Bridge Rebuilding
When Tropical Storm Helene swept through Western North Carolina in September, the storm’s torrential rains triggered massive floods and landslides that tore through thousands of miles of the region’s roads and bridges. Highways collapsed into rivers, bridges and culverts washed out, and roadways, covered in mounds of mud and debris, limited relief and recovery efforts in the aftermath of the storm. Almost immediately, the repair work began.
An initial report by the North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management estimates that the state’s transportation infrastructure sustained more than $8 billion in damages, with repair of state-maintained roads and bridges bearing the brunt of that cost. But private roads and bridges also suffered severe damage across the region, limiting access to homes and neighborhoods, with initial repair estimates totaling $460 million, according to the OBSM.
Still, more than two months later, many property owners are waiting on permanent fixes for their roads and bridges, a major infrastructure challenge in a region with rough terrain that adds an extra layer of difficulty.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has received nearly 7,000 reports of damage to private roads and bridges in Western North Carolina, according to Heather Smith, the agency’s private road and bridge task force lead for Helene. As of Dec. 5, the agency has awarded $8.2 million to more than 2,700 households for road and bridge repair, she said, with thousands more applications for assistance still pending.
While FEMA is funding repairs, nonprofit groups like Lutheran Disaster Response Carolinas and Mennonite Disaster Service are partnering to help rebuild some of the private bridges Helene damaged and destroyed.
Beginning in early January, the two groups will be working in Avery, Buncombe, Madison, Mitchell, Rutherford and Yancey counties as part of the Bridging Together Partnership. The partnership, which recently received a $2 million grant from the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, will prioritize bridge repair projects that impact multiple families or critically vulnerable populations, like older people with medical conditions.
“Lutheran Disaster Response and Mennonite Disaster Service have the track record and expertise to respond to this need and are set to break ground on the first bridge in January,” CFWNC President Elizabeth Brazas said in a news release. “They are in communication with local leadership and have support to process permits needed to avoid delays.”
Rev. Ray Sipe, LDR Carolinas’ disaster coordinator, told the Citizen Times on Dec. 5 the two groups' first project will be rebuilding a private bridge in Henderson County for a community of 16 families.
Not only will the project help restore access to the neighborhood, Sipe said, but it will also be an opportunity to teach other volunteer organizations and contractors how to rebuild bridges that can withstand future storms and flooding.
Coastal Protection
Two regulatory agencies face a hearing in a lawsuit over coastal protection policies representing a broader power struggle between the state’s legislative and executive branches. A recent bill would advantage a General Assembly-appointed body that has repeatedly blocked executive actions.
The Coastal Resources Commission is a 13-member body that establishes state coastal protection policies, including the Coastal Area Management Act and the Dredge and Fill Act.
The Rules Review Commission is charged with reviewing rules enacted by state agencies to ensure compliance with the North Carolina Administrative Procedure Act. It is a 10-member panel appointed entirely by Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore.
The Rules Review Commission rejected 30 of the Coastal Resource Commission’s longstanding coastal protection rules in October 2023. Ashley Berger Snyder — the Codifier of Rules and senate president’s daughter — then stripped the 30 rules from the state’s administrative code.
The Coastal Resources Commission sued the Rules Review Commission to reinstate the rules in November 2023. They include a broad range of guidelines including enforcement of CAMA development permits, variance requests, and designation of certain regions — including Permuda Island off North Topsail — as areas of environmental concern. The Coastal Resources Commission argued removing the rule would eliminate the state’s ability to protect fragile coastal habitats and regulate improper sand removal and development in vulnerable areas.
In March, the CRC unanimously approved temporary adoption of 16 of the 30 rejected rules it deemed immediately essential. The Division of Coastal Management received 228 public comments in support of the temporary rules and six opposed from representatives of the North Carolina Home Builders Association and Cedar Point Developers.
Several coastal municipalities, including North Topsail, sent letters in support of the temporary rules. Beach Inlet and Sound Advisory Committee chair Larry Strother forwarded a February report to aldermen warning removing the rules would threaten federal beach renourishment funding, harm local governments’ ability to collect permit fees, negatively impact the use of dredge materials, and diminish protection of Permuda Island and other valuable state resources.
The Rules Review Commission has faced lawsuits from a number of executive branch agencies in recent years — including Gov. Roy Cooper — for overstepping its statutory authority and providing an unconstitutional veto on executive branch powers.
The Rules Review Commission contends the CRC does not have statutory authority to adopt policies for the coastal management program through rulemaking and argued some rules’ language was excessively ambiguous, according to legal filings. Alternatively, the Coastal Resources Commission maintains the 30 rules in question have been in place for decades, are part of the agency’s delegated responsibilities under state law, and are essential for state coastal management.
A hearing for the case will be held Wednesday in Wake County Superior Court, a venue with unique status in North Carolina. Under the Administrative Procedures Act, it is the jurisdiction where state agencies can request judgments to challenge Rules Review Commission objections to proposed rules.A controversial 131-page Helene relief bill, SB 382 — which passed the supermajority Senate vote against Cooper’s veto last week but still has to be taken up by the House on Wednesday — removes two superior court judge positions.
Veto Override
North Carolina lawmakers on Wednesday enacted a law over the governor’s veto that would diminish the powers afforded to his successor and other Democratic statewide winners in the Nov. 5 elections.
In a 72-46 vote, the GOP-dominated House overrode Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto a week after the Republican-controlled Senate voted to do the same.
Like during the Senate vote, opponents to the power-shifting bill sat in the gallery and disrupted the chambers’ floor proceedings. More than 150 people gathered on the third floor — more than the House gallery could seat. They chanted “shame” as the override vote completed and continued to yell as they were escorted out.
After warning disruptors they would face arrest if they didn’t quiet down and leave the building, General Assembly police arrested one woman who refused to leave, said police Chief Martin Brock, adding that she would face charges of trespassing, resisting arrest and violating building rules.
Many provisions within the 132-page law seek to diminish powers afforded to Gov.-elect Josh Stein, incoming attorney general Jeff Jackson, the next Democratic lieutenant governor and the schools superintendent. They all take office early next month. One of the most significant changes shifts the power to appoint State Board of Elections members from the governor to the state auditor, who will be a Republican next year.
For decades, the governor has selected its five members, with the governor’s party usually taking three seats. The enacted law transfers that power to the state auditor starting in spring. This in turn, means Republicans will likely hold majorities on the state board and the county election boards.
The legislation also weakens the governor’s authority to fill vacancies on the state Court of Appeals and Supreme Court and prevents the attorney general from taking legal positions contrary to the General Assembly in litigation challenging a law’s validity. Several post-election deadlines will move up under the law after Republican complaints that counties took too long to count provisional and absentee ballots, especially in light of an extremely close Supreme Court race.
The veto override took place in the final days of a lame-duck General Assembly session where Republicans hold exactly the number of seats necessary to override vetoes without help from Democrats.
That won’t be the case much longer — barring a successful election protest that would flip a race’s result — after Democrats picked up one more House seat in the general elections.
Despite ultimately succeeding in their override, House Republicans had some difficulty staying unified. Some GOP lawmakers from western North Carolina — where Hurricane Helene caused historic flooding — initially voted against the measure. But all three — Reps. Mike Clampitt, Karl Gillespie and Mark Pless — ended up voting to override the veto.
Part of the criticism levied against the bill centered on the $252 million of Helene recovery funds attached to it, most of which can’t be spent until the General Assembly acts again.
In his veto message, Cooper called the bill a sham in which Republicans used Helene and “disaster relief” in its title to mask unconstitutional political power grabs — a message repeated by House Democrats and Stein.
“It is despicable for the Republicans in the General Assembly to use folks’ incredible need for aid to cloak their political pettiness,” Stein said in a statement after the vote.
Other opponents to the bill said at a Wednesday news conference that GOP lawmakers weren’t serving western North Carolinians and instead were undermining democracy.
“Western North Carolina is not a toy to be played with. It is not an opportunity to exploit. It is not a place to be so violently disrespected,” said Sam Stites, a Transylvania County staff member from advocacy group Just Economics of Western North Carolina.
Republicans point out they had already allocated more than $900 million to Helene relief since October, with plans for more funding next session. Caldwell County Republican Rep. Destin Hall, who is expected to be the House speaker next year, further defended the bill’s executive power shifts as the legislature’s constitutional right.
“This body is entirely committed to helping folks in this state with storm relief,” he said. “So, in my opinion, what’s happened is political football has been made out of this bill.
It’s likely the new law will be mired in litigation — just like eight years ago, after Republicans passed laws weakening Cooper’s powers just before he took office.
Helene Damage
Hurricane Helene has caused an estimated $58 billion of damage in the state of North Carolina, according to a forthcoming report from the Office of State Budget and Management.
That figure exceeds the $53.6 billion cost reported by the Office of State Budget and Management that was based on preliminary data and modeling three weeks after the storm.
“The situation has not gotten any better with newer data and more data sources,” state budget director Kristin Walker said of the 10% increase to the House Select Committee on Helene Recovery Wednesday. “We stand by that original number and with our revision.” She said the report will be published later this week.
Three months removed from the storm, Helene has claimed 103 lives in the state. During the storm, 30 inches of rain in a short period of time caused close to a million residents to lose power. There have been over 2,000 reported landslides due to Helene. Damage was caused to over 6,000 miles of roads.
“These survivors are going to require a range of support,” Walker said. “55% of this population before Helene hit was already experiencing a housing cost burden. The impacts are severe and long-lasting — this recovery will be costly and will take time.”
An estimated 275,00 households will apply for federal assistance. 95% of these homes with FEMA-verified flood damage do not have flood insurance. “The private sector will not be paying for that,” Walker said.
Following a disaster, construction costs will rise 15 to 20% due to scarcity and demand, Walker said. “Florida is trying to hire these same contractors as are all the other states,” Walker said. “That’s going to drive up prices and we’re also dealing with inflation.”
North Carolina has experience with natural disasters. The General Assembly allocated just under a billion dollars when Florence struck six years ago. That storm’s total projected damage was $24 billion.
“One thing I have learned in this whole process, if we outrun the federal government on what we can be reimbursed for, we’re not going to be able to leverage those dollars to do what is right in western North Carolina,” Rep. Dudley Greene, R-McDowell, said on the House floor.
North Carolina is faced with a natural disaster that exceeds its yearly operating budget of roughly $30 billion. Some of the $58 billion price tag of Helene will never be funded, Walker said.
“No one is expecting anyone to fund that full, whatever the final number is, 50 some billion, that’s just not how recoveries work,” Walker said. “Some of it is gone, it is gone forever.”
In October, Gov. Roy Cooper proposed a $3.9 billion package the state could allocate toward hurricane relief, pulling from the rainy day fund and the state’s emergency disaster relief fund. If the General Assembly meets that $3.9 billion figure, along with anticipated federal support, there would still be $17 billion remaining in unfunded needs, Walker said.
“It is also still not going to come anywhere close,” Walker said. “We don’t anticipate meeting everyone’s needs here.”
“There will be much more to come of storm relief in western North Carolina,” Rep. Destin Hall, R-Caldwell, said on the House floor. “There will be more that needs to be done. My sole priority of day one [as the next House speaker] is going to be hurricane relief.”
President Joe Biden has put forth a $100 billion package for states affected by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. North Carolina is asking for a fourth of that funding. Gov. Cooper requested $25 billion in a visit to Washington, D.C., last month. Hall said he has every indication that federal dollars are headed to North Carolina.
“That’s the type of money it’s going to take to make an impact on Western North Carolina,” Hall said about the governor's request of $25 billion. “No state, no matter how fiscally well they handle things, can possibly meet that kind of burden. What we do as a state is what we’ve done this time — we come in and pass a bill that tries to meet some immediate relief.”
Hall said half the money the General Assembly has appropriated so far has been spent. It takes time to figure out where it can best be allocated, Hall said. House Speaker Tim Moore made similar comments following the House session.
“We have whole mountains that have collapsed. There’s a lot of infrastructure involved,” Moore said. “If you just spend all of the money at the state right now, you then don’t get the reimbursement from the federal government. We don’t have enough money to pay for this as a state. If we did that, it would be foolish because we would forfeit those federal dollars.”
Water Projects
After the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Thomas R. Carper Water Resources Development Act of 2024, on Dec. 10, Rep. Chuck Edwards issued a statement highlighting water infrastructure projects in Western North Carolina that will receive funding and dam-related laws that will go into effect if the bill becomes law as expected.
The WRDA is legislation that Congress has been developing in a bipartisan manner and passing every two years since 2014. It authorizes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to carry out projects and embark on studies related to ports, harbors, inland waterways, flood protection and more throughout the country. This year’s bill is named after Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., who is retiring.
The U.S. House and Senate each passed their own versions of the bill this summer. The House passed a reconciled version on Dec. 10 by a vote of 399 to 18, and it “now goes to the Senate for final approval before being sent to the President to be signed into law,” according to the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure.
Edwards’ statement said the bill secures funds for the following projects in Western North Carolina:
- More than $41 million for flood mitigation along the Pigeon River in Canton
- $1.5 million for downtown water system rehabilitation in Murphy
- $4 million for water plant expansion in Weaverville
- More than $3.4 million for water infrastructure upgrades in Robbinsville
Edwards’ statement said that North Carolina’s 11th congressional district, which he represents, is home to more than 750 dams, many of which are in poor or unsatisfactory condition, and that Tropical Storm Helene underscored the importance of improving dam safety. Improvements completed on Asheville’s North Fork Dam in 2021 likely prevented the dam from failing during Helene.
Three dam-related bills that Edwards introduced in the House this year were passed as part of the WRDA:
- The National Dam Safety Program Reauthorization Act of 2023, which reauthorizes the National Dam Safety Program through fiscal year 2028.
- The National Dam Safety Program Amendment Act, which increases by 800 times the amount a state can receive for its dam safety program through already available funding via the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
- The Low-Head Dam Inventory Act, which requires that low-head dams be added to the National Inventory of Dams and be appropriately maintained. Low-head dams are designed for water to continually flow over them but are sometimes called "drowning machines" because swimmers, kayakers and rafters can get trapped in their resulting currents. American Whitewater’s accident database contains 175 reports regarding fatalities due to low-head dams since 2007.
In his statement, Edwards said, "WNC, with its many lakes and rivers, must remain at the forefront of dam safety and I’m pleased that the House passed three of my bills to provide federal support for the nearly 92,000 dams that serve critical functions across our nation.”
Road Repairs
Along Route U.S. 19 West in Yancey County, sections of road are little more than rugged cliffside with pieces of buildings strewn against trees and semitrailers smashed to the ground as though they were run through a blender. The job of fixing the damage caused by Tropical Storm Helene may end up being one of the most expensive infrastructure repair jobs after the storm.
Beginning in Yancey County and crossing the Tennessee border, the route was hit by extreme flooding and destruction after rain from Helene flooded the Cane River on Sept. 27. The North Carolina Department of Transportation estimates the state will need $5 billion to repair infrastructure damage from Helene, but total damages to public and private transportation infrastructure were estimated to be around $9.8 billion in an October report from the North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management.
Around 12 miles of the road had been destroyed during the storm, Uchiyama said.
A tenth of the total estimated cost of public infrastructure repairs after Helene could go to the Yancey County Route as current estimates set the route repairs to cost between $400-$500 million, NCDOT spokesperson David Uchiyama said. Temporary repairs have an estimated cost of $50 million but will only return traffic to two lanes, he said. On top of the temporary repairs, total reconstruction of the road is estimated to cost between $350-$450 million.
As part of beginning state-sponsored repairs, NCDOT has begun the bidding process for contractors interested in working on the road repairs. Contractor site visits were held in late November as NCDOT works toward soliciting proposals for the new road design. The project will utilize a contracting and design style that will allow work to begin quicker, he said.
"Progressive design build allows you to develop the scope as you go and lets you start work sooner; it often reduces cost and risk on the Department and the contractor," Uchiyama said.
As of Dec. 10, 273 roads remain closed in Western North Carolina because of Tropical Storm Helene, according to NCDOT's Helene Road Reopening map. Since the beginning of the storm, there were a total of 1,375 road closures. A total of 90 roads are still partially closed, while 52 remain closed to truck traffic.
Multiple parts of U.S. 19 West remain closed. Only 11 miles of the road are open to local traffic, Uchiyama said. The goal is to have the "whole corridor open by Christmas," he continued.
Carowinds Gateway
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster will ask legislators for $2 million to improve traffic at Interstate 77 and Carowinds, despite lingering uncertainty on whether the area will keep road money it already has. McMaster joined state and county officials at Carowinds on Thursday morning.
He announced the $2-million request that will appear in his state budget proposal next month for a feasibility study to determine how to fix Exit 90. That’s the Carowinds interchange, just south of the South Carolina and North Carolina line between Fort Mill and Charlotte.
Details on improvements or timing are sparse, but officials say the study will lead to a plan they can use to secure grants or other funding sources. “It provides the foundation to start,” said Justin Powell, state Transportation Secretary. S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster talks to a crowd Thursday about road improvements near Carowinds.
“Our border with North Carolina is a vital gateway,” said York County Council chairwoman Christi Cox.
The interstate in front of Carowinds is South Carolina’s busiest road, and it doesn’t take a long look at the traffic there to figure out why. The Carowinds interchange sits squarely between Charlotte and York County’s most populated areas. It’s a straight line through Fort Mill to Rock Hill. Commuting traffic that collects at Gold Hill Road, Baxter, Celanese Road and other interchanges in York County all passes by Carowinds going to or from Charlotte. Interstate trips between Charlotte and Columbia follow the same route.
Labor Commissioner
A political newcomer will soon be taking over at the North Carolina Department of Labor. Republican Commissioner-elect Luke Farley is a workplace safety attorney who’s never held elected office before. But this year, he decided to run, defeating a better-known Republican, former state House Rep. Jon Hardister, R-Guilford, in the primary, then going on to beat Democrat Braxton Winston in November.
North Carolina's overall worker conditions are rated poor by many pro-labor groups, but the state’s workplace injury rate was below the national average for 2023.
Farley credits that to the two Republican labor commissioners who preceded him, Cherie Berry and Josh Dobson. Both were criticized by some for lax enforcement, but Farley says they took a balanced approach he plans to emulate.
"I'm really passionate about protecting our workers and their jobs. At the same time, I really believe strongly that common-sense regulation promotes job growth in this state, and the opposite drives jobs out of this state," Farley told WRAL News. "I think there's a middle road."
Farley plans to offer more employer training programs and more positive recognition awards for employers who follow best practices. He thinks that’s especially helpful in for the construction industry. "It's not just a pat on the back. It's a tool for marketing, right?" Farley said. "If you do work safely and you can tout yourself as a safe business, that is a positive when people are looking to hire you."
One of the biggest dangers facing farm and warehouse workers in North Carolina is heat. The state has no laws about heat protection. Farley acknowledges it's a problem, but said he plans to leave that to the federal government.
"There is a proposed heat stress standard, and this department is going to wait and see what happens with that," Farley said. "Then, we'll take a look at what the federal government puts out, and we'll respond accordingly."
On the campaign trail, Farley spoke out against federal workplace regulations imposed during the COVID pandemic, like additional protective measures for workers in meat-processing plants where conditions allowed the virus to spread more quickly.
"COVID is not an occupational safety or health issue. It's a disease, and so that's the common sense approach to it, to treat it as what it, in fact, is and not a workplace hazard," Farley said "It does come into the workplace, but it is not inherently a workplace hazard."
The commissioner is also in charge of safety inspections for elevators and fair rides. Farley campaigned on a pledge to “Make elevators safe again.” Asked to explain, his spokesman said that means making sure elevators are getting inspected on time every year. That’s hard to do when your department is understaffed. The current vacancy rate at the North Carolina Department of Labor is 8.9%, according to the legislature's Department of Fiscal Research.
Farley plans to ask state lawmakers for a 10% salary increase to better compete with the private sector to get those vacancies filled.