FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. - Right near Fayetteville City Limits, there's a sign of how much clean up still needs to be done from 2016’s Hurricane Matthew.
The downstairs apartments at Mount Sinai are still empty and under repair. Shamedia McIntyre lives on the second floor and recalls being rescued from the flood by boat.
“My whole building was engulfed. The water came so high, it was actually like pouring into the downstairs windows into the apartment,” she said.
The storm also put entire towns like Lumbertown and Princeville underwater. So Shamedia was floored to hear about a letter several members of Congress sent to Governor Roy Cooper saying that the Department of Housing and Urban Development has named North Carolina a “slow spender” of federal recovery aid and that “North Carolina has the potential to lose millions of dollars in disaster relief aid if it continues to allocate funds at this rate.”
“It’s kinda shocking to hear something like that,” she said. “Like why? Why wouldn't you want to help people that are in need?”
The head of North Carolina’s Emergency Management, Michael Sprayberry, says money is flowing to victims just not a whole lot from this HUD program.
“One thing people have to realize is there is more than one recovery program,” Sprayberry said. “We have actually gotten about $682 million out there in the hands of disaster survivors as well as in public infrastructure.”
When it comes to HUD money $403 million has been committed to North Carolina but not received by hurricane victims yet.
“I know if I was waiting on money, I would be wanting it as soon as possible,” Sprayberry said. “So I just ask them to continue to be patient, we haven’t forgotten them. That’s our top priority. That’s the governor’s top priority.”
Part of the problem is that these HUD grants are a new program for North Carolina. And the state had to write an action plan for repairs which takes a while to get federal approval. The good news: the state says their team of more than 50 workers just finished that action plan and HUD money should start going out soon.
“You know people who have been impacted by disasters they are hurting and you can’t get it out there fast enough. But we’re working as hard as we can,” Sprayberry said.
