HICKORY, N.C. — What started as temporary shelter after Helene is becoming a permanent home for some families in the North Carolina High Country.
Nearly a dozen storm survivors have purchased the FEMA trailers they were placed in, and close to 100 more are hoping to do the same.
Some of the residents who were displaced by the storm said FEMA is offering the mobile homes at discounted prices.
Trailers that are no longer needed have been returned to a staging area in Hickory.
Chad Cobb showed Faherty the one-bedroom FEMA home he is now living in north of Lenoir.
When Helene hit last September, the Catawba River rose quickly around Cobb’s home west of Morganton destroying much of what he owned.
“Swamped out anybody who lived on the river from Lake James down, really from Nebo down,” Cobb said. “Everybody lost everything. The water went above the roofs, and your life changed overnight.”
During the last 10 months, FEMA has provided 243 households with temporary housing units. Those units included travel trailers, mobile homes and apartments. To date, FEMA says nearly 90 families have moved out and into longer-term housing solutions. Some of the homes placed at the mobile home park last winter in Lenoir are no longer there. The families Faherty spoke with are thankful for the temporary housing and the opportunity to buy one at a discounted price.
Cobb is a U.S. Marine veteran and said the home from FEMA has changed his life.
“It gives you an opportunity to breathe and reassess,” Cobb said. “It lets you know what’s important in life real quick.”
Faherty asked what happens to the trailers that are being brought back.
He found out that they are cleaned up and disposed of through the General Services Administration Auctions, which is the federal government’s normal process for excess government property.
Faherty checked the North Carolina State Auditor Office’s website and found out that when the storm hit in September 2024, more than 7,000 people were displaced.
As of Saturday, 574 people still needed housing assistance.
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