Floyd Recovery Continues 3 Years Later

Within days of the Sept. 16 storm, 87,500 people had registered as victims of the hurricane with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, with damages totalling $6 billion.

Sixty-six counties reported severe damage areas, but most have reached full recovery.

Renee Hoffman, director of public affairs for the N.C. Department of Crime Control and Public Safety, said all of the 2,300 families placed in temporary housing have now been placed in permanent homes. Some have had to move in with relatives or into apartment complexes.

Only one resident had yet to move from the government-sponsored trailers by the Aug. 30 deadline.

Although temporary housing is no longer available, directives such as the Repair and Replacement community program are continuing to help the eastern part of the state recover.

Hoffman said another program, the hazard mitigation project, which plans for future disasters, is the most successful of all of the programs implemented in the wake of Floyd.

Under the program, half of the 7,000 homes in the flood plain have been purchased by the federal government and the state.

Princeville, one of the hardest-hit cities, has added 10 feet to the dam to prevent flood waters from reaching the town.

Other areas, such as Pitt County, are on schedule with recovery plans.

Stephen Smith, member of the Pitt County Board of Planning, said the recovery efforts are almost complete.

Rebuilding was temporarily slowed by the N.C. budget crisis, but overall, the effort proved to be effective, Smith said. Housing programs for those displaced by the disaster should be complete by October, nearly a year ahead of schedule.

Sam Noble, town manager of Tarboro, worked directly with the Repair and Replacement program to restore damaged homes and businesses.

"The program has good intentions, but administration must act prudently in the future," he said.

Noble said emergency relief is responsible for acting in a timely and fair manner.

"The state budget crunch needed to be handled more efficiently," he said. "Emergency committees must be prepared for dealing with allotted funds."

Smith said that if another disaster of the same magnitude hit the area, officials and rescuers would be ready.

New precautions and stricter guidelines designed to deal with flood plains of eastern river basins have been implemented in Pitt County.

But Hoffman said there is still a lot of work to do -- with a hurricane of the magnitude of Floyd, problems are inevitable in the recovery process.

But the state is working around the clock in its effort to return the eastern coast to normal.

Hoffman said, "We are doing everything we can to get people in eastern North Carolina back on their feet and to mitigate future disasters."

The State & National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.