News

While some homeowners question FEMA buyout, others ready to sign

Cypress Run HOA Vice President Bruce Quarantello stands in front of a house that FEMA has agreed to buy and demolish. [COLTRANE HUTCHINS/Hendersonville Lightning]

By Bill Moss, Published: October 7, 2026

Two years after Hurricane Helene devastated the region, the first purchases of homes and other buildings catastrophically damaged or destroyed are nearing closing.

In Henderson County, 94 property owners have applied for relief through FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, which can elevate or relocate homes or buy the property outright, raze the structure and preserve the property forever as vacant land deeded to the county.

No one would argue that plenty of nearly 100 properties that applied for buyouts deserve relief. But in a neighborhood off Howard Gap Road, homeowners are confounded that as many as four repaired, renovated and currently inhabited homes are on the state and federal list of approved buyouts.

Around half of the 65 homes in the Cottages at Cypress Run were inundated by the floodwaters of Clear Creek when Helene devastated the county in September 2024. As in dozens of other subdivisions around the county, homeowners filed for insurance, called contractors, got the mud out and rebuilt. It was, said Cypress Run Homeowners Association President Mike Modzelewski, a true community effort. Neighbors supported one another through the hardship and anxiety.
Of the 31 homes damaged in the storm, six have been sold and five have been rented at market rates, Modzelewski said.

And the homes slated for demolition?

“All have been repaired,” he said. “They’ve been inhabited for 18 months.”

He assumes that the homeowners who did apply for hazard mitigation grants will make out OK when they collect a check at closing.

“Probably because they’re getting the appraised value prior to Helene and they’re not paying real estate commission,” he said.

While homeowners at Cypress Run question the hazard mitigation program, a subdivision not far away is all in.

At Clear Creek Landing, flooding from the waterway their development is named after was so sudden and so swift that homeowners had to race to high ground and be carried up a steep slope in a neighbor-helping-neighbor rescue effort. Like at Cypress Run, homeowners plunged into mucking out their homes, pitching ruined possessions and making repairs. Today, Clear Creek Landing looks little different than it did the day before Helene. Yet homeowners there who have received FEMA buyout offers are eager to sign.

Monday night at a meeting of the Henderson County Board of Commissioners, Clear Creek Landing homeowner Jeffrey Christofferson said 19 homeowners in the subdivision had accepted FEMA buyout offers.

“County guidance in August and September of this year led residents to believe the buyout process was moving rapidly,” he said. “Thus, many have already committed to purchases or leases of alternative residences. In light of this, our homeowners association board respectfully requests that the Henderson County Board of Commissioners takes necessary actions to allow the pending acquisitions and closings to proceed without unnecessary further delay. The homeowners who remain need clarity and assurance from Henderson County that the resulting green space will not create undue hardships for them.”

Jimmy Brissie, the county’s director of public safety, told commissioners that 94 properties countywide had applied for a FEMA buyout and 49 had been approved by FEMA. Appraisers placed a value on 35 properties, FEMA has made offers to 34 homeowners and 28 have accepted,, he said.

“We have gotten the information we needed from the state on how to move forward with regard to acquisitions and the HOA specifically,” he told commissioners.

‘Rules are the rules’

Hazard mitigation grant applications undergo a lengthy review that starts with the county, goes to the state Division of Emergency Management and FEMA and then back to the state and county. Homes are demolished and the land is deeded to the county. County Commission Chair Bill Lapsley once likened the process to the county one day owning dozens of tiny parks in flood-prone areas.

“The county alone determines which eligible mitigation projects will be placed on their project priority list,” the state Emergency Management office says on its website.

Lapsley said last week that he’s aware of the Cypress Run homes but does not consider it the county’s responsibility to second-guess the process.

“Our feeling is that it’s a federal program and the rules are the rules,” he said. “We want these people to get their compensation as fast as possible. We’re trying to stay out of the whole thing.”

Lapsley has been emphatic for two years in denouncing FEMA’s glacial pace in paying approved claims.

“The debris cleanup money that’s been behind and is still behind and hazard mitigation is No. 2” in the magnitude of delay, he said. “We just think it’s a shame that it’s taken two years since the hurricane to get to this point. Our response to the staff is don’t let that question slow down the closing on these properties. We’ll deal with any legal matters after the county gets control of the property. I don’t want Mr. and Mrs. Jones to be caught in a delay.”

In response to the Lightning’s inquiry, FEMA’s regional news desk referred questions to the state.

“North Carolina Emergency Management administers the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program on behalf of the state,” the agency said. “FEMA funds the program. Homeowners do not apply directly to FEMA.”

The FEMA statement also described the purpose of the hazard mitigation program. 

“Acquired properties are demolished and deed-restricted, and the land will be returned to green space which maintains natural floodplain functions,” it said. “This also reduces or eliminates future disaster losses to properties. FEMA coordinates directly with the state, who administers the grants, on all hazard mitigation projects. This aligns with FEMA’s principles of ensuring that disaster recovery and mitigation is state-led and federally supported.”

The hazard mitigation chief for the state Division of Emergency Management did not respond to the Lightning’s request for an explanation of why fully repaired homes were approved for acquisition and demolition.

Who will mow the grass?

Cypress Run homeowners say if four homes are removed their neighborhood will look like a gap-tooth smile.

Modzelewski met with an attorney last week to evaluate the HOA’s options in trying to block the FEMA buyouts. He’s also made county emergency management leaders aware of restrictive covenants the county would be subject to as the owner of lots in Cypress Run.

“No closing can occur until all those encumbrances are resolved,” he said.

In an email to subdivision homeowners two weeks ago, Modzelewski said one closing, scheduled for last week, had been delayed.

“Once these FEMA purchases are closed, which seems likely even if we are able to delay the process, we may have a role to play in how green space use and maintenance is implemented,” he said.

Modzelewski also said there’s doubt about whether the buyout properties are even in a flood-hazard zone.

“The county shared with us the flood hazard maps and the flood hazard maps indicated that the properties that were flooded were in a special flood hazard zone,” he said. “But we have subsequently found that there was a letter of map revision because the developer elevated the property out of the flood zone.”

Modzelewski and HOA Vice President Bruce Quarantello say Cypress Run and the county stand to lose if the buyouts go forward. The lots go off the tax books, Quarantello said, and the HOA loses annual dues from as many as four homes.
“The neighborhood structure will be unnecessarily disrupted, as these homes are not in a designated floodplain and do not have a history of repetitive flooding,” Quarantello said in an email to the Lightning. “Rather than destroying viable housing and misallocating federal funds, a more practical solution would be to allow the homes to be resold on the market, which could recoup roughly $1.75 million.”

Modzelewski said the fight with FEMA, the uncertainty about the buyout, the loss of HOA control of land in the subdivision and the cost of maintaining the orphaned lots has given Cypress Run homeowners a case of PTSD.

“We all went through months of driving through mud, we all went through 4- to 6-feet high piles of debris, we all went through the whole reconstruction process with more trucks than you can shake a stick it and now what this is doing is taking us back emotionally and psychologically two years ago where we were when this happened,” he said. “We don’t need to go through this again.”