The U.S. Department of Transportation has greenlit a new $873 million package of emergency funding to rebuild infrastructure that was damaged by Hurricane Helene.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Monday the funds, which account for more than half of a total $1.6 billion nationwide allocation, will be used to expedite ongoing repairs to roads, bridges and other infrastructure that was damaged throughout Western North Carolina in 2024.
“The Trump Administration will never forget North Carolina,” Duffy said in a statement. “In the nearly two years since Hurricane Helene, we have toured the damage, slashed red tape, expedited I-40’s reopening, and invested billions to get the state back on its feet.”
“With this final emergency relief package, we can finish the job and ensure every community across western North Carolina is made whole,” he said.
Sean McMaster, head of the Federal Highway Administration, said his agency was working to “deliver critical roadway and bridge repairs at record speed.”
“Thanks to this additional funding, we can continue that great work,” McMaster said, thanking state and local authorities “for their continued collaboration.”
Democratic Gov. Josh Stein, weighing in on the funding in a social media post, said he was “grateful” for the latest money that would “repair the damage and support our state’s continued recovery.”
The Federal Highway Administration had previously committed a total of $3.4 billion to states that were impacted by Helene. North Carolina’s share of that sum had reached $2.9 billion by June, when the Trump administration said it was sending $908 million to fund Helene repairs.
Stein said at the time he was pleased with the funding allocation, calling it “much-needed.” Stein said the money would “be put to work to repair roads and bridges so folks can safely get back on the roads to rediscover the beautiful mountains” in the west.
Just over a week prior to that funding announcement, Stein had requested more than $10 billion in additional funding from Congress to supplement ongoing efforts led by state lawmakers and aided by private insurance and philanthropists.
That request, issued on June 10, had been lowered by $3 billion to account for federal and state funds that had since been granted, and damage estimates that had subsequently been revised.
Stein’s office noted in June that the state was working to quickly disperse the federal funding it was receiving. The state, they said, set up its federally-supported housing program “faster than any state impacted by a major hurricane in more than a decade.”
Stein has pushed for continued and greater federal funding by pointing to the $60 billion estimate of total damage inflicted by Helene, which state budget officials and lawmakers have freely acknowledged can’t be addressed without federal assistance.
More than 9,200 sites across Western North Carolina were damaged by Helene, and more than 1,400 roads were closed in the aftermath of the hurricane’s landfall. Within the first 100 days of recovery and rebuilding efforts, more than 85% of affected roads had been reopened.
Robocall Fight
North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson says robocalls are the number one complaint he hears from people across the state. “I get one as early as like 6:00 in the morning all the way to 11:00 at night,” said frustrated Raleigh resident Jadin Keeter. “I’m getting about anywhere from four to sometimes ten a day.” She says she activated a setting on her phone that screens the calls, but now they just go straight to voicemail. “Now it’s just filled up my voicemails.”
Data from the Federal Trade Commission shows complaints of unwanted calls were overall consistent from July 2025 through June 2026; about 74-percent were robocalls, compared to a live caller.
In 2003, Congress made a law allowing for the creation of the “Do Not Call Registry,” managed by the FTC. Anyone who doesn’t want marketing calls can add their number to a list. So many people despise these unwanted calls, about 250 million numbers have been signed up.
“I absolutely get robocalls,” Jackson said in an interview. “Robocalls is the number one thing I hear about when I’m in public,” Jackson says the state is one of the highest for reports of these calls, many targeting senior citizens. “We are at war against robocalls and they’re all these battlefields that we have set up. What most people don’t know is that there are thousands of telephone companies. Tens of thousands. And a ton of them are turning a blind eye and allowing all of this bad traffic to get through. We are going after the middlemen.”
He says his office gives companies 30 to 60 days to “crack down” on robocalls, or else. “Either they comply or we drive them out of business.” It’s a part of ‘operation robocall roundup,” an effort to hold service providers accountable. “North Carolina, we’re very proud, has been the national leader in the fight against robocalls,” said Jackson. Some of which, he says, involve artificial intelligence. “We know that AI is going to make it easier for the bad guys to place more calls quickly.”
Gas Prices
The cost of a gallon of gas has dropped so sharply across North Carolina following Gov. Josh Stein's signing of House Bill 3 that the Tar Heel State is now home to the cheapest gas in the nation. "Rising grocery, utility, and gas prices are making the costs too high for people across our state," said Stein in a news release on the bill's signing. "I am signing this bill to keep more money in people’s wallets, but this temporary relief is just one step.” Following the signing of the "Relief at the Pump" law, an Oct. 15 report from the American Automobile Association confirmed that North Carolina is now home to the cheapest gas in the nation. Here's how much fuel costs in the state and just how long relief measures will last. The law temporarily eliminates the state's motor fuel tax, replacing the lost revenue with reserve funds. HB 3 made gas 41 cents cheaper by the gallon in the state through Nov. 30. In North Carolina, on Oct. 19, the average price for regular gas was $3.61 per gallon, according to AAA. The average price of regular gas countrywide was $4.295 per gallon.
Passenger Rail
Three years ago, the Biden administration pledged $1.1 billion to help the N.C. Department of Transportation begin building a new passenger rail line connecting Raleigh with Richmond, Virginia. On Thursday, the Trump administration released $550 million of that money to the state, a major boost for the project and a show of support for the work NCDOT has done so far. Drew Fink, head of the Federal Railroad Administration, made the announcement at the edge of a new bridge that will soon carry Durant Road over the rail line in North Raleigh. Fink praised NCDOT’s management of what is known as the S-line project that will restore a route where dozens of Seaboard Air Line Railroad trains a day once operated decades ago. “The 162-mile corridor is a critical missing link in completing the build-out of the Southeast corridor and meeting state and federal goals of improving safety, providing economic opportunities and environmentally sound transportation options,” he said. NCDOT will use the federal money to build the first leg of the Raleigh-to-Richmond line in Wake County. From Raleigh Union Station downtown, the S-line follows tracks now owned by CSX and used by a handful of slow-moving freight trains a day. NCDOT will buy the rail corridor and build new tracks that will allow it to extend Amtrak’s Piedmont service to Wake Forest by 2032.