‘We’ve still got a ways to go’

Sep. 14--A year later, recovery from Hurricane Florence continues.

Much of the property has been cleared where the flooded-out Starlite Motel once stood on the northern edge of Spring Lake.

Five months ago, a small congregation resumed services in the renovated sanctuary of the Presbyterian Church of the Covenant on the Lower Little River, which snakes through the far reaches of town. In the last three years, the little white church has been resurrected twice from damaging floods, the last time in September 2018 with Hurricane Florence.

['He's with us:' Spring Lake church rebounds from second flood in two years]

In Fayetteville, a portion of the Cedar Falls subdivision -- among the city's worst-hit areas -- appears to have largely rebounded from the storm's driving rains and ensuing flooding.

It was a year ago this weekend that Florence -- the wettest tropical cyclone in recorded history to hit the Carolinas -- devastated portions of Spring Lake and Fayetteville, along with other parts of eastern North Carolina. Florence was the first major hurricane of the 2018 Atlantic season.

At one point a Category 4 hurricane, the storm sputtered by the time it moved inland from Wrightsville Beach toward the Sandhills. Tracking slowly, it dumped a foot of rain or more in the Cape Fear region, pelting Elizabethtown in neighboring Bladen County with nearly 36 inches. That was the greatest rainfall amount recorded in the state.

As for Fayetteville, the city received an estimated 15 to 20 1/2 inches of rain, according to the National Weather Service in Raleigh. The highest rainfall measured for Hurricane Florence in Cumberland County was 20.55 inches in the Hope Mills area. Wind gusts reached up to 66 mph at the Fayetteville Regional Airport.

Overall, an estimated 8 trillion gallons of rainwater fell across the state.

[Final report on Hurricane Florence's record-smashing destruction]

The hurricane caused extensive damage, setting a mark for the costliest storm to hit the Carolinas. According to the National Hurricane Center, Florence ran up a bill of $22 billion in damages.

It also contributed to the deaths of at least 59 people, with more than 40 of those reported in North Carolina.

In Fayetteville, an engorged Cape Fear River reached near-record flood levels. People lined up along the Person Street bridge to witness the fast-rising water before authorities closed the bridge to pedestrians for safety reasons. The river's murky waters reached the bottom of the train trestle, which runs parallel to the bridge.

The city of Fayetteville took the unprecedented step of ordering a mandatory evacuation of everyone within a mile of the river, which had been expected to crest near the record set in 1945. On Sept. 18, the Cape Fear crested at its highest level in 73 years -- 61.58 feet in Fayetteville -- but not high enough to reach the downtown district.

[How Fayetteville's Publix saved a hospital during Florence]

The day before the river crested, 1,474 people sought refuge in eight county shelters and shelters at True Vine Ministries, Manna Church and the National Guard Armory, county officials said.

On Dec. 4, Gov. Roy Cooper paid a visit to Spring Lake to survey Florence damages. There, he met with storm victims and thanked first-responders.

"It hurts so much to see everything you worked for over the years to go in the Dumpster," an emotional Shirley Browning told the governor that day outside the Spring Lake Fire Department.

----Bridget Munger, communications director of the N.C. Office of Recovery and Resiliency, said the state has been awarded $336 million for Florence victims through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Relief program.

But North Carolina does not yet have access to any of that money.

"We have not received that money," said C.J. Jordan, deputy communications director with the Office of Recovery and Resiliency. "We have to wait on the Federal Register. The Federal Register outlines all the guidelines and rules and ways the funds are spent according to regulations."

In early 2017, the state was awarded $236 million in HUD block grant money for Matthew recovery. Jordan said $22 million of that money has now been spent, or about 9 percent of the total. Nearly half of the money has been committed, he said.

[Spring Lake hurricane victims frustrated with slow housing recovery]

As for the Florence funding, Munger said, "Hundreds of people" have applied for the HUD block grant-disaster relief money. "It's been very challenging. We are still waiting. We know the money will be coming. Award letters are being generated. We hope to complete that very soon."

Recovery and Resiliency is but one of the agencies providing storm victim assistance. Among others, people applied for help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, N.C. Emergency Management, the state-funded Disaster Recovery by the N.C. Office of State Budget and Management, the Golden Leaf Foundation and the North Carolina Community Foundation.

On Thursday, Cooper updated the state on the progress of the recovery from three storms in three years: Hurricanes Matthew in October 2016, Florence in September 2018 and Dorian earlier this month.

North Carolina has spent $2.8 billion in state and federal funding to help victims of hurricanes Matthew and Florence, the Office of the Governor said in a news release.

[Still waiting: Federal dollars slow to reach hurricane victims]

"The storms North Carolina experienced over the past several years, especially Hurricane Florence, have been devastating, and we are working hard to recover," Mike Sprayberry, who directs N.C. Emergency Management and the N.C. Office of Recovery and Resiliency, said in the release.

Emergency Management "has delivered $573.8 million through the FEMA Public Assistance Program to repair critical infrastructure due to Matthew and Florence impacts," the Office of the Governor said. Another $229.7 million in FEMA Individuals and Households grants have been approved for 63,664 homeowners and renters to help with recovery from those two storms.

Last week, Cooper met with President Donald Trump "and pushed for key changes to federal disaster recovery spending to help get funds to people faster," the release said.

The governor's office also announced that nearly $6 million in private donations was raised for the North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund after Hurricane Florence. Those donations, the release said, have helped storm survivors with rent and mortgage payments, home repairs and replacement of personal property through grants to nonprofits and community groups.

----Hurricane Florence destroyed the 24-room Starlite Motel, which had stood on the corner of West Manchester Road and North Bragg Boulevard since the 1950s. Nearby businesses were also flooded when the Lower Little River topped its banks.

Motel owners Kishor Depani and his brothers, Jayant and Kishor Depani, aren't sure if they will rebuild the motel that they bought in September 2017 for about $550,000. That's a change from earlier this year, when they said they were looking to rebuild.

[PHOTOS: Hurricane Florence makes landfall]

"Right now," the 51-year-old Kishor Depani said Wednesday, "we just decide we just wait. We have to think about that. We cleaned the property. We have not decided whether we rebuild. We clean it up and meet together, and decide what we need to do."

He said they had received a loan from the federal Small Business Administration, which offers disaster assistance in the form of low-interest loans to businesses, renters and homeowners in regions affected by declared disasters. But should the Depanis decide to add on more rooms, Kishor Depani said, they would have to cover the additional cost from their own pockets.

"If we rebuild the same -- with everything the same -- then we cannot survive," he said, referring to the competitive hotel trade in the area.

At the same flood-hit area where N.C. 87 intersects with Manchester Road, the Sunoco service station reopened around November. The seven nearby businesses that were then operating from The Collective business center all reopened after suffering extensive water damage.

Guns Plus, the site of a short-lived reality television series, was another Spring Lake victim of the storm. At the time, a sign posted to an outside column in front of the store read: "We were flooded bad. Guns Plus closed until further notice! We will strive to reopen. This was a total loss. Thank you for your understanding! No flood insurance."

[Business owners recover from Florence flooding]

Guns Plus reopened around the last week of January.

Another part of Spring Lake to take a heavy blow was the Speranza Mobile Home Park off Manchester Road. Those residents were issued a mandatory evacuation order after fast-moving floodwaters from the river went under and into many of their homes.

['Oh God, this is horrible': Speranza Mobile Home Park flooded]

Speranza Mobile Home Park no longer exists. "No Trespassing" signs are posted at its former entrance.

Some of the trailers that were on site before the storm are gone. On Wednesday, only 11 of the park's mobile homes remained, and they are all abandoned, uninhabitable from extreme water damage. The approximately 24 residents who were living there before Florence have relocated.

"He sell the trailers," Carmen Huaman, 76, said of the former owner of the park. "The people go somewhere. I see them no more."

She has made her home for nearly 30 years near the entrance of the shuttered park. Her house was not flooded during Florence.

Darlene DeLozier, Huaman's neighbor, said her place also escaped the floodwaters that swamped a long section of Easterling Drive.

"Oh, Lord, It was bad," said DeLozier, 60. "I remember a man coming to my door, knocking on my door, and saying, 'Get out.' "

The park residents were not allowed to return to the park and live, DeLozier said.

[Spring Lake residents begin recovery process]

Spring Lake Mayor Larry Dobbins said Speranza Mobile Home Park and portions of Vass Road and Brinkley Drive were among the residential areas hardest hit by Florence.

"We're not where the residents want to be and where they hoped to have been almost a year later in terms of some still have not been able to move back into their homes," Dobbins said. He estimated that 18 to 20 families remain displaced in the Spring Lake area.

"My heart goes out that they can't seem to get back into their homes any quicker than the process is," Dobbins said. "I don't want to throw anybody under the bus, but people's lives and happiness are at stake here."

----Roughly 150 homes were destroyed or received major damage in Fayetteville and Cumberland County, said Gene Booth, the county's Emergency Services director who was serving as the county's Emergency Management coordinator during Florence.

He's unsure how many of the people who lived in those residences are still displaced.

"That's hard to track," he said. "There are so many different situations. Some go on to rent. I know quite a few of those homes along the Little River, there may be out of 30 to 40 homes, a small handful may be back in their homes. I couldn't tell you how many are still displaced. We don't have good records on that."

Booth said Cumberland County was also saddled with about $90 million in commercial and residential damage.

[Florence toll on Fayetteville now 1,400 homes, businesses]

"We're still working on recovery," he said. "We definitely learned during Matthew that recovery is a slow process. Now is a waiting game. It (federal and state assistance) really hasn't come down the pipe.

"We're continually striving and working to get the citizens back to where -- they may not get back whole -- but to safe, sanitary and normal living conditions. Whenever the state or federal programs get (the assistance) to the people that need it, those who have unmet needs, we'll do our due diligence to get folks taken care of."

----The incessant, pounding rains of Hurricane Florence wreaked havoc on a stretch of Bombay Drive in the Cedar Falls neighborhood off Cedar Creek Road. Several residents whose homes were flooded said no one had told them about the flooding risk before they bought their homes.

Thomas and Abby Villanueva are among them. Their family has lived in this east Fayetteville community since March 2017 -- five months after Hurricane Matthew came through.

[PHOTOS: Florence damage in Fayetteville region]

"Our family struggled for a while," the 25-year-old Abby Villanueva said Wednesday from her front porch that faces the looping Bombay Drive. "We received some money from FEMA. I think the people who were here from Hurricane Matthew got flood insurance."

The Villaneuvas purchased flood coverage after floodwaters from Florence reached 4 to 6 inches inside their two-story home.

Before Dorian's arrival earlier this month, sandbags were stacked mostly three high at the front entrance to the house. "The water didn't get high," Abby Villanueva said. "We were a little worried so we put them out in case."

[Florence: A disaster that united a Fayetteville neighborhood]

Down the road, another military spouse -- Chasidy Cole, 36, -- witnessed two neighborhood floods, from Matthew and Florence.

"They've done a good job cleaning up. Down there," she said, referring to a nearby home, "it was almost over half their garage. My and my husband went down there (and waded through the water) until it was chest high."

The Cole family evacuated, and their home emerged unscathed.

----Bill Martin serves as coordinator of the N.C. Baptists on Mission Florence Rebuild.

The group, also known as N.C. Baptist Men, is currently working 90 disaster-relief home projects at a half-dozen locations across the state, including Lumberton. To date in the state, Martin said, N.C. Baptists on Mission have completed "right at 225 houses where they've got folks back in their homes."

['You prepare for the worst, hope for the best': Hope Mills battled Florence, rumors]

He said the state's Sheltering and Temporary Essential Power program provides the financing that "lets us go in quick and fix what inspectors and what the program lets us repair to get the family back in their home quickly so they don't have to live in a hotel or with relatives. We've had some here in Lumberton, in Robeson, sleeping in their cars."

Four to six weeks ago, the N.C. Baptists on Mission completed its six Florence-related residential projects in Fayetteville, Martin said. In Lumberton, he estimated, roughly another 300 homes still need renovation.

"We still got a lot to do," Martin said. "We haven't gotten any (more) requests come in for Fayetteville, but we do get requests each week for homes here" in Lumberton and Robeson County.

['He is a very strong little boy': Baby born during Florence]

Overall, he said, the ministry organization has received 3,200 requests for assistance statewide from Florence damages.

Repair costs, thus far, have reached "in the millions," Martin said. "We're just really getting started pretty good. It's been a year, but we've got a flow going. I think 325 was the last number I had (of homes finished) over the whole state. We've still got a ways to go. We're looking at a three-year project."

Staff writer Michael Futch can be reached at [email protected] or 910-486-3529.

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