Only hours left for public to weigh in on draft hurricane relief spending plan

RALEIGH (WTVD) — Thousands of North Carolinians will be spending another Holiday Season wishing for a full recovery from recent storms, and state officials are giving some those affected one last chance to speak up about how to spend millions in new federal relief money.

North Carolina’s Office of Recovery and Resiliency, known as NCORR, is the lead agency in the Tar Heel State’s restoration efforts from Hurricanes Matthew (2016), Florence (2018) and Dorian (2019).

RELATED: $7 billion being spent on Hurricane Florence, up to $1 billion on hold

The office recently completed a draft Action Plan for spending $168 million in Community Development Block Grant-Mitigation (CDGB-MIT) funding allocated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to the State of North Carolina. Under federal guidelines, the money can be used to assist areas impacted by hurricanes Matthew and Florence to fund projects that will mitigate and reduce future disaster risks, as well as address the needs of communities impacted by past disasters.

In presentations at various public meetings this fall, officials defined mitigation as “activities that increase resilience to disasters and reduce or eliminate the long term risk of loss of life, injury, damage to and loss of property, and suffering and hardship, by lessening the impact of future disasters.”

People can submit comments by email to publiccomments@rebuild.nc.gov or by mail to Attn: Mitigation Action Plan, P.O. Box 110465, Durham, NC 27709. The public can provide comments on the plan until Dec. 23, 2019.

The video in the media player above is from a related story.