster relief funding announced earlier this month.
Two federal agencies with different interests are involved in providing the funding, Wood said.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is interested in hazard mitigation which is getting people out of the way of flooding, Wood said.
"So their interest is going to be on the buyout program, the elevation program," he said.
That accomplishes getting the people out of danger, but it also has the effect of clearing out properties in the way of flooding, Wood said.
HUD, by definition, works with low- and moderate-income people on housing issues.
"That is why so much of this is being reserved for housing," he said. "They do some infrastructure, but primarily it is for housing. That is the difference in emphasis in those two federal agencies.
"So consequently this $198 million coming from HUD, the emphasis is on housing. If it had been $198 million coming from FEMA, we could have accommodated if not everybody, then a whole lot more."