Farmers, business owners, fire survivors face uncertainty after $100B in disaster relief flounders

[December 20, 2024]  By TRAVIS LOLLER, LEAH WILLINGHAM and JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — American farmers, small business owners and wildfire survivors are among those who will suffer if Congress cannot agree on a new spending bill after President-elect Donald Trump abruptly rejected a bipartisan plan that included more than $100 billion in disaster aid.

A mayor in Hawaii is watching closely to see what happens because a potential allocation of $1.6 billion in funding is on the line. It's critical to ongoing disaster recovery efforts from the 2023 Maui fire, which proved to be the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century.

“I think what funding does is provides people with hope so they can plan for their future,” Maui Mayor Richard Bissen told The Associated Press Thursday. “And the longer we go without funding, the longer people wallow and wonder, is there a chance? Is there a path? Do I cut my losses? Do I leave?”

While money from the Federal Emergency Management Administration has provided temporary relief, the disaster recovery funding was intended for long-term needs such as housing assistance and rebuilding infrastructure, he said. The historic town of Lahaina is still struggling after the August 2023 fire killed at least 102 people and leveled thousands of homes, leaving behind an estimated $5.5 billion in damage.

The money is also urgently needed after Hurricanes Helene and Milton slammed the southeastern United States one after the other this fall. Helene alone was the deadliest storm to hit the U.S. mainland since Katrina in 2005, killing at least 221 people. Nearly half were in North Carolina where flooding and winds caused an estimated $60 billion in damage.

“I’m tracking this bill like a hawk right now, to be honest,” Asheville Tea Co. founder and CEO Jessie Dean said. “I think a lot of us are.”

Flooding from Helene in September washed away the company's building along with all of its equipment and inventory. Her small business employs 11 people directly and also works with small farmers in the area to supply the herbs for its teas.

On Thursday, Republicans released a new version of the bil l to keep the government operating and to restore the disaster aid with Trump’s support. But it was rejected by the House of Representatives. The next steps are uncertain.

“I realize there are other distractions that are going on, but I would just bring everybody back to their commitment to help disaster survivors,” said Bissen, Maui's mayor. “And that’s really all this is. We have a proven and established, legitimate disaster that took place. And we are coming up on 16 months, which no other disasters ever had to wait that long for.”

In Asheville, Dean is extremely grateful for support the business has received from customers and nonprofits that is helping it stay afloat right now, but more is needed. So far she has received no money from the U.S. Small Business Administration after applying for a disaster relief loan. Neither have any of the other business owners she knows.

“In day to day life right now, I'm talking to friends every day who are struggling with the decision around whether or not to continue to run their business, whether or not they can," she said.

Many farmers are in the same boat, since about $21 billion of the disaster aid in the earlier version of the bill was assistance for them.

“Without federal disaster money right now, or without some assistance, people like me will not be farming much longer,” Georgia pecan farmer Scott Hudson said. He farms 2,600 acres (1,050 hectares) of pecans across five counties in southeastern Georgia that were hammered by Hurricane Helene.

As Hurricane Milton approaches, a car sits half-buried in sand in Bradenton Beach, Fla., in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Oct. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

“We lost thousands of trees that will be decades before they are back to where they were the night before the storm,” he said. “And we lost upwards to 70% of the crop in certain counties.”

Some of his fellow farmers fared even worse.

“Whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, the farmers need this money,” he said. “American ag needs this money ... not to be profitable, to just stay in business.”

People like retired engineer Thomas Ellzey are also counting on disaster aid. He has been living in a mud-filled house in Fairview, North Carolina, for almost three months. Although he pre-qualified for a low-interest loan from the SBA that helps homeowners rebuild, officials have told him the agency does not have the money and is waiting on Congress to act.

Ellzey is 71 years old and said he budgeted carefully for his retirement, trying to prepare for every possible emergency that could come up once he stopped working. But he couldn’t have predicted a hurricane, he said.

“Everything I owned was paid for, including my cars, the house, the land. I had no bills,” he said. “Going back in debt is kind of rough at my age.”

The earlier version of the spending bill included included funding for low-interest loans for businesses, nonprofits and homeowners trying to rebuild after a disaster; money for rebuilding damaged roads and highways; and funds for helping communities recover through block grants administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The block grant money is one of the key funds for homeowners who don’t have insurance or enough insurance recover from disasters.

Although hurricanes Helene and Milton are the most recent large natural disasters to hit the U.S., a lot of the money was intended more generally for relief from any major disaster in recent years, including droughts and wildfires.

Stan Gimont is senior adviser for community recovery at Hagerty Consulting who used to run the community development block grant program at HUD. He noted that the country is still paying for disasters that happened while it simultaneously prepares for events that will happen in the future.

The Maui fire is a clear example.

“It took a year to clean that up and to get it to a point where they have removed all the debris, all the toxic materials and the burned up cars, whatever was in those houses,” Gimont said. “So even though that event occurred in the past, the bills for that are going to come due in the future.”

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Willingham reported from Charleston, W.Va., and Kelleher reported from Honolulu. Rebecca Santana contributed from Washington. Gary Robertson contributed from Raleigh, N.C. Videojournalist Brittany Peterson contributed from Denver.

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