Farmers, business owners, fire survivors face uncertainty after $100 billion in disaster aid flounder

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – American farmers, small business owners and wildfire survivors are among those who will suffer if Congress cannot agree on a new spending bill under President-elect Donald Trump abruptly rejected a two-part plan which included more than $100 billion in disaster relief.

A Hawaii mayor is watching closely to see what happens because a potential award of $1.6 billion in funding is at stake. It is critical to the ongoing disaster effort from the 2023 Maui fire, which proved to be the deadliest American wildfire for more than a century.

“I think what funding does is give people hope so they can plan for their future,” Maui Mayor Richard Bissen told The Associated Press on Thursday. “And the longer we go without funding, the longer people flounder and wonder, is there a chance? Is there a way? Should I cut my losses? Should I leave?”

While money from the Federal Emergency Management Administration has provided temporary relief, the disaster grant was intended for long-term needs such as housing assistance and rebuilding infrastructure, he said. The historic town of Lahaina is still struggling after the August 2023 fire killed at least 102 people and leveled thousands of homes and left an estimated $5.5 billion in damage.

The money is also urgently needed after hurricanes Helen and Milton slammed the southeastern United States one after the other in the fall. Helene alone was the deadliest storm to hit the US mainland since Katrina in 2005, killing at least 221 people. Nearly half were in North Carolina, where flooding and winds caused an estimated $60 billion in damage.

“I’m tracking this bill like a hawk right now, to be honest,” Asheville Tea Co. said. founder and CEO Jessie Dean. “I think a lot of us are.”

Floods from Helene in September washed away the company’s building along with all its equipment and fixtures. Her small business employs 11 people directly and also works with small farmers in the area to supply the herbs for its teas.

On Thursday, Republicans released a new version of the bill l to keep the government running and restore disaster relief with Trump’s support. But it was rejected by the House of Representatives. The next steps are uncertain.

“I realize there are other distractions going on, but I just want to bring everyone back to their commitment to helping disaster survivors,” said Bissen, Maui’s mayor. “And that’s really all this is. We have a documented and established, legitimate disaster that happened. And we’re approaching 16 months that no other disaster has ever had to wait that long.”

In Asheville, Dean is extremely grateful for the support the business has received from customers and nonprofits that are helping it stay afloat right now, but more is needed. So far, she has not received money from the US Small Business Administration after applying for a disaster relief loan. Neither have any of the other business owners she knows.

“In day-to-day life right now, I talk to friends every day who are struggling with the decision of whether or not they want to continue running their business, whether they can,” she said.

Many farmers are in the same boat, since about $21 billion of the disaster relief in the previous version of the bill was help for them.

“Without federal disaster money right now, or without help, people like me won’t be farming much longer,” said pecan farmer Scott Hudson of Georgia. He farms 2,600 acres (1,050 hectares) of pecans across five counties in southeast Georgia that were hammered by Hurricane Helene.

“We lost thousands of trees that will last decades before they’re back to where they were the night before the storm,” he said. “And we lost up to 70% of the crop in certain counties.”

Some of his fellow farmers fared even worse.

“Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, farmers need this money,” he said. “American ag needs this money … not to be profitable, to just stay in business.”

People like retired engineer Thomas Ellzey also count on disaster relief. He has been living in a mud-filled house in Fairview, North Carolina, for almost three months. Although he was prequalified for a low-interest loan from the SBA that helps homeowners rebuild, officials have told him the agency doesn’t have the money and is waiting for Congress to act.

Ellzey is 71 years old and said he budgeted carefully for his retirement and tried to prepare for any possible emergency that might arise when he stopped working. But he could not have predicted a hurricane, he said.

“Everything I owned was paid for, including my cars, the house, the land. I had no bills,” he said. “Going back into debt is kind of hard at my age.”

The earlier version of the spending bill included funding for low-interest loans to businesses, nonprofits and homeowners trying to rebuild after a disaster; money for rebuilding damaged roads and highways; and funds to help communities recover through block grants administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The block grant money is one of the key funds for homeowners who don’t have insurance or enough insurance recovering from disasters.

Although Hurricanes Helene and Milton are the most recent major natural disasters to hit the United States, much of the money was more generally intended for relief from any major disaster in recent years, including droughts and wildfires.

Stan Gimont is a senior community recovery advisor at Hagerty Consulting, which used to run the community development block grant program at HUD. He noted that the country is still paying for disasters that happened while simultaneously preparing for events that will happen in the future.

The Maui fire is a clear example.

“It took a year to clean it up and get it to a point where they’ve removed all the debris, everything toxic materials and they burned cars, whatever was in those houses,” Gimont said. “So even if that event happened in the past, the bills for that will be due in the future.”

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Willingham reported from Charleston, W.Va., and Kelleher reported from Honolulu. Rebecca Santana contributed from Washington. Gary Robertson contributed from Raleigh, NC Video journalist Brittany Peterson contributed from Denver.