Tell Congress to pass flood resilience funding

The road to recovery is slow after the powerful storms of Hurricanes Helene and Milton. They left devastating destruction across the southeast. As we continue to reel from the lives lost and the sheer scope of the damage, many of us are now also grappling with the new realities of the climate crisis that played out before us in ways few imagined. Congress can no longer delay a significant investment in the recovery process.

The storms’ most apparent impacts were the shattered homes, damaged roadways, and the extensive loss of property left behind in the immediate aftermath. While the community impacts have been extensive, the storms left a major mark on our rivers as well – which supply drinking water to hundreds of thousands of people and are the backbone of local economies. The immense volume of water that fell altered the path of rivers and undermined the safety of many of the 1,500 dams in the region. Additionally the flood water pulled in an unfathomable amount of structural debris which, if left unattended, will pose serious long-term threats to drinking water supplies and all of the people and wildlife who depend on our rivers.

Dedicated disaster recovery funding is desperately needed in North Carolina to protect people and restore rivers. With unprecedented hurricane damage ranging from Lake Lure to Asheville and up to Boone, the scope and scale of the debris removal is unprecedented. The flood waters took a severe toll on the aging and often unmaintained dams across western North Carolina. Inspections by local, state, and federal officials are underway and dozens of dams have been identified as a high threat to public safety.

Now is the time for Congress to pass a disaster supplemental funding bill to provide the funds the region desperately needs.