Morganton's Helene recovery cost reaches $54.5 million

Nearly two years after Hurricane Helene devastated parts of Morganton, the city is managing 26 recovery projects now estimated at a cost of about $54.5 million, with its largest reconstruction effort still awaiting decisions from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

City Manager Sally Sandy gave the City Council a status report near the end of Monday’s monthly meeting, warning that the long recovery timeline sometimes cited for Western North Carolina may not be far-fetched.

“A couple weeks ago, there was a headline that said official Helene recovery could take 25 years,” Sandy said. “In a lot of ways, that’s probably very, very true.”

She said the city’s $54.5 million estimate includes money already spent, projects approved for reimbursement, work in engineering or bidding, and estimates for projects yet to be constructed.

The biggest unresolved issue remains the city’s parks.

Engineering estimates put reconstruction of the Catawba Meadows and soccer complex facilities at nearly $33 million, but FEMA has not yet told the city how much of that cost it considers eligible.

“We ask the question every week,” Sandy said. “Every week we’re told it’s still in review.”

ONGOING REVENUE LOSS

The delay is also costing Morganton revenue.

Mayor Pro-Tem Wendy Cato noted that the fields served regional tournaments as well as local athletes, bringing visitors who stayed in hotels, ate at restaurants, and spent money throughout the city.

City officials estimate Morganton is losing about $350,000 annually in direct recreation revenue from events that can no longer be held at the damaged facilities. That figure does not include lost spending at hotels, restaurants and other businesses.

“These fields weren’t just used by local athletes,” Cato said. “These fields were used by regional athletes that came in and spent money in our town.”

Rather than wait indefinitely, the city has decided to separate about $5 million in buildings from the larger fields project. That includes bathrooms, concession areas, maintenance and storage buildings, and offices.

“We cannot really accept a $33 million exposure without answers as to what sources of funding, we’re going to have other than ourselves to pay for that,” Sandy said.

The city hopes to seek bids for the buildings within the next several months and award a contract during the winter.

Morganton is also looking elsewhere for money.

On Wednesday, the city applied for the maximum $15 million available through North Carolina’s Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program. The money could help fill whatever gap remains between FEMA reimbursement and the eventual cost of rebuilding the parks.

There is a catch: The grant program prefers applicants to demonstrate a FEMA funding gap, and FEMA hasn’t yet told Morganton what it will pay.

“We may end up with a funding gap,” Sandy said. “We may be lucky, and we may not. But we may.”

The challenge, she said, is timing: The disaster-recovery grant program prefers applicants to demonstrate a FEMA funding gap, while Morganton is still waiting for FEMA to determine what it will pay.

“We are told by our FEMA friends that sometimes we push very hard, and that our expectation of getting back up and running, especially when you’ve got new buildings from destroyed buildings and new facilities, that we ask an awful lot,” Sandy said, reflecting the frustration throughout the city.

“That the average time to see that start is six years, and we’re like, ‘That’s just absolutely unacceptable. That answer does not compute and cannot be.’ And so, we continue to push, and I hope in six years, you know, we’re back.”

SOME PROGRESS MADE

Elsewhere, the recovery is further along.

Sandy said that Morganton has received about $5.2 million in FEMA reimbursements for 19 projects, most involving emergency work immediately after the storm.

Those projects included sewer lift stations, the wastewater treatment plant, street clearing, debris removal, electric restoration and emergency work at the city’s water and sewer facilities.

“That’s $5.2 million, and this is just FEMA — not insurance, not any of the other stuff,” Sandy said.

Four additional projects totaling about $9.05 million have been obligated by FEMA and approved by the state, meaning reimbursement is available after the city incurs the costs and submits documentation.

“Remember, we’ve got to spend the money first,” Sandy said. “Then we turn it in, and then they send us the money back.”

Two projects, the Rocky Ford Greenway near Grace Ridge and the city’s raw-water intake, are in final engineering. Three others, the Silver Creek Lift Station, the Recreation Maintenance Building, and the Boardwalk, are under construction.

The Watershed Weir/Dam project is approaching the bidding stage. FEMA has preliminarily agreed to provide slightly more than $500,000 toward an estimated $600,000 to $700,000 project. Bids are expected later this month, with a possible construction contract coming before the council in October.

Sandy said FEMA officials have cautioned the city that reconstruction involving destroyed buildings and new facilities can take years.

That helps explain why Sandy said a recent headline suggesting Western North Carolina’s broader Helene recovery could take 25 years may not be as extraordinary as it sounds.

The region’s tourism numbers initially masked some of the storm’s economic damage, she said, as emergency crews, utility workers, FEMA personnel and others filled available hotel rooms.

As those workers leave, the underlying weakness is becoming more apparent.

“I think now we’re starting to see as a region where we really are not back,” Sandy said, “and how much work there is to be done.”