For months, state officials have raised concerns that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had not approved a single buyout project. Now it seems the federal government is moving forward.
After months of uncertainty over the fate of hundreds of properties, FEMA green-lit a small batch of properties for acquisition in Western North Carolina, mostly in Henderson and Buncombe Counties.
The approvals – which some people have waited almost a year for – will allow some homeowners to start the process of selling their houses to the local government. If the sale goes through, that land is then deeded for parks, greenways and other municipal projects.
On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security announced that $23 million in Hazard Mitigation Grant Program investments would move forward, including $14.2 million for properties in Buncombe County and $9.2 million for Henderson County. FEMA has approved $1.5 billion in total for the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.
Justin Graney, a spokesperson for the North Carolina Emergency Management agency, told BPR the state “is very excited to see some long-awaited movement in this space as these awards will help many North Carolinians in their recovery journey.”
Graney cautioned, however, that it will be “several days or weeks before the state has any specific information regarding these new awards from FEMA.” The money still needs to go through a congressional notification process that can take weeks.
It is unclear how many homes were approved by FEMA for buyouts. Buncombe and Henderson have submitted applications for nearly 300 properties, which means it’s unlikely that all of those applications received approval.
The FEMA approvals allow local governments to begin the “pre-offer” process with some homeowners who applied to the program. This process involves a property survey and appraisal, after which the local government makes an offer to purchase the house.
If the offer is accepted, the state's contractors demolish the house and oversee the eventual return of the property to the local government. Throughout this process the state funds the entire project and must later seek reimbursement from FEMA for the costs.
Waiting for approval caused ‘immense frustration'
State officials have for months raised concerns that FEMA had not approved a single buyout project, the first of which was submitted nearly a year ago.
At a state recovery board meeting last week Gov. Josh Stein voiced his “immense frustration” at the lack of movement on the buyout program.
“ These are folks who — their house is in a flood zone, their house was flooded — many of them have a mortgage on which they have to continue to pay and they have no house. And so all they want is to be bought out so they can start afresh somewhere else,” Stein said.
The announcement from DHS came the morning of Stein’s planned visit to Washington D.C., where he and a group of lawmakers from Western North Carolina are pushing for another $13 billion allocation from Congress.
“I heard the good news as I landed in D.C. this morning that the first WNC homeowners have been approved for the homeowner buyout program,” Stein wrote on X.
“I am grateful for the support North Carolina has received from the federal government to help rebuild western North Carolina, and we are working hard to get that money out the door as quickly as possible. To fully rebuild, however, we need Congress to do more,” he later posted.
In addition to the buyout approvals, the money announced Wednesday includes $72 million in public assistance grants. This is money from a previously appropriated tranche from Congress established in the American Relief Act of 2024. It was waiting on DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s approval before being dispersed to WNC.
“This investment will repair and restore critical public infrastructure across North Carolina, including schools, public safety facilities, utilities, and community services,” Noem said in a press release.
Hazard mitigation buyouts help homeowners recoup losses
FEMA started the Hazard Mitigation program decades ago. The program is intended to bring proactive solutions to areas that are vulnerable to floods, landslides, fires and other disasters. It’s also a cost-saving measure; the idea is that the more properties are moved out of harm’s way, the less the federal government will have to spend on repairing them in case of future disasters.
In North Carolina, state administrators first opened applications for the buyout at the end of 2024, a few months after Hurricane Helene destroyed nearly 1,000 homes in North Carolina.
Those applications are approved in batches by county governments. Once the county approves a batch, it gets sent to the North Carolina Emergency Management; then the state ferries those applications to FEMA for final approval. If the applications don’t meet state or federal guidelines, either agency can deny the application.
As of last week, state officials said 561 homeowners’ applications have been approved by the state and await federal approval. FEMA’s Wednesday announcement will move some of those applications forward, although it is unclear how many.
More than 200 more applications are in the process of getting state approval.
“While this is another promising step in the right direction, there are still families awaiting buyouts for their damaged and destroyed properties. As I have with the public assistance program, I pledge that I will continue to work closely with all federal, state, and local leaders to continue to identify projects that qualify for federal reimbursement, and I will be in constant contact with FEMA to get these dollars to Western North Carolina communities,” Sen. Ted Budd said in a statement.
During his trip to the capital this week, Stein – along with Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer and State Senator Kevin Corbin – plans to meet with. Budd, Sen. Thom Tillis and other lawmakers to advocate for an additional $13 billion in federal funding for storm recovery.
The recent round of Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funding also includes:
- $12 million to North Carolina Emergency Management to support the development and submission of hazard mitigation projects
- $3.4 million to elevate 45 homes in Beaufort County
- $1.7 million to acquire flood-prone properties in Transylvania County
- $760,000 to acquire flood-prone properties in Haywood County
- $519,000 for the management of Pamlico County’s elevation project
- $488,000 to acquire flood-prone properties in Brunswick County
- $361,000 to acquire flood-prone properties in Windsor
- $314,000 to acquire flood-prone property in Catawba County
- $297,000 to acquire flood-prone properties in Madison County
- $212,000 to purchase and install four generators to provide power to Liberty’s critical facilities during severe weather events
- $168,000 to purchase and install a generator at a Beaufort County pump station
- $127,000 to purchase and install two generators at two pump stations in Warrenton
