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Buncombe County outlines Helene recovery progress and a new preparedness action plan
Summary
County staff told commissioners the Helene recovery office is managing dozens of active projects, has secured multiple grant streams and will shift from recovery support functions to an explicit recovery-plan framework; staff also outlined a preparedness action plan with 49 projects and 220 action items.
County staff on a March briefing told the Board of Commissioners that the Helene recovery program now comprises a county-led recovery plan and an accompanying preparedness action plan, and that the office is actively managing grant-funded projects across the county.
Kevin Madison and colleagues said the county’s Helene recovery office currently staffs two project managers and a business analyst and is coordinating 31 county-specific projects (138 subprojects at present) tied to the larger regional recovery plan. “We have 57 active projects with FEMA,” Madison said, and county staff reported roughly $37 million in reimbursements and upfront costs identified, with about $15.4 million received to date.
The briefing described a mix of federal and state funding streams being pursued, including Community Development Block Grant—Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds, FEMA public assistance, and the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP). Staff cautioned that permanent work categories (C–G) are sensitive to federal staffing and funding timelines; they noted that A and B emergency categories (debris and emergency protective measures) are moving forward despite a federal Department of Homeland Security staffing disruption.
Staff highlighted several active project clusters: a completed Community Memory project housed in the library’s special collections, cultural asset restoration (notably Owen Park repair and mitigation), public-art installations, and a More Than a Job workforce program run by Health and Human Services in partnership with Asheville–Buncombe Technical Community College. Madison said HHS received a $100,000 Community Foundation grant to develop partner engagement and training materials for community mental health support.
On open-space acquisitions, staff reported a HMGP award for 47 parcels being considered for buyouts and long-term green-space restoration; deed restrictions consistent with HMGP rules will limit certain types of development and staff said waiver requests to the state may be possible when a clear use plan exists. “The deed restrictions will be in perpetuity there as far as what can and can’t be built on the property,” staff said.
Landslide mitigation work is advancing: county officials said field reconnaissance and lidar are complete in Groveland, an RFQ for remaining landslide work is being posted as a single consolidated solicitation, and $600,000 from North Carolina Emergency Management has already been received for Groveland work. For resiliency hubs and emergency shelters, staff explained differences between short-term sheltering at schools and longer-term community resiliency hubs at centers that would support year-round services and wind-hardening or backup generation improvements.
Max Taintor, who co-led the after-action effort that generated the preparedness plan, summarized the plan’s scale: nine categories, 49 projects and 220 action items, with phased priorities (high, medium, low) based on order-of-operations and expected impact. “We defined them as high priority, medium priority, and low priority,” Taintor said, adding that a public dashboard of percent-complete metrics will be posted to track progress.
Commissioners and staff repeatedly flagged limited county staff capacity as the principal constraint on execution. Officials said many of the priority items require interdepartmental coordination and community partner support and warned that while meaningful progress has been made in seven months, the county cannot expect all high-priority preparedness work to be finished before the next hurricane season.
The county also said it is demobilizing the Helene Resource Center at 94 Cox Avenue for walk-ins on March 27 and moving to appointment-based services at the county building at 200 College starting March 30 to continue case management, appraisals and hazard-mitigation coordination.
Next steps: staff will return with a quarterly update in June and continue to pursue grant awards, post the landslide RFQ, and publish the preparedness dashboard that shows completion percentages for the action items.
