Hundreds of residents signed up for FEMA buyouts after Helene. Not one has been approved.

FAIRVIEW, North Carolina — A dusting of December snow had turned the mountains around her white, but Elizabeth Clark barely had time to notice.

It had been 438 days since Hurricane Helene’s floodwaters wrecked her home’s foundation, inundated the first floor, destroyed the septic system and swallowed their belongings. Her mortgage company agreed to pause her payments for a year, but now seemed to be losing patience over the $270,000 she still owed on a house no longer safe to live in.

“I’ve never missed a payment in my whole life,” said Clark, a neonatal nurse at a nearby hospital. “Here now, at 42 years old, I’m having to consider foreclosing.”

In November 2024, Clark was among the first storm victims in her county to apply for a voluntary program funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency that would enable the government to buy out her property.

....(snip)....

Meanwhile, more than 13 months after applying for a buyout, Clark has heard almost nothing definitive.

She is hardly the only one enduring another winter of uncertainty. .......................(more)

https://www.carolinacoastonline.com/regional/article_10fb7ee9-c05e-4c47-aa3b-f5e7d686d616.html