Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Disaster Recovery topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
City manager reports progress on storm recovery; $25M reimbursed, CDBG‑DR reserves funds for resilience hubs
Summary
City staff told council they have secured just over $25 million in FEMA Public Assistance reimbursements and $64 million obligated across projects; the city revised CDBG‑DR infrastructure allocations to reserve $2.125 million for neighborhood resilience hubs and outlined next steps for buyouts, appraisals and community engagement.
Asheville city staff told the City Council on March 10 that recovery work from Tropical Storm Helene is advancing, though some federal processes remain slow. City recovery coordinator Bridget Herring said staff has secured a little over $25 million in FEMA Public Assistance reimbursements and that $64 million in obligations have been made available to request reimbursements as projects move forward.
Herring said FEMA is currently restricting actions — because of a Department of Homeland Security staffing pause — to debris removal and emergency protective measures, delaying some permanent‑repair work. “The work is happening,” Herring said. “We are working really hard to maximize cost recovery, to minimize any impacts to our budget, and to think with an eye on resilience.”
Why it matters: The financial and administrative steps Herring outlined determine whether and when the city can be paid back for storm repairs, which affects the timing of construction and resilience investments.
What staff reported: Herring said the city had identified 135 damaged items and grouped them into 51 FEMA Public Assistance projects. Of those, some categories (A and B) remain active under FEMA; categories E and G (permanent work) are stalled pending federal staffing. For Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funds — administered by the North Carolina Emergency Management office — the city has submitted more than $400 million in infrastructure requests statewide and three private‑property buyouts in Buncombe County were recently approved; Herring estimated a roughly six‑month window from appraisal to deed restriction transfer for properties that stay in the buyout program.
CDBG‑DR and resilience hubs: Herring described revisions to the city’s Community Development Block Grant–Disaster Recovery infrastructure allocation. Staff revised several park allocations and reserved $2.125 million specifically to invest in neighborhood resilience hubs — local sites or services that provide food, communications, temporary power, water filtration and other street‑level disaster supports. Herring said staff made a small mathematical correction in the presentation materials and emphasized the reservation was intended to align with community‑directed priorities.
Community input and next steps: Staff promoted a set of public engagement tools tied to the park projects and the resilience hub mapping effort — online surveys through mid‑March, two pop‑up engagement events and a planned “day of listening” for users and providers in April. Herring said staff will continue to coordinate with state and federal partners to move projects to obligation and to finalize program manuals that connect funding to specific investments.
Budget and timing details: Herring said obligation is the point when funds are available to request reimbursement and that timing is driven by federal and state review processes. For the three approved buyouts she described, appraisal, contractor site clearing and deed restriction steps could each take up to 90 days, producing a roughly six‑month timeline if property owners participate.
What’s next: Staff will bring refined project allocations and program manuals back to council as obligations advance, continue resilience hub mapping, and report engagement results. The council did not take formal action on these items at the meeting.
