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When Brian and Susie Hill purchased the historic home in Cats Creek, Yancy County, North Carolina in 2023, they had planned to stay forever. Their daughter, Lucy, chased the fireflies over the wide spread of grass in the evening.
“It’s the feeling you always wanted to go home,” Susie said. “Your little family and your little dog and your big garden and chicken.”
In September 2024, Hurricane Helen saved her life. After several days of rain saturated the mountains, Helen arrived and turned the small stream into hundreds of miles inland. Swelled Caterle Creek sprinted through the hill house, leaving logs in place of furniture, taking out porches, doors, windows, appliances and parts of the floor.
The hill saw it all and leaned back into their truck and parked the calm slope. When the water retreated, they discovered that the house was uninhabitable.
Suddenly, the hill began a painstaking process seeking disaster relief from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. With almost $40,000 in federal aid they received, they were able to take an important first step towards rebuilding. There wasn’t enough money to complete the huge project. The rest must come from pouring their own efforts and community support. But it managed to come together from the federal disaster aid system more than most of the rest of their community.
Propublica and Congress looked into federal data, and Helene was hit hardest by 10 North Carolina counties. We found income disparities in the way agents distributed housing assistance, despite the aid being to be independent of income. Among the more rural counties, households with the most FEMA assistance tended to be the highest incomes of the counties Helen was hit hardest. In some counties, including Yancey, the highest-income homeowners received 2-3 times more money to repair and rebuild homes for people with low incomes.
In rural areas, residents can face barriers to helping, ranging from lack of access to mobile phones and internet services to rugged terrain and lack of money to pay for services.
The opposite was true in Urban Buncombe County, home to Asheville. There, low-income homeowners usually received a higher FEMA award for housing assistance. Buncombe is also home to many local nonprofits that help low-income residents navigate the FEMA application and appeal process.
For the hill, it was an exhausting year. They have been camping in trailers, taking in views of the previous home since January, and have been working from home from teaching public schools until dark. They long for the simple comfort of their previous life. Just as a family, I sit in the living room watching a movie. As the hills prepare to return, we learn on their journey why many other families cannot do so.
Check out the short documentary, “Reconstructing Helene.”
