News

County in 'very awkward and bad situation' as FEMA requests draw crickets

By Bill Moss, Published: November 10, 2025

Henderson County has spent or is obligated to spend $60 million to remove debris left in the wake of Hurricane and as the bills pile up contractors grow increasingly impatient.

Although the work is eligible for reimbursement from FEMA, the county has seen no checks, Board of County Commissioners Chair Bill Lapsley told his colleagues on the Local Government Committee for Cooperative Action last month in a self-described rant rising from months of frustration.

“We have talked with Congressman Edwards, we’ve talked with our state representatives, we’ve talked with state staff,” Lapsley said during the quarterly meeting of the LGCCA on Oct. 21. “Manager Mitchell and I have met with the FEMA representative over the whole region and expressed our displeasure with the situation, about six weeks ago. We were promised action and that things would get done here, and to be quite honest with you, I don’t see a whole lot of daylight at the end of the tunnel. I’m really, really concerned about the situation that we’re in.”

The county is holding invoices for $32 million from debris removal companies that have hauled thousands of loads from the county.

“The contractor has expressed their displeasure again to us last week,” Lapsley said. “We find ourselves in a very, very awkward and bad situation …  and that’s just the debris removal issue. The Hazard Mitigation Program to help people who were wiped out by this flood is another deal (where) we’ve expressed our displeasure with how slow it’s going.”

Haywood County, he pointed out, is still awaiting FEMA payments to cover expenditures it incurred in Tropical Storm Fred in 2021.

“This is just not appropriate. Disgusted is putting it lightly with how not only we’re being treated, but the people in Western North Carolina,” Lapsley said. “And I don’t know if it’s politics, I don’t know if it’s ineptness on the part of federal staff. I don’t know, I don’t have an answer and I’m very upset.”

The town of Laurel Park, which has millions of dollars worth of landslide, road and storm drainage repairs to make, has also seen little to no response from its reimbursement requests.

“It’s frustrating to all of us,” Mayor Carey O’Cain said. “I don’t know if it would behoove us or be of any help but I’m sure every mayor here would be willing to sign a joint letter to reinforce our position that you can’t bankrupt our county by not acting. But that’s what they’re trying to do.”

Lapsley said the county has tried writing letters, only to be met with the sound of crickets.

“We’ve written letters to (Homeland Security) Secretary (Kristi) Noem. We get no reply, we don’t get a phone call, we don’t get an acknowledgement,” he said. “We’re told by Senator Budd that he has tried to call Secretary Noem’s office and can’t get a return phone call. We’re told by Rep. Edwards that he’s talked to the office of the vice president and he’s not getting a response. … We’re going to keep pounding and pounding. I’m ready to go to Washington if it’ll do any good. My guess is it probably won’t. The person I meet across the table is just going to stare at me and say, ‘We’re doing the best we can, we’ll get to you when we get to you.’”