This week marks two years since Hurricane Helene.

North Carolina has made a lot of progress since then, but there’s still more work left to be done. Helene brought a historic amount of rainfall to Western North Carolina, causing flash floods and landslides that resulted in roughly $60 billion in damage. 73,000 homes and 1,6000 roads were destroyed or damaged. 108 North Carolinians lost their lives. Countless others had their lives forever changed. In the two years since, North Carolina has made remarkable progress toward recovery. State leaders have appropriated billions of dollars in funding to rebuild the region’s infrastructure. 93% of road repairs have been completed, nearly all drinking water systems have been restored, 1,250 homes have been repaired or rebuilt, and nearly 16.5 million cubic yards of debris have been cleared. And state leaders aren’t done yet. This week, Gov. Stein rolled out a 10 year plan outlining the state’s plan to fully revitalize the region’s economy. But this progress is even more remarkable when you consider that North Carolina has done much of this work without federal support. Since Helene hit, the federal government has appropriated only about 18% of the funding that North Carolina needs to rebuild. And only about half of those federal dollars have actually been disbursed– the rest is still tied up in the Trump administration’s red tape. A big reason for the delay is Michael Whatley, who was tapped by President Trump to lead the federal response to Helene recovery in North Carolina. It could have been an asset, to have a close Trump ally advocating for much-needed disaster aid. But Whatley failed to advocate for North Carolina. In fact, he barely even showed up. Mayors of Asheville, Boone, Canton, and Marshall say Whatley never reached out, and records from 11 of 14 hard-hit counties show no contact from him. Whatley was so absent, that North Carolinians actually called for his removal from his oversight role, saying that they “have not seen Whatley doing anything” as funds continued to be delayed. [Continues at progressncaction.com/blog] #NorthCarolina #WNC #MountainStrong