Governor Stein extends state of emergency for western NC wildfires
Governor Josh Stein announced Saturday that the state of emergency is extended for the next 30 days for 34 counties in NC.
Wildfires have ravaged an already damaged part of the state, making it even harder for citizens to recover.
'I appreciate all of the first responders, emergency managers, state forest rangers, and state and local officials working hard to protect North Carolinians from wildfires,' said Governor Stein. 'I am extending this State of Emergency to ensure the State Emergency Response Team has every resource available to continue to respond to wildfires to protect people and property.'
Here are the counties included among the state of emergency: Alexander, Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Cabarrus, Caldwell, Catawba, Cherokee, Clay, Cleveland, Gaston, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Iredell, Jackson, Lincoln, Macon, Madison, McDowell, Mecklenburg, Mitchell, Polk, Rowan, Rutherford, Stanly, Swain, Transylvania, Union, Watauga, Wilkes, Yancey, as well as the tribal lands of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
PREVIOUSLY: Evacuation order issued as crews battle wildfire in western NC
In the press release, the state's Department of Agriculture cited 2,348 wildfire incidents between March and April. A statewide burn ban was issued by the NC Forestry Service between March 21 and April 2.
'The spring wildfire season is off to a very busy start, which has kept the N.C. Forest Service, first responders and emergency management staff on their toes,' said Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler.
The extension will continue to provide resources to assist counties by deploying firefighters and sending more logistical supplies and equipment. Also, the State Emergency Operations Center's 24-hour Watch Center will continue assisting counties with issuing evacuation orders through the Wireless Emergency Alert Network and through the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System.
'I appreciate the Governor extending the State of Emergency and making resources available, especially with the elevated risk of wildfires in Western NC,' said Troxler. 'I also urge people to use extreme caution when doing any burning.'
FEMA previously announced on Monday that federal funds were authorized to help battle the Sam Davis Road wildfires in Swain County. They said the fire threatened approximately 70 homes in the Lower Alarka and Big Rockies Road area.
Before that, FEMA provided federal funding for wildfires in Alarka — which is also in Swain County — the Table Rock Fire that started in South Carolina and spread to NC, and Black Cove in Polk and Henderson counties all back in March.
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21 hours ago
- Yahoo
The government stepped in to clean up a disaster in North Carolina. Then they created another one.
POLK COUNTY, North Carolina — The small section of forest before me looked as though it was clear-cut. The ground was flat and treeless, covered in a thin layer of jumbled sticks and leaves. This region, a wetland formed by beavers near the South Carolina border, was flooded last September by Hurricane Helene. But it wasn't the storm that razed the forest. It was the machines that came after. They were part of a hurricane cleanup effort, bankrolled by the federal government, that many environmental experts believe went very, very wrong. Helene hit North Carolina in late September last year, dumping historic amounts of rain that damaged thousands of homes, killed more than 100 people, and littered rivers with debris including fallen trees, building fragments, and cars. In the months since, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has sponsored an enormous cleanup effort in western North Carolina. It focused, among other things, on clearing debris from waterways for public safety. Storm debris left in rivers and streams can create jams that make them more likely to flood in the future. In some parts of the state, however, cleanup crews contracted by the federal government removed much more than just dangerous debris. According to several state biologists, environmental experts, and my own observations from a recent trip to the area, contractors in some regions cleared live trees still rooted in the ground, logs that were in place well before the storm, and other natural features of the habitat that may not have posed a risk to public safety. These experts also told me that the Army Corps of Engineers — a government agency tasked by FEMA to oversee debris removal in several counties — failed to coordinate with the state wildlife agency to minimize harm to species that are in danger of extinction. Those include federally endangered freshwater mussels, which are essential for their role in keeping rivers clean, and hellbenders, iconic giant salamanders that the federal government says are imperiled. In some stretches of rivers and streams, the contractors ultimately did more harm to the environment than the storm itself, the experts said. The many scientists and environmental experts I spoke to say the main problem is the compensation system for companies involved in disaster recovery: Contractors are typically paid by the volume of debris they remove from streams, creating an incentive for them to take more debris than is necessary. 'They just removed everything.' Hans Lohmeyer, stewardship coordinator at Conserving Carolina That's what happened in this partially destroyed beaver wetland, according to Hans Lohmeyer, the stewardship coordinator with an environmental group called Conserving Carolina, who took me to the wetland in June. 'They just removed everything,' Lohmeyer told me, pointing at the bald patch of forest where he said live trees that had survived Helene once stood. 'It's more advantageous for them to remove it all because they're getting paid for it.' The damage from Helene was relatively minor here, Lohmeyer said. And he claims that debris churned up by the storm didn't pose a serious flood risk. The wetland is a large natural area with few homes or buildings and plenty of room for floodwaters, he said. Yet contractors still leveled parts of the forest with excavators, clearing important wildlife habitat. 'We've just seen tons of excessive debris removal,' said Jon Stamper, river cleanup coordinator with MountainTrue, a nonprofit that's being funded by the state to clean up debris in smaller waterways. 'I couldn't even begin to tell you how many reports and phone calls and public outcries we've had about this.' Plenty of contractors have done a good job, he said, but many seem to be 'simply grabbing anything they can to make more money.' Cleanup contractors have faced scrutiny before. In the months after deadly floods swept through southeastern Kentucky in 2022, a report by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting claimed that debris-removal contractors — including AshBritt and its subcontractors, one of the firms contracted by the Army Corps in North Carolina — took trees they shouldn't have and ignored complaints from residents, prompting lawsuits. (At least some of the claims against the company have since been dismissed, court records show.) Then there's the risk of climate change: Rising global temperatures are only likely to increase the need for debris removal, by making natural disasters like floods more frequent and severe in some areas. That will come at a steep cost to public safety and to the economy — Helene's costs have so far amounted to nearly $80 billion. And without better cleanup systems in place, it will be especially devastating for the wild animals that need intact ecosystems to survive. Scientists say government contractors were careless and likely killed scores of endangered species I initially traveled to North Carolina for a story about how damage from Hurricane Helene is pushing some already rare animals closer to extinction. For endangered salamanders like the Hickory Nut Gorge green — a striking amphibian with black skin and splotches of green — forest loss caused by Helene's floodwaters is a new and urgent threat. But as I spoke with experts for the story, they told me that a bigger problem for animals in some rivers and streams has actually been the cleanup after the storm. To clean up debris from Helene, counties in western North Carolina either enlisted help from the Army Corps of Engineers — which then hired contractors — or contracted debris removal companies themselves. In both cases, FEMA provided financial support. According to three state biologists and several other experts familiar with North Carolina's stream ecology, it was debris removal contractors working under the Army Corps that created the worst environmental problems. AshBritt, one of the Corps' big contractors, managed debris removal in Polk County, where I saw the partially deforested beaver wetland. I also visited a stream west of Hendersonville called Little River that was cleaned up by a different Army Corps contractor. Share a tip Do you have information about disaster cleanup in North Carolina? Reach out to or benjijones@ (encrypted). Find me on Signal at benji.90. In Little River, cleanup contractors severely damaged the stream ecosystem, which is home to the world's highest density of the endangered Appalachian elktoe mussel, said Luke Etchison, a biologist at the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC), the state wildlife agency. Giant excavators drove over the riverbed, almost certainly crushing elktoes and burying rocks used by hellbenders, the largest salamanders in North America, he said. The contractors also left parts of the bank bare and almost certainly removed natural habitat features that were not a flood hazard, according to Etchison. On a warm and sunny morning in June, Etchison and his colleague Michael Perkins, another state biologist, visited Little River for an informal survey. I tagged along. The river was shallow and calm with a rocky bottom and flanked by shrubs and trees. It looked like a pretty typical river — and it was beautiful. We threw on wetsuits, goggles, and snorkels and waded into the cold water. It was only when we swam around with our heads tilted to the riverbed that I started to see some of the impacts Etchison was describing: crushed elktoe shells, broken rocks, and hardly any of the debris that crayfish and hellbenders use, such as old logs and large, flat boulders. Perhaps most telling was that we saw fewer than two dozen elktoe mussels that day. Past surveys at this exact site turned up several hundred of them, Etchison said. Perkins said that people often have the perception that debris removal is 'charitable work,' but it's not. 'This was a taxpayer-funded endeavor,' he said, and some contractors 'are making millions by removing not just woody debris but also thousands of live, healthy or otherwise undamaged trees and vegetation that pose no risk to life or infrastructure.' In another river, known as the West Fork French Broad, a technician working with NCWRC told me that he saw similar signs of damage. Rocks that hellbenders live under were fractured, covered in sediment, or pushed into the riverbed, he said. From his experience walking the stream before and after debris removal, he also claims that contractors removed habitat features that were not a flood risk — either because they were here before the storm or not obstructing the channel. 'I don't know what's a more telling sign that something is not a threat to a future flood than something that was in the river before this flood and in the exact same place after,' the technician told me. 'They were operating in these rivers, treating them like highways, driving up and down, crushing everything.' Lori Williams, state wildlife biologist Etchison and two other state biologists allege that the Army Corps made little effort to coordinate with NCWRC to avoid harming threatened and endangered species. Once they learned that debris removal was underway, NCWRC sent Army Corps and other disaster recovery officials a one-page document with guidance on how to minimize harm to the ecosystems, such as by leaving stumps in place and, when possible, driving machines on the bank and not in the riverbed. The agency also produced detailed maps that marked areas with rare species, including the section of Little River that I visited. In those areas, the maps say, contractors should avoid running heavy machinery in the stream bed. NCWRC biologists asked the Corps to coordinate with them if they're clearing debris from rivers in those areas. 'We gave them [the Army Corps] all of this information and they ignored it,' Lori Williams, a conservation biologist and hellbender expert at NCWRC, told me. 'They were operating in these rivers, treating them like highways, driving up and down, crushing everything.' Early one morning I talked to a couple workers who were clearing debris from a stream north of Asheville. They were both from out of state and hadn't heard any complaints about their work. Locals were happy they were cleaning up, they told me. But I also heard another story. A man named Nathan Turpin, who briefly worked for a subcontractor of AshBritt doing debris removal, told me that he left the job, in part, because of the focus on 'production.' 'I ended up walking off the job just for the fact that we were pressured to produce a lot of yardage of debris every day to make a profit,' Turpin, who said he drove a dump truck, told me. 'There were a lot of plants and trees I saw that were being destroyed for no reason.' Who deserves blame — and are they accepting it? No single company or organization is at fault for the mismanaged debris removal, experts told me. Cleaning up involves a messy constellation of state and federal government agencies, private contractors and subcontractors, and independent monitors that audit the work. There are so many people involved that it's difficult to figure out who does what — and who's paying for it. And when you start asking questions, everyone involved tends to just point at each other. Key takeaways Scientists claim that cleanup from Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina was careless and damaged the environment and wildlife in some areas. They claim that contractors hired by the Army Corps of Engineers, a federal agency, cleared far more debris from rivers than was necessary for public safety, removing habitat features there before Helene hit. They claim that those contractors were motivated by a perverse incentive common in the debris removal industry: Companies are paid by volume, so the more debris they remove, the more money they stand to make. The Army Corps told Vox that its contractors follow strict environmental guidelines to avoid undue ecological harm and it does not tolerate over-clearing of debris. The Corps provided detailed comments that experts Vox spoke to generally disagree with. Debris removal is nearly finished, but environmental experts say there's a big opportunity to make future cleanup efforts less destructive — largely, by changing the incentives for contractors. FEMA declined an interview request. In a written statement, FEMA told Vox that North Carolina coordinated with federal and state agencies to provide guidance for debris removal to counties and the Army Corps including measures to minimize environmental impacts. Those measures include using high-profile machines in riverbeds, so they don't bottom out, and filling heavy machinery with biodegradable hydraulic fluid, FEMA said in the statement. The details of that guidance are not clear. FEMA directed my follow-up questions to the Army Corps, which declined to share the environmental guidance that contractors were given. The Army Corps similarly declined an interview request, though it shared detailed comments in response to our reporting. The Army Corps told Vox that its contractors and subcontractors are required to follow strict environmental rules to minimize environmental harm — though again, it's not clear what those rules are. The agency also said that it does not tolerate over-clearing of debris. 'Contractors that exceed limits receive warnings or are removed from the job,' according to the statement. Dave Connolly, chief of public affairs for the Corp's Wilmington District, said the agency has not issued warnings or removed contractors. The agency also said it 'constantly' has quality assurance specialists on site to verify that contractors are removing only what they're tasked to remove. Some environmental experts I spoke to said the Army Corps didn't have sufficient oversight over their contractors or subcontractors to know whether or not they were over-extracting debris. The Army Corps also told me that 'wildlife biologists and environmental experts have been involved throughout the operation, particularly in areas where endangered species are known to exist.' That ensures cleanup has a minimal impact on wildlife and their habitats, the statement said. The state biologists I spoke to said that at least some of the wildlife biologists hired by debris removal contractors have little knowledge of the local endangered and threatened species. The Army Corps noted that they shared 'mapping data' with the state wildlife agency that's meant to indicate where contractors would be working. According to the Corps, that gave NCWRC the opportunity to advise workers when debris removal is happening in ecologically sensitive areas. The agency said it would 'attempt to adjust the debris removal plan in that area, and/or allow wildlife specialists the opportunity to temporarily relocate any discovered wildlife until debris removal in that specific location is complete.' The state biologists I spoke to said Army Corps contractors showed little indication that they would adjust a debris removal plan to spare rare animals. And often, the state agency wasn't aware of where the cleanup was happening because the mapping data was so hard to parse. 'We were not given the chance to locate and move animals out of harm's way,' Williams said. Although AshBritt declined to comment on the record, the Army Corps defended its work with the company: 'USACE's decision to contract with AshBritt was made after a thorough evaluation of their capabilities, experience, and past performance in emergency response operations,' the Corps said in its statement. 'There is no evidence to suggest AshBritt is unable to successfully fulfill its contracts.' (See here for a more detailed response from the Army Corps to our reporting.) Most of the damage from cleanup is already done. Scientists are looking to the next natural disaster. Killing federally threatened and endangered species, like elktoes and another mussel variety known as longsolids, is typically a crime — because they're protected by the Endangered Species Act (ESA). And that's why some environmental advocates have suggested to me that debris removal in certain regions, such as Little River, may have been illegal. I raised this with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees the ESA. Gary Peeples, the acting supervisor for the Asheville Field Office, told me that, at least so far, debris removal is not violating the act, even if it's killing endangered species. This is a bit wonky, but: Typically, the USFWS consults with federal agencies — in this case, FEMA, because it's financing the Corps's work — before taking actions that harm endangered species. Those agencies then receive what's called an incidental take statement, which creates an exception and essentially legalizes harm to federally protected species (assuming their actions don't jeopardize the entire existence of the species). In an emergency, however, consultation happens while the action is already underway, Peeples said. That's what happened here. In the coming weeks, he said, FEMA is supposed to report on how they've impacted endangered species, at which point the service will issue the agency a take statement. FEMA and the Army Corps have been 'diligently monitoring and documenting' the potential impacts of debris removal on threatened and endangered species, the Army Corps told me in its statement. 'From the legal standpoint, we must remember that the Endangered Species Act does allow for harmful impacts to species,' said Peeples. Still, he added, the impact of debris removal 'pains' him. 'Not only am I a biologist who works here, but I'm a resident who lives here and recreates in these areas,' he said. 'It is grossly unfortunate how things have played out.' Beyond raising alarm among local environmental experts, the cleanup has also prompted significant public outcry. And those complaints haven't gone unnoticed. In May, a number of state residents, including environmental advocates, met with Rep. Chuck Edwards — a Republican who represents western North Carolina — to express their concerns. Afterward, Edwards announced a new agreement with FEMA and the Army Corps 'to improve accountability and transparency' in the cleanup process. Under that agreement, landowners can mark important trees and other landscape features with flags. 'These flagged areas will not be disturbed until the property owner, the county, and USACE [US Army Corps of Engineers] engage in a consultation,' according to the announcement. Edwards also uploaded maps of where the Army Corps is working to his website. It's not clear whether this flagging approach has worked, or whether it was simply too little, too late. Edwards's office declined an interview request and, along with FEMA and the Army Corps, did not respond to a request to see the agreement. The opportunity now, experts told me, is to make future debris removal better — to learn from what environmental advocates call egregious mistakes. There are really only two things that those advocates want. The first is to change the incentive structure in the disaster recovery industry. Paying contractors by volume is 'the biggest problem,' Williams, the state biologist, told me. 'It puts a dollar sign on literally every leaf, stick, twig, [and] blade of grass out there. That's how these people are making money.' Instead, Williams, Lohmeyer, and other experts recommended paying contractors by linear foot — meaning the more distance they cover, the more money they make — or by job. A job might be, say, clearing debris from a particular creek or property. The other key ask is that the Army Corps and disaster recovery companies coordinate with regional environmental experts — the people, like Williams and Etchison, who typically know the ecology of the rivers far better than contractors. State biologists are not asking to stop or even slow debris removal. Just to take more care in regions known to contain incredibly rare creatures. Where cleanup has gone right(ish), hellbenders still lurk In some regions of North Carolina river, cleanup left a much smaller scar. According to Etchison and some of his colleagues, waterways in counties that opted to work with a contractor called Southern Disaster Recovery (SDR) instead of Army Corps contractors were generally left in better shape. SDR tended to listen to state biologists, he told me. 'They've done a pretty good job coordinating with us,' Etchison said. For example, when Etchison asked an SDR subcontractor to avoid removing specific bits of habitat, such as a log home to freshwater mussels, the contractor listened, Etchison said. That may be because SDR and their subcontractors are paid by linear foot to remove debris (though they're paid by volume to haul it away). As a result, Etchison said, there's still lots of large woody debris and big rocks for hellbenders to hide and nest under. After the survey in Little River, I drove with Etchison and Perkins to the banks of Mills River, which was cleaned up by SDR. This river, Etchison told me, was a good place to find hellbenders — in part, he said, because cleanup didn't wreck the waterway. There are still plenty of logs and bramble on the bank and big rocks for hellbenders to hide and nest under. 'If you have to do it, it was done the right way,' Etchison said of debris removal here. We slid down the bank and stepped into the cold water, which was waist deep and moving quickly. The water was murky, so we couldn't see the bottom, making walking tough and finding a hellbender tougher. Etchison and Perkins used their hands and feet to feel around for the kinds of rocks that these Hulkish salamanders love — large and flat, with a gap underneath that they can squeeze into. When they found such a rock, Perkins would position a seine in front of it and Etchison would lift the rock up. Then we'd check the net to see if a salamander had entered. We did this for more than an hour, catching mostly leaves and mud and a few crayfish and small fish. But eventually, somehow, this approach worked. Etchison lifted up a small slab of concrete on the riverbed and when Perkins lifted up the net, there was a squirming hellbender. These animals are famously ugly-cute: slimy brown with wrinkly skin, tiny eyes, and pudgy little hands. They look like something out of a Miyazaki film. Perhaps worrying about the future of unconventionally attractive animals like this is not a priority for everyone in the wake of disaster. Biologists have a hard time rallying the public around salamanders, especially compared to animals of the large and fluffy variety. Yet it's the hellbenders and the mussels and the crayfish and the fish that make these ecosystems so unique and healthy enough to support our own needs. Mussels clean the water. Crayfish break down debris. Hellbenders tell us when rivers may be polluted. While traveling in North Carolina I was constantly reminded that natural disasters are disasters for these animals, too. And that's troubling for North Carolina's utterly epic array of creatures because many regions — including the American Southeast — will likely face more flooding in the decades to come as the planet warms. The least we can do is be smart about how we react to it. 'We know that these types of high-velocity flooding events are going to continue to happen,' Stamper, of MountainTrue, said. 'It's devastating to watch these contractors and the Corps of Engineers create a secondary disaster. We don't want to see it happen elsewhere.' Solve the daily Crossword
Newsweek
3 days ago
- Newsweek
Texas Floods Could Worsen Housing Market Issues
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The flash floods that claimed the lives of at least 135 people in Texas Hill Country on July 4 also impacted thousands of properties that stood along their path of death and destruction, according to estimates by researchers at data-driven tech company Cotality. Using rainfall, stream gage, and property data, Cotality experts recreated the footprint of the flash floods in central Texas, finding that over 38,600 homes in nine counties deemed eligible for individual and public assistance by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are likely to have been damaged during that tragic weekend. "Now, that is a model number, but we stand by it and feel very confident in this number. And that's everywhere from Kerr County to Travis County, in and around the Austin area," Jon Schneyer, Cotality director of research & content, told Newsweek. While not all of these homes are likely to have been damaged by the floods, all of them were at least impacted, with properties in Tom Green, Travis, Kerr, Williamson, and Burnet counties identified as the most at-risk. For homeowners impacted by the floods and for anyone living in this particular part of central Texas already grappling with the immense loss of life caused by the extreme weather event, the coming months are likely to bring new challenges, experts say, and additional financial burdens. A damaged house is seen near the Guadalupe River in Hunt, Texas, on July 8 following severe flash flooding over the July 4 holiday weekend. A damaged house is seen near the Guadalupe River in Hunt, Texas, on July 8 following severe flash flooding over the July 4 holiday weekend. RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP via Getty Images What the Floods Could Do to Home Insurance Premiums The cost of home insurance has skyrocketed in recent years in Texas, reaching an average annual cost of $4,585 this year—117 percent more than the national average of $2,110, according to NerdWallet. Premiums are so expensive that many homeowners cannot afford them, and some are choosing to renounce paying extra for flood coverage, which is not included under the standard homeowner policy. "Remember, flood insurance is not offered as a standard homeowners insurance policy. You usually go and get your flood insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program through FEMA," Schneyer said. "Now, that is not required unless you have a mortgage and you're in the special flood hazard area or the 100-year flood zone." He added: "A lot of those homeowners, especially as you get outside of Kerrville or outside of Austin, might have already paid off their home, they are no longer required to have flood insurance." Cotality expects only a few homeowners to have flood insurance in this part of Texas. "They'll be able to apply for assistance through FEMA, but a majority of that damage, if they don't have flood insurance, it's going to be on the home and business owners to foot that bill," Schneyer said. "If your home cost $500,000 to rebuild entirely, that could be a pretty expensive recovery, not to mention the emotional and psychological damage from friends and neighbors losing their homes and livelihoods." Home insurance premiums could further rise as a result of the recent floods, exacerbating homeowners' existing struggles to protect their homes and even purchase properties. Bill Baldwin, board member of the Houston Association of Realtors (HAR) and a broker with 90 agents under his direction, told Newsweek that the biggest challenge he faces in the industry today is insurance. "It's the unaffordability of insurance, the inability to get insurance," he said. Baldwin and his colleagues at HAR have spent "a ton of effort, money and cooperation on providing flood notices" in recent years, but despite all of this, he said, they have not observed any increase of people securing flood insurance in Houston. "We have fewer people today with flood insurance than had at the day Harvey hit," Baldwin added. "The year after Harvey hit, we saw an increase in flood insurance policies. The cost of the flood insurance policy went up. Now it's been five years, six years, seven years, and the homeowners today are different from the ones back then—half of the people weren't here when Harvey hit." It is a "constant battle" to convince local homeowners that they need insurance, Baldwin says, even if they live in flood-prone areas. "We're Texans, we are hard-headed, we have a mindset of our own," he said. "We think we're supermen when we're not, necessarily. And we often don't experience or expect the intensity of the extreme weather events that we're now seeing," Baldwin explained. "We feel like we're not as vulnerable as we perhaps are." Texas Floods Could Worsen Housing Market Issues Texas Floods Could Worsen Housing Market Issues Newsweek Illustration/Canva/Getty/AP Newsroom ...To Home Prices All of these upward pressures on the cost of homeownership will reduce the desirability of living in flood-prone areas, putting downward pressure on housing demand, Cameron LaPoint, real estate expert and assistant professor of finance at the Yale School of Management, told Newsweek. "We are already seeing similar out-migration trends in places like coastal Florida, where there are similar problems of severe natural disaster risk, unraveling insurance markets, and evidence of post-pandemic overbuilding," he said. "A lack of affordable insurance may push prospective homeowners to look elsewhere, such as in climate haven cities in the northern U.S. which are among the few housing markets growing right now." LaPoint believes the areas directly impacted by the flash flood are likely to face "a continued decline in house prices and rents, which was already in progress after the recovery from the pandemic." Other experts, however, are skeptical about the idea of people choosing to live elsewhere because of the floods. "It might temporarily influence some homebuyer decisions, but the appeal of those counties will not likely change," Dr. Daniel Oney, research director at the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University, told Newsweek. "There may be some outside investor interest, but with mortgage rates currently high, investor activity is down overall—they rely on cheap credit to make their business models work." Baldwin is sure that Texas Hill Country will remain a popular vacation spot despite the risk of flash floods. "If you're from here, you've grown up going to the Guadalupe, or the Frio, or the Trinity. And it's a time-honored tradition to go to these places," he said. "Despite the tragedy, people will keep vacationing there, as we've seen people build after a hurricane or after other disasters. Houston is very hurricane-prone, but we added 75,000 people last year to the greater Houston area. They're not deciding against moving here because of the hurricane. They're learning to live with the new intensity of weather-related events." A Texas state flag flies in a yard filled with debris on July 6 in Hunt, Texas. A Texas state flag flies in a yard filled with debris on July 6 in Hunt, Rent Prices According to Oney, rent prices are likely to jump up in the short term in the areas affected by the floods. In the long term, it would be the "overall demand for those properties that will play a role," he told Newsweek. "Those communities have been popular for retirees and vacation homes because of the natural amenities," Oney said. "People's perceptions of risk are curious. In a few years we would expect the market dynamics to return to something like they were. Though rebuilding may try to avoid high flood risk areas." Baldwin fears the short-term impact that the communities along the Guadalupe River could suffer as tourism dries up and relocate to different parts of the state this summer, rather than any long-term impact. "Many of the people who are still on vacation around the greater Houston, Dallas, Austin area are gonna go to Fredericksburg or Round Top or Wimberley or one of these places that aren't necessarily related to the river, but they're still in the Hill Country and they have the same climate," he said. The greatest impact of this temporary exodus of tourists will be felt by working-class people, Baldwin added. "It's the maid who can't work in that deal, it's the lawn guy who doesn't have a job, it's the waitress who doesn't have anyone to wait on because the restaurant was closed for two weeks and did not have any unemployment insurance." These people, Baldwin said, need Texans' help—and he thinks locals will be rushing back to support them. "Because that's what Texans do," he said. ...And to Property Taxes LaPoint expects property tax revenues for the region affected by the flash floods to potentially shrink in the coming months, as homeowners impacted would either not be able to afford it or benefit from exemptions passed by appraisers as a form of relief. For example, Travis County, in Austin, is offering exemptions if the property suffered damages of at least 15 percent of its value, with up to a 100 percent exemption for those who suffered a total loss of their property. "More appraisers in flood-impacted counties are following suit," LaPoint said. At the same time, property tax bills could fall as a result of lower property values—at least in the short-term. "There is research showing that house prices fall in neighborhoods recently experiencing severe flooding, whether due to flash flooding or hurricanes. If price declines persist, this would also reduce future property tax revenues," LaPoint said. He added: "However, changes in house prices may not always translate to immediate changes in property tax bills due to the stickiness of assessed values and limits on rates. Recent amendments to property tax law in Texas increased homestead exemptions and made it more difficult for cities to raise rates. This will make it difficult for cities to close any short-run revenue gaps without aid from the state government." In its research, Cotality has found that areas that are frequently impacted by natural disasters experience a longer-term reduction in property values, while areas that are only occasionally hit experience a short-term drop. "What we have noticed is that over time, things start to regress back to normal. So especially in areas that are not impacted on a monthly or annual basis, if it's a decade in between flooding events, there's a bit of a short-term memory mentality." A person pays their respects at a memorial honoring the lives lost in the flash floods that claimed at least 135 lives on July 13 in Kerville, Texas. A person pays their respects at a memorial honoring the lives lost in the flash floods that claimed at least 135 lives on July 13 in Kerville, Changes We Can Expect the State Government to Make A majority of the experts who spoke to Newsweek expect the floods will not spur a seismic change in the state's real estate sector. "Texas is a strong property rights state. The governor [Greg Abbott] has called a special session with a few flood-related items, but they are limited to immediate relief efforts, flood warning systems, and streamlining regulations to help recovery," Oney said. "Additional property tax relief was on the session agenda before the floods. So, we don't expect the state to take any action that impacts markets long term because of this disaster." Texans who decide to stay in flood-prone areas are also unlikely to see much in the way of home improvement efforts, LaPoint said. "This is because it's difficult for individual homeowners to make these kinds of physical investments in their property—such as putting the home on stilts—given the relatively high costs involved," he said. "My research on Florida shows that publicly-backed loans can help homeowners fund hurricane-proofing projects that lower their insurance costs and increase the home's value. But projects like new window installations are much cheaper than flood prevention improvements." "Given the financial barriers faced by individual homeowners, there may be renewed calls from residents for the state to invest in key anti-flood prevention measures." Baldwin expects authorities to "probably increase the regulatory environment of a floodway" and update the maps the state is currently using to identify flood-prone areas—though that does not mean that those areas would be considered off-limits for developers, he said. "We're still going to build in these areas, we're just going to learn to build more resiliently," Baldwin added. "They will rebuild in some of these areas that some people would say you shouldn't be building in. It's probably not a practical solution. But it's how we build. People are driven to the coast, whether it's the East Coast, the West Coast, the Florida coast, or the Texas coast. So, you'll still have some development, you'll still have people willing to buy those structures." He continued: "There will be awareness for a brief period of time. But who's going to move there five years from now? They're going to be from California. They're going to be from the East Coast. They're not gonna have been there during that event. They'd have a small recollection, but no realistic experience. That's what happened in Houston. So, I still think people are gonna be at risk."
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6 days ago
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San Angelo residents now able to apply for FEMA assistance after Texas flooding
President Trump has officially added Tom Green County to the Major Disaster Declaration for Individual Assistance Support from FEMA, according to a release from U.S. Rep. August Pfluger's office. On Friday, Pfluger, R-San Angelo, announced that Tom Green and San Saba counties have been added to the list that now includes Burnet, San Saba, Tom Green, Travis, and Williamson Counties for Individual Assistance. Kendall, Kimble, Menard, and San Saba Counties were also added for Public Assistance, including direct Federal assistance. If you have been impacted by the floods, visit the FEMA website to request support at San Angelo Mayor Tom Thompson said the efforts of the citizens submitting flood survey's over the past six days have paid off. "Residents of San Angelo may now be eligible to apply for individual assistance through FEMA," Thompson said. "This IA declaration will also potentially open up additional federal recovery funding programs for our citizens and businesses. "On behalf of the City, I want to sincerely thank every person who completed a disaster assessment and every volunteer who stepped up to help. This is a great step forward towards the road of recovery for our community. We will continue to share recovery program information updates as they become available. To every citizen of San Angelo—you should be proud of what you've accomplished." Tom Green County Judge Lane Carter said the efforts in formulating the data needed from the citizens are finally coming to fruition. "We owe a huge thanks to Congressman August Pfluger and his office for assisting with this and moving the ball down the field," Carter said. "We owe a tremendous amount of thanks to the volunteers who assisted our citizens in this effort. The recovery efforts are one step at a time, but at this rate, we will overcome." In a special meeting held by the city council on Thursday afternoon, Shane Kelton Executive Director of Public Work with the city said there were 1,520 iSTAT Damage Surveys were submitted. He said 705 homes had minor damage, 463 with major damage and 58 homes were considered a total loss. More: Police, City of San Angelo issue order of restricted areas due to flooding More: San Angelo pets in need after historic flood This article originally appeared on San Angelo Standard-Times: Tom Green County residents can now apply for FEMA flood assistance
