One year after Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc on southern Appalachia and destroyed parts of North Carolina, local news outlets reveal that onerous funding reviews put in place by the Trump administration are frustrating residents and impeding recovery efforts. 

Local and state leaders say that these new rules are stalling progress on recovery projects by blocking access to Federal Emergency  Management Agency funds that were already approved. 

These reports come amid ongoing turmoil at FEMA, where several employees were placed on leave, seemingly for signing a letter criticizing the Trump administration’s agency leadership. The administration then launched an investigation into the letter and the employees who signed it, reportedly ordering that they sign non-disclosure agreements.  

Last year, employees also described facing threats and intimidation after right-wing media and Trump himself spread misinformation about how the agency initially handled the response to Hurricane Helene while Joe Biden was president. 

• Two Trump-era policies — one initiated by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, and one by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem — are holding up funds.  The DOGE program, known as “Defend the Spend,” is a cost-cutting initiative requiring DOGE officials to review justifications for federal grants. Noem has also instituted an additional bureaucratic process at FEMA requiring that her office individually review any expenditure over $100,000. In July, after flooding in central Texas killed at least 135 people, FEMA officials told CNN that Noem’s rule significantly slowed the agency’s ability to provide additional rescue assets.  [WLOS News 13, 9/16/25; CNN, 7/10/25, 8/4/25; Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 5/28/25]
   
• In an interview with local Asheville ABC affiliate News 13 near the one-year anniversary of Helene’s landing, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein described the delays caused by the new DOGE and Homeland Security requirements, saying, “We have three levels of bureaucracy when we used to have just one.” Stein continued, “Most of the county commissions in the western part of the state have majority Republican commissioners. … It’s their budgets that are suffering from lack of reimbursement by the federal government.”  [WLOS News 13, 9/27/25]
   
• According to The Charlotte Observer, North Carolina is currently “waiting on $64 million of already approved FEMA reimbursements to make their way to the state’s bank account.”  As of September 17, the funds were still caught up in DOGE and Noem’s review processes. The chief of staff for North Carolina Emergency Management told the Observer that the state “had to justify why already approved payments were needed — essentially re-litigating the entire FEMA process.” It could take 30 to 90 days before the state sees the money. [The Charlotte Observer, 9/24/25]
   
• Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC) provided News 13 with a list of 250 projects set to utilize the long-awaited funds, including a more than $500,000 project being held up by DOGE. North Carolina Emergency Management spokesperson Justin Graney told News 13 that the money is “currently in the DOGE ‘defend the spend’ process. Once funds are transferred to the state government, the state will make the payment to Madison County.” [WLOS News 13, 9/16/25]
   
• Asheville, North Carolina, Mayor Esther Manheimer has publicly criticized Noem’s new process. Responding to a White House statement that praised President Trump’s work to help western North Carolina, Manheimer “said the White House statement completely misses the point of problems facing the City and the people in WNC,” News 13 reported. Manheimer elaborated, “Having to have every single check approved by Secretary Noem herself, that’s over $100,000, is creating this bottleneck.” [WLOS News 13, 9/4/25]

• Led by the American Flood Coalition, delegations of leaders representing western North Carolina have made repeated trips to Washington “in an ongoing effort to pry loose funds that leaders say are stuck in bureaucratic purgatory.” Lake Lure, North Carolina, Mayor Carol Pritchett told Smoky Mountain News, “We still have not just not gotten the money. We haven’t even gotten to the point to know even if they will be obligated.” Madison County Commission Chair Matt Wechtel called FEMA’s requirements “repetitive and redundant.” Waynesville Town Council member Anthony Sutton said that “everyone is exhausted” and expressed worry that “a reduced fund balance could hurt the town’s ability to respond to disasters or to borrow in the future.” [Smoky Mountain News, 9/24/25]
   
• While Hurricane Helene caused at least $60 billion worth of damage in North Carolina, FEMA has reportedly committed just “a sliver” of the funds needed for recovery — and only about $1.3 billion of that has been disbursed so far.  According to Charlotte NBC affiliate WCNC, “State leaders expect the total to eventually reach around $8 billion. Still — that's just a sliver of what's needed to cover the full loss.” [WCNC, 9/23/25]
   
• In a September 15 report, Stein’s office requested that FEMA cover 47% of total damage and needs, pointing out that only 9% of that amount had been awarded to date. The report argued that the additional $22.85 billion requested would be more in line with assistance received during other major hurricanes such as Sandy, Katrina, and Maria, for which over half of the economic damage was covered by federal aid. Stein also requested a new appropriation of $13.5 billion from Congress. [Office of Governor Josh Stein, 9/15/25]
   
• Across Buncombe County, residents say they have seen little improvement in their communities. One survivor told the People's Dispatch in April, “[Trump] promised so much money. If you drive through Black Mountain today, there’s still towns wiped out. There’s a grocery store that is not back up and running and it’s leaving an entire town without a grocery store because where’s the money? Where’s the relief money at? It’s not here.”  In unincorporated Swannanoa, many people are still living in “sheds, campers and tents along the river.” Another survivor told The News & Observer, “If you go through here, down River Road, it still looks like a disaster.” [People’s Dispatch, 4/29/25; The News & Observer, 9/23/25]
   
• Haywood County “has received only 4% of the money it is owed from the federal government, leaving officials frustrated and taxpayers effectively footing the bill.” According to Smoky Mountain News, “The county has about $15.8 million in total eligible expenses. So far, FEMA has reimbursed only $623,288” because the money is “tied up in a bureaucratic maze.” County officials say they are being hit with endless RFIs, or requests for information, that slow down the process. [Smoky Mountain News, 9/17/25]
   
• Members of the Bakersfield, North Carolina, town council told News 13 that “their biggest recovery holdup is getting funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.” The council said they are “at the mercy of FEMA” and fear another flooding event from a creek that runs through town before they are able to deal with the extensive flood damage caused by Hurricane Helene. [WLOS News 13, 9/22/25]

• In August, over 180 current and former FEMA employees wrote a letter to Congress warning about the agency’s direction under President Trump, and some of the staff who signed were suspended. The letter, which came months after the Trump administration had already gutted the agency’s staff, noted that “current leaders’ inexperience and approach have harmed FEMA’s mission and could result in a disaster on the level of Hurricane Katrina.” Legal experts called the subsequent suspension “illegal retaliation.” [AP News, 8/26/25; The Washington Post, 9/2/25; Union of Concerned Scientists, 5/1/25]
   
• In July, North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson joined a coalition of states suing FEMA for cancelling a FEMA program intended to help prepare for extreme weather. According to Jackson, FEMA redirected $200 million meant to make the state’s sewage system more resilient, and he has bi-partisan support. In August, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration from redirecting the total $4 billion owed to North Carolina and other states. [North Carolina Department of Justice, 7/16/25; NC Newsline, 7/16/25; WLOS News 13, 8/6/25]
   
• In the days and weeks after Hurricane Helene, right-wing media figures and Republican politicians, including Trump, spread false claims about FEMA relief funds and on-the-ground efforts. Claims that the federal government was not providing disaster relief to impacted communities, that FEMA was spending its resources on migrants instead of hurricane victims, and that survivors were entitled to just $750 proliferated. Meanwhile, local leaders emphasized that the disinformation was only hindering recovery.  [Media Matters, 10/11/24]
   
• In response to the misinformation, including claims that FEMA workers were physically blocking donations or seizing land, workers faced harassment, doxxing, and threats of violence from armed civilians. In one county, FEMA had to temporarily pause aid altogether. Bloomberg News recently viewed “hundreds of pages of agency emails and other documents” that “shed new light on how disaster-related misinformation affects the government’s emergency response, sucks up internal resources, and puts staff at risk.” [Media Matters, 10/10/24, 10/18/24; Bloomberg, 9/18/25]