Hurricane

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — A town hall held by Rep. Chuck Edwards in Asheville, North Carolina, got rowdy as attendees asked a barrage of scathing questions about policies rolled out under President Donald Trump’s administration. House Speaker Mike Johnson has advised GOP representatives not to hold town halls, but Edwards told attendees he didn’t want to “shy away” from conversations. Many questions centered on sweeping cuts in the federal government at the hands of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. Nearly every answer Edwards gave during the hour-and-a-half town hall was interrupted by jeers and enraged shouting.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — New North Carolina Democratic Gov. Josh Stein told lawmakers during his first State of the State address that he wants a Hurricane Helene aid bill on his desk and seeks to help make living expenses affordable across the state. Stein delivered the biennial speech to a joint General Assembly session Wednesday night. He also emphasized finding areas where he and Republicans who control the legislature can agree and work together. The House and Senate are trying to negotiate competing bills to provide additional Helene relief. Stein said he will sign the bill that comes to his desk, saying the money was needed “yesterday.”

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.

SWANNANOA, N.C. (AP) — U.S. National Guard Capt. Jill Holtz spends much of her free time in Swannanoa, North Carolina, searching for items lost from Hurricane Helene’s severe flooding a few months ago. She hopes to reunite storm victims with their cherished possessions after they lost hope that they’d ever find them again. Holtz finds a variety of items such as photos, family heirlooms and antiques. She keeps them in her trailer and posts her finds to Facebook in hopes that the items’ owners will see. Holtz says hurricane debris isn’t “just trash” and is instead people’s “hearts, their homes, the generations of history.”

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.

WAYNESVILLE, N.C. (AP) — A section of Interstate 40 in western North Carolina that collapsed during Hurricane Helene’s historic flooding will reopen to traffic by March 1. Gov. Josh Stein made the announcement Monday while visiting the roadway’s shuttered portion and meeting with U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. The primary road connection between North Carolina and eastern Tennessee was severed in late September as flooding in the Pigeon River gorge washed away eastbound lanes. An effort to get it open in early January got pushed back. One lane in each direction will reopen to traffic at a reduced speed.

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.