Want to to help with storm relief? Here’s how.
The spending measure passed by Congress just after midnight on Saturday to avert a government shutdown included money for Hurricane Helene recovery. It passed after a week of last-minute changes and negotiations on Capitol Hill.
The legislation will keep the government funded through March and includes about $100 billion in aid for states stricken by hurricanes Helene and Milton, along with other disasters.
The continuing resolution that passed was a slimmed-down version of a roughly 1,500-page bipartisan funding request that included disaster relief and a litany of other items. That bill never made it to the House floor after President-elect Donald Trump panned it on social media Wednesday. Lawmakers scrambled to negotiate another smaller package before the midnight Friday deadline to avert a shutdown.
“During a long, hard-fought week in DC, Congress had to navigate lots of moving pieces and complicated issues,” said Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, in a statement Friday, after the bill passed the House of Representatives. Griffith represents the 9th Congressional District, which was hardest hit by Hurricane Helene in Virginia.
“I continually advocated for a spending package which included disaster relief. With the passage of the American Relief Act, we were successful in passing both government funding and disaster aid for Southwest Virginia in the end-of-year spending package,” he said.
Virginia’s two U.S. senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, both Democrats, had also pushed for disaster aid to be included in the continuing resolution. The measure passed the Senate just after midnight Saturday.
The disaster supplemental provides full federal funding to rebuild the Virginia Creeper Trail, which is currently estimated to cost approximately $660 million, and full funding of $125 million to conduct necessary repairs at the Radford Army Ammunition Plant. The bill also includes $2.2 billion to allow the U.S. Small Business Administration to continue paying out disaster assistance loans to small businesses, a priority that Warner long advocated for, according to a joint statement from the senators.
Warner and Kaine said they are relieved that Congress passed legislation to avert a government shutdown which, they said, would have had disastrous consequences for federal employees, government contractors and millions of Americans who rely on government services. The two senators also said they were glad that the continuing resolution included federal funding to help communities in Southwest Virginia recover from Hurricane Helene.
“However, we are disappointed that Republicans turned their backs on an original bipartisan proposal that would have included provisions to lower prescription drug costs. We are also frustrated that the majority of our Republican colleagues did not want to fully fund the government for Fiscal Year 2025 and instead kicked the deadline into the new year,” Warner and Kaine said in their joint statement. “Short-term continuing resolutions create unnecessary harm for federal departments and agencies — particularly those in the national security space — because they don’t allow them to meet today’s challenges and plan for the future.”
When asked when residents on the ground in Southwest Virginia could begin to see federal money from the disaster supplemental passed early Saturday, Griffith said distribution of the funds is the responsibility of the executive branch.
“The Biden Administration agency heads will have to sort through their processes. After January 20, it will be the responsibility of the Trump Administration heads,” he said.
The cost to rebuild
Gov. Glenn Youngkin had requested $4.4 billion in federal aid in November for recovery following the widespread flooding and wind damage that the remnants of Hurricane Helene brought to Southwest Virginia in late September.
In his request, he noted that roughly 10,000 Virginia residents had applied for individual assistance by mid-November, and about 3,000 homes were damaged or destroyed. Many homes in the region were not initially built to withstand floods. That, and a lack of flood insurance in the region, has created a unique set of challenges in the effort to rebuild.
The deadline for individuals to apply for assistance to rebuild or repair homes was Dec. 2. Both the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Small Business Administration said they are accepting applications during a 60-day grace period after that deadline.
In the immediate aftermath of Helene, 310,000 Virginia residents were without power, and the infrastructure used to deliver electricity was significantly damaged.
The Virginia Department of Transportation has determined that the storm damaged 735 roadways, 89 structures, 26 bridges and 63 culverts. After the storm, 484 primary and secondary roads and 118 bridges were closed. Most of those have since reopened.
Critical infrastructure in Southwest Virginia, including water treatment facilities, sewage lines, municipal buildings and drainage systems, was damaged in the storm. FEMA has received 93 requests for public assistance from localities to repair damage to that infrastructure.
As of late October, nearly 3,700 farms in Virginia were determined to have been affected by the storm, with hundreds of millions of dollars estimated in financial impact to farmers and their communities, Youngkin noted. Regarding small and local businesses, Youngkin’s office estimated that the region suffered an economic impact of billions of dollars across the region due to Helene-related disruptions.
The Creeper Trail, an economic artery in the region, had also been cut off by Helene. Seventeen miles of the trail, known as the lifeblood of the town of Damascus and other localities, had been closed due to extensive flood damage. New River State Park also sustained significant damage.
