North Carolina to Receive Additional Federal Funding for Hurricane Florence | Eastern North Carolina Now

Press Release:

    RALEIGH: The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today announced that North Carolina has been allocated $206 million in long-term recovery money through the program known as Community Development Block Grant - Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR). North Carolina must wait for a Federal Register to begin the process of accessing the funds.

    When the Federal Register governing this funding is published it will direct North Carolina on what kinds of projects are eligible, and the state can start the federally-mandated process to access the funds. This includes developing a State Action Plan and submitting it for public comment and approval by HUD.

    "More money for storm recovery is important, but Hurricane Florence hit our state well over a year ago and we still can't access money from HUD for survivors of that storm," said Governor Roy Cooper. "It's clear that we need Washington to make reforms to the way theses funds are distributed so that we can help people faster."

    Initial recovery funding for Hurricane Florence was passed by Congress in October 2018. North Carolina is scheduled to receive $336.5 million in CDBG-DR funding from that bill, but the state still does not have access to that money. Today's announcement of funding comes in addition to that money.

    Earlier this year, Governor Cooper wrote an op-ed laying out critical reforms that are needed for the CDBG-DR program to make the program more efficient. To read that op-ed click HERE. Since then, the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 3702 that would implement some of Cooper's suggested reforms.

    In the last three years, North Carolina has spent more than $3.2 billion in state and federal money to recover from Hurricanes Matthew, Florence and Dorian.

• Contact: Ford Porter
•     govpress@nc.gov