Fver the first two days after Hurricane Helene, Ken Floyd, 41, general manager of the Monte Vista Hotel in Black Mountain, North Carolina, was in a state of stress. The father of three was left stranded at home with his family as a landslide ravaged the surrounding area, uprooting trees and impacting roads, leaving him unable to check on others. “It was just a constant worry of when can we get out of here?” Floyd said. “I was worried and worried about my staff at the hotel. I wanted to make sure everyone was okay.

The Monte Vista Hotel became a meeting point for the community after two managers stepped in to feed hungry guests. “About two days later, I finally got to go out…and they started feeding these 10 guests and feeding the whole town,” Floyd says. “I saw hospitality in the heart. I’ve been doing this for 20 years and I saw it at its heart for the first time that day.

But despite local recovery efforts, some residents feel frustrated by delays in federal aid and worry whether the government will be up to the task. “It was a 1000 year storm” Floyd said, echoing meteorologists who said the chances of a hurricane like Helen, with such rainfall, occurring were less than 0.1 percent chance of occurring in any given year. Floyd, who is calling for more financial support from state and federal officials, including FEMA, says post-storm rebuilding efforts are difficult given new hurricane-resistant building guidelines they must follow and delays in federal aid. “People are trying to go home and rebuild and repair their homes, and now they’re being told they have to raise it or they won’t be able to build everything,” he said.

More than 100 people in the state — and at least 228 in the United States — died from the storm, nearly half of whom were from Buncombe County, the western North Carolina county home to the small mountain town of Black Mountain. The area was devastated by Hurricane Helene on September 28, and some nearby communities, such as Busick, North Carolina, reported more than 30 inches of rainwhich caused historic flooding rates. The North Carolina Budget Office estimated the stimulus would cost some $53 billion to help repair the more than 600 bridges destroyed, 7,000 road sites damaged, and more.

Helen’s effects extend beyond North Carolina. Hurricane Helene made landfall near Perry, Florida, as a Category 4 hurricane on September 26, bringing a 15-foot storm surge to the Big Bend. according to preliminary databefore also impacting Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Alabama.

After Helen, Milton, a Category 3 hurricane, arrived on October 9, further damaging Florida and causing 150 tornado warnings in the state.

“We always find ways to recover, but this last one, or the last two, have been kind of a duo between Helen and Milton,” says David Buzza, a 65-year-old based in Madeira Beach, Fla., whose house was destroyed by the storm surge. “This is the first time we’ve had direct hits.”

Immediately following the storms, FEMA provided $750 in aid to help affected people across the United States pay for food, water and other disaster-related goods. And in the weeks following Hurricane Helene, FEMA gave $883 million in individual assistance and $524 million in public assistance. Some residents reported delays. “To this day, I have not received a single cent from FEMA. I received a penny from my insurance company. We have been evaluated. We filed the claim the day after (the hurricane). And here we are,” says Buzza, who got help from FEMA in mid-October. Buzza invested at least $75,000 to help repair his house, he said. “How many people do you know can do that?”

FEMA did not respond to requests for comment regarding delays in rolling out the payments.

Floyd says FEMA officials, who came to visit the community, did a good job sending equipment to restore cell towers and electricity. In fact, FEMA has restored power to 99% of homes and about the same percentage of cell sites. But Floyd and others believe the federal presence came too late. “We were seeing an influx of volunteers from other states, from Vermont, from New Jersey, from Illinois, from Indiana, from Virginia, from Alabama, people from all over the place, to help us during the first two weeks, before I even saw a FEMA official. “, he said.

Five weeks later, residents continue to go about their post-hurricane lives amid an uncertain recovery timetable. Black Mountain and Madeira Beach have local economies that depend on tourism. Floyd, who serves on the local chamber board, says local officials are working hard to try to help businesses, but the impact of the storm is enormous. “We hope we can get some of that tourism back, but we don’t know,” Floyd says. “I grew up in Florida, so I know the impact hurricanes have on certain areas. I’ve never seen anything like this before.

Alex Matisse, founder of East Fork Pottery in Asheville, North Carolina, says his production facilities were fortunate not to be affected by the storm. The city was hit hard by Helene and had already received significant rainfall before the hurricane, making the ground oversaturated and causing the French Broad Rivers to overflow, knocking out power and impacting cell tower lines. The lack of electricity made it impossible to make new ware, but East Fork Pottery was still able to sell existing pottery online.

“We had this big sale… and people came,” says Matisse. “(This) lets us keep our employees when so many people in Asheville were immediately laid off, especially because so much of this is driven by tourism. Restaurants, hotels, all these businesses closed immediately.

East Fork Pottery employed 19 additional workers to help meet the increase in orders received following the hurricane. But Matisse worries about other local business owners. “One of the biggest problems is that Asheville is a ghost town and October is (usually) the busiest season: that’s when everyone makes their profit for the year.” Asheville saw water restored a week ago, but residents are still under a boiling water warning. Although local businesses may want to reopen their doors, Matisse points out that the cost of doing so is a massive undertaking. Restaurants are once again having to buy back all their food and put people on payroll with no guarantee that customers will arrive. Some hotels, he says, have been able to reopen by purchasing “massive tanks” for drinking water, which Matisse said charge 10 cents a gallon and $600 for each tank delivery.

Physical reminders of the hurricane also affected residents. Buzza’s Florida home is in a very humid climate which, combined with flooding, has made her home a thriving habitat for mold. As he works to restore his home to make it habitable, he says some of his neighbors haven’t taken these precautions due to a lack of information about rehabilitating their homes after flooding. And aside from fears about unsafe living conditions due to mold in homes, the 12-foot-long pile of debris outside her home is a grim reminder of the past five weeks. “Going through (the hurricane) and continuing to see (the debris) in your face every day is extremely difficult to deal with emotionally,” Buzza said.

Pinellas County, where Buzza lives, said in a statement announcement mid-October that the collection of debris would be a “major operation which will take months”. The county estimates there are about 1 million cubic yards of residential debris in unincorporated areas alone (not including cities). » The town of Madeira Beach alone collected more than 20,000 cubic meters of debris. last report October 22. But residents remain frustrated. “I understand that this is a huge, huge task for FEMA, but at the same time, this is not the first rodeo,” says Buzza, who plans to pay for private debris removal. “There have been other big storms, so I don’t understand the failures in removing debris and getting money to people.”

Matisse reports similar wait times for debris pickup in Asheville, which he says adds a “very eerie feeling in many places.” The landscape changes have also been haunting. “So many natural places have changed so much – places that used to be shelters. Rivers have changed, hiking trails have changed with landslides. There are so many too.

Overall, some residents say that while authorities have ensured there is enough food and have connected those in need with temporary housing, more immediate financial investment is needed. Floyd worries that FEMA aid, capped at $43,500 per person, will be insufficient because some insurance companies won’t cover water damage caused by the hurricane. “You hope there are a lot of other agencies that can help,” he said, “because I don’t think FEMA will be able to help as much as it should.”