Hurricane Helene Killed His Wife and Destroyed His Mobile Home. New Tenants Are Now Renting the Same Flood-Prone Land. by Ren Larson, The Assembly Co-published with The Assembly

Hurricane Helene Killed His Wife and Destroyed His Mobile Home. New Tenants Are Now Renting the Same Flood-Prone Land. by Ren Larson, The Assembly Co-published with The Assembly https://www.propublica.org/article/western-north-carolina-helene-mobile-home-fema-recovery?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=secondary Hurricane Helene Killed His Wife and Destroyed His Mobile Home. New Tenants Are Now Renting the Same Flood-Prone Land. Joe Rogers, a former resident of the Hyder Mountain Road mobile home park near Clyde, North Carolina, lost his wife and three of their dogs when Hurricane Helene swept his mobile home into the nearby river in 2024. It wasn’t the first time floods destroyed homes at the park — but new residents continue to move to the same flood-prone land. These repeated losses are in part the result of a gap in disaster policy that allows mobile home residents to be put in harm’s way again and again. The federal government’s programs to buy out disaster-prone buildings are “the cornerstone of the Nation’s system for emergency management,” according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But the program was developed with traditional homeowners in mind, and mobile homes, the country’s largest source of affordable housing, are often left out. North Carolina Emergency Management said there’s no specific guidance for mobile home park buyouts and that the process is no different than it is for commercial or residential properties. A spokesperson said, “It is entirely the property owners and the local jurisdiction’s decision on whether or not they wish to participate in the program.” The current owners of Hyder Mountain Road mobile home park did not respond to questions about allowing trailers and campers to move back to where they’d washed away. https://www.propublica.org/article/hurricane-helene-evacuation-warnings-yancey-county-north-carolina?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=secondary