Federal money is trickling in for farmers throughout Western North Carolina – where the agricultural industry suffered billions of dollars in losses from damaged infrastructure, land and crop loss due to Hurricane Helene.
The latest announcement came Friday as North Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture Steve Troxler signed a block grant agreement with U.S. Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Stephen Vaden in Fletcher.
Among the carnival rides and fair food at the mountain state fairgrounds, Vaden – joined by Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Budd praised President Donald Trump and criticized President Joe Biden.
“ It took the federal government far too long to come to the aid of the people of North Carolina, but I'm glad to say that elections have consequences and the Trump administration and USDA stand with the people in North Carolina in making certain that the people affected by this momentous disaster are made whole,” Vaden said.
Helene made landfall and unleashed widespread devastation in the region in late September – kicking off weeks, or in some cases months, of thousands being without water, electricity and reliable cell phone communication. The immediate disaster response, while Biden was in office, has been widely criticized by Republicans. But now, the recovery funding response is being widely criticized for being too slow or too little, largely by Democrats in North Carolina who blame Trump’s team.
Friday’s announcement, for example, marks the dispersal of funds by the Trump administration under funding authorizations that were first signed into law by Biden on Dec. 21, 2024. Trump took office on Jan. 20, putting his administration in charge of spending the nearly $5.95 billion Congress had approved just weeks earlier for WNC recovery programs.
The federal money announced Friday – $220 million – is the second round of federal funding aimed at farmers affected by Helene from the December bill. The first $317 million funded an Emergency Commodity Assistance Program that began in March for farmers who needed immediate financial support.
There is no timeline for when this most recent grant money will reach farmers. Troxler’s office will be in charge of sorting through applications from farmers who suffered infrastructure losses.
“ We have an application process that we will be going through to do verification,” Troxler said. “We try to make sure that these programs are fair, but we also make sure that they're responsible and try to keep all the fraud out of it that we possibly can.”
The state last week started sending checks to farmers from an allocation approved by state lawmakers in March. The state has provided roughly $478 million for farmers.
State and federal grants have made up about 20% of what Trexler estimates is a $5 billion loss to the farming industry in Western North Carolina.
The funding disbursement, so far, for farmers is on pace with federal and state allocations that will pay for the estimated $60 billion in damages the entire state faces from the storm.
About $14 billion of the $60 billion has been funded as of Friday, according to the state’s recovery dashboard.
When asked about the timeline and amount of federal funds so far, Vaden pointed blame at the Biden administration.
“ They should have moved faster,” he said. “When the Congress passed this bill, we moved expeditiously to work with the people of North Carolina.”
For farmers who have lost millions, any financial relief is welcome news. This most recent allocation from the feds is aimed at infrastructure loss on farms. And, according to Vaden, more is on the way.
“We're also looking at an emergency livestock relief program for flooding, which will be particularly helpful for dairy farmers here in North Carolina, among other constituencies,” he said.
“And we're hopeful that there will be money left over when all of this is paid out so that we can provide a second round of emergency commodity assistance program payments, not just to North Carolina farmers, but to farmers nationwide.”
