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Public commenter urges Craven County to sue state over Rebuild NC failures
Summary
A longtime disaster survivor told commissioners the Rebuild NC program failed thousands of hurricane survivors and urged Craven County to sue the state and return disaster recovery to local control.
At the March 2 meeting David French, who gave his address as 104 Johnson Street, used his citizen-petition time to call attention to long-running problems he attributed to the state’s Rebuild NC program and urged Craven County to take legal action.
French described multiple individual cases of disaster survivors he said remained displaced years after Hurricane Florence. He named state officials — including Gov. Roy Cooper and Attorney General Josh Stein — and alleged Rebuild NC had been mismanaged, saying county governments previously ran effective local recovery programs and arguing Craven County should demand the state return recovery efforts to the local level or sue to compel action.
French also criticized state and legislative leaders and asked the board what it planned to do to fulfill its obligation to residents; the chair cut off his time after several minutes. No county official offered a legal response during the public-comment period; the meeting later moved on to routine business.
Context: French framed his remarks as representing many hurricane survivors; the transcript records strong emotions and direct accusations but does not include documentary evidence presented at the meeting. The county did not take formal action in response during the session.
At the meeting: David French, public commenter.
