The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has released details of a federal register notice which will allow the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency (NCORR) to move forward with developing a draft action plan for more than $542 million in Community Development Block Grant–Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funding for Hurricane Florence. Once HUD approves a final action plan, the new funds will allow NCORR to expand its delivery of home repair, reconstruction, elevation and other recovery programs through the agency’s ReBuild NC program.
“This is an important step by the federal government to get additional funds to families still recovering from Hurricane Florence. North Carolinians have waited for these funds since 2018 and we will continue to push for federal legislation to help the federal government to speed up this process and get assistance to the people who need it,” said Governor Cooper.
The federal register notice identified 10 counties and four zip codes as the most impacted and distressed areas due to impacts from Hurricane Florence. Federal regulations require that the state spend 80 percent of the funding in those locations. The most impacted areas are Brunswick, Carteret, Columbus, Craven, Duplin, Jones, New Hanover, Onslow, Pender and Robeson counties. Most impacted zip codes identified by the federal register notice include 28352 in Scotland County, 28390 in Cumberland County, 28433 in Bladen County and 29571 in Pamlico County.
State officials expect a draft action plan to be complete next month. Once complete, the draft plan will be published and made available for a 30-day public comment period. Once the public comment period is complete, HUD will take up to 45 days to review the action plan before funds can be spent. Please visit https://rebuild.nc.gov for the latest information on ReBuild NC activities statewide.
North Carolinians have waited for the publication of spending guidelines since congress voted to allocate funding for disaster recovery on October 5, 2018 and June 6, 2019. Governor Cooper has worked to reduce the length of time it takes to receive and disburse federal funds to families who need them and has made specific recommendations to the Trump Administration to streamline policies and cut through federal red tape. Read about the Governor’s recommendations HERE.
The North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency administers the state’s HUD disaster recovery and mitigation funding, as well as a state-funded grant and loan program to assist local governments. To date, North Carolina has spent $3.3 billion in total state and federal funding to help survivors of Hurricane Matthew and Hurricane Florence.
See the HUD draft on the Federal Register HERE.
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