NC Office of Recovery and Resiliency
ReBuild NC must increase pace of home completions or risk losing federal disaster funding
ReBuild NC’s homeowner recovery program has finished only 25% of the houses damaged by Hurricane Matthews and Florence, a pace that, if uncorrected, could jeopardize its federal funding. Roughly 4,700 applicants have been approved for new or rehabbed homes, state data show. Of those, just 1,118 are finished. Robeson County’s program accounts for 201 of those […]
ReBuild NC defends Rescue Construction, while fining company for delays in hurricane recovery
For the third time, hurricane survivors arrived at the state legislature – some sick, others frail, and all of them tired of living in motels. For the third time, lawmakers on a government oversight committee interrogated ReBuild NC Director Laura Hogshead, responsible for mismanaging the disaster recovery program. And for the third time, little substantive came […]
Despite signs of progress in hurricane recovery, ReBuild NC continues to struggle
Leoni entered this world on Jan. 23, a daughter of Donnie Red Hawk McDowell and his wife, Humming Bird, hurricane survivors and members of the Tuscarora Nation. In March, Leoni, her 3-year-old sister, Dyani, and their parents moved to a room on the second floor of an Extended Stay America in Fayetteville while their new mobile home was installed near Maxton.
After intense public scrutiny about hurricane disaster response, Ivan Duncan, a top official at ReBuild NC, is resigning
Ivan Duncan, whose tenure as chief program delivery officer with ReBuild NC has come under increased scrutiny, is resigning, sources told Policy Watch. A ReBuild NC spokesperson confirmed to Policy Watch that “Mr. Duncan has given notice that he intends to pursue a new opportunity and will be leaving his position. NCORR relayed this information […]
In presentation to legislative oversight committee ReBuild NC inflated number of homes it built under hurricane disaster recovery program
Laura Hogshead, director of the NC Office of Recovery and Resiliency, recently testified under oath before a legislative subcommittee that only 789 of 4,100 homes destroyed or damaged by Hurricane Matthew or Florence have been rebuilt or repaired. The actual number is significantly lower – just 588. NCORR, also known as ReBuild NC, included in […]
NC legislative hearing should feature tough questions about state’s troubled hurricane response
Six years. That’s how long it will have been, come next month, since Hurricane Matthew raked and inundated eastern North Carolina with high winds and catastrophic rainfall. The storm arrived on October 8, 2016, and left within a day, but the trail of destruction that resulted was huge.
508 years: The cumulative amount of time hurricane survivors have been displaced from their homes
ReBuild NC also revises -- upward -- expenditures on motels, other temporary housing for hurricane survivors 508 years or 185,522 days: That’s the total amount of time spent displaced for the 1,774 households receiving temporary relocation assistance from ReBuild NC’s homeowner disaster relief program ReBuild NC, whose formal name is the NC Office of Recovery and Resiliency, sent the information to Policy Watch, which requested the figures under public records law.
Legislative committee on hurricane recovery to meet Sept. 14 to probe reasons behind massive disaster relief delays
Thousands of survivors of Hurricane Matthew and Hurricane Florence remain out of their homes — some for nearly three years — prompting lawmakers to investigate why disaster relief has been so delayed. The first meeting of the Subcommittee on Hurricane Response and Recovery will meet next month. Although the format has not yet been announced, […]
ReBuild NC spent $10.6 million to house Hurricane Matthew survivors who have languished in motels — some for years
ReBuild NC has spent $10.64 million on motels, moving and storage unit expenses in three years for displaced Hurricane Matthew survivors, as construction and administrative delays have kept people from returning to their homes. The figures were included in Temporary Relocation Assistance (TRA) data provided by ReBuild NC, also known as the NC Office of Recovery and Resiliency.
Plagued by construction delays, ReBuild NC has spent $10.6 million to house Hurricane Matthew survivors in motels, rent storage units
This story has been corrected to reflect the first TRA payment was in August 2019, not January 2020. ReBuild NC has spent $10.64 million on motels, moving and storage unit expenses in three years for displaced Hurricane Matthew survivors, as construction and administrative delays have kept people from returning to their homes. The figures were […]
Legislative subcommittee to investigate ReBuild NC’s mismanagement of Hurricane Matthew recovery program
A 12-member legislative subcommittee will investigate the NC Office of Recovery and Resiliency’s handling of a Hurricane Matthew disaster relief program that has left thousands of people displaced, living in motels, with relatives, or in dilapidated houses for years. NCORR is familiarly known as ReBuild NC. This week House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate […]
Gov. Cooper orders NCORR to expedite Hurricane Matthew recovery, but homeowners’ woes continue
Thad Artis, Jr. is living alone in limbo. Artis is entering his second summer in a Goldsboro motel, waiting to move into his new modular home in Pikeville. But his contractor, Rescue Construction, has made no progress on the home. “A motel is not a home,” Artis said. “It’s just a place to go when you’re on vacation.” Artis is among thousands of homeowners enrolled in the NC Office of Recovery and Resiliency's Hurricane Matthew disaster recovery program. He is also among hundreds and hundreds still displaced after the historic 2016 storm.