Haywood County authorizes Southern Disaster Recovery for emergency stream and private-property debris removal

Haywood County commissioners voted unanimously to authorize the county manager to issue a notice to proceed to Southern Disaster Recovery (SDR) to implement emergency stream debris removal and a private-property debris removal (PPDR) option following Hurricane Helene.

County officials and state and federal recovery staff told commissioners the work is limited to debris that poses an imminent threat to public infrastructure and that SDR can mobilize quickly. Chip, president of Southern Disaster Recovery, said the company has already removed “somewhere around, 33, 34,000 cubic yards of debris” from right-of-way work in the county and that the first waterway package — on the Pigeon River — includes about 22 eligible sites with permits in hand.

The board’s decision matters because debris jams against bridges and other structures can raise near-term flood risk and delay recovery. Commissioners were presented with two paths: proceed immediately with SDR, which county staff and the contractor said could begin rights-of-entry work and mobilize crews in about a week to 10 days; or request the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to do the same work, a process county and state speakers said would require a corps assessment, bidding and contracting and could take 30–60 days.

Chip said SDR would begin by securing rights of entry the day after a county notice to proceed and then mobilize crews for two phases: debris clearance from waterways and the load-and-haul phase that moves material to temporary debris sites for processing and final disposal or beneficial reuse. He noted equipment needs vary by stream condition but estimated “somewhere in the order of 20 to 25 pieces of equipment” for clearance and roughly 10 haul trucks for hauling.

County discussion identified four drainages considered in the current debris program: the Pigeon River (including its forks), Hominy Creek, Jonathan Creek and the West Fork of the Pigeon River. Commissioners asked whether other local streams (for example, Richland Creek and Campbell/Crusoe areas) were included; staff said Richland Creek was not on the current shortlist and that additional drainages could be assessed and added after drone imagery and package reviews are submitted to the state and FEMA.

State and federal recovery officials attended the meeting. Joe Stanton, assistant director of North Carolina Emergency Management, said the state is structuring reimbursement and pilot programs to speed payments and reiterated eligibility limits: emergency stream work addresses imminent threats to public infrastructure, while EWP (Emergency Watershed Protection) and other programs handle broader watershed work when federal funding is available. Stanton told the board: “I’m Joe Stanton. I’m the assistant director of North Carolina Emergency Management. I oversee recovery.”

Benjamin Abbott, the federal coordinating official on the FEMA team assigned to the response, told commissioners: “We’re here. We’re gonna be here for the long term, and we are working through all of these issues,” and confirmed the response is funded from the federal Disaster Relief Fund (DRF). Abbott and Stanton both said the federal and state teams are working to shorten reimbursement timelines and that a pilot for advanced payments is being rolled out in the area.

Multiple commissioners emphasized a priority to use local subcontractors where possible. Chip described a contractors’ workshop SDR holds to brief and vet local firms, collect capabilities and insurance information, and coordinate work assignments. He said SDR will invite local contractors, review equipment and insurance requirements, and make practical selections based on capacity and prior experience; he noted some local firms already have performed right-of-way and EWP waterway work with the company.

Commissioners and staff repeatedly contrasted the two options. County staff and state officials warned that using the Army Corps would likely be slower and could be more expensive because of the corps’ contracting structure and assessment process; SDR representatives said they could begin rights-of-entry and clearance operations within approximately a week to 10 days. The board voted to proceed with SDR.

Commissioners and staff also discussed private-property debris removal (PPDR). Stanton and SDR staff noted PPDR requires individual property-owner applications and FEMA eligibility approval and that not every private pile will qualify; the program targets removal of debris that creates imminent public-health or safety threats and must follow FEMA documentation and right-of-entry procedures.

Looking ahead, county staff said work will begin on the first approved package (the Pigeon River sites) and that imagery and GPS data gathered by a third‑party monitoring firm have been used to secure permitting and eligibility reviews. Additional waterway packages will be sent to FEMA and the state for approval; once approved, those drainages would follow the same rights-of-entry, clearance and haul process. Commissioners asked staff to prioritize timeliness and local hiring as the work rolls out.

The vote to issue notice to proceed to SDR was unanimous. The motion and second were recorded in the meeting minutes but not identified by speaker name in the public transcript.