Helene response estimated to cost nearly $5 billion, NC transportation officials say

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — It could take nearly $5 billion and three more years before western North Carolina’s roads are completely restored after Hurricane Helene. 

CBS 17 spoke with several employees with the North Carolina Department of Transportation about the progress the agency has made within the last year.

“It was impactful at first and shocking,” Jorge Benitez Jaimes, a Durham County maintenance engineer with NCDOT, told CBS 17. “Something I had never experienced before.”

Jaimes said he’s worked for NCDOT for just over four years. Around this time last year, he was packing a bag to head west after Hurricane Helene left a path of destruction.

“Old Roan Mountain Road, that road had a lot of slope failures and washouts,” Jamies said. “We worked on NC 261 from the town of Bakersville, all the way to the state line with Tennessee. I would love to get a map ordered for the section just before this. Fixing various kinds of shoulder repairs, some cross lines, some driveway pipes, and just shoulder washouts and a slope repairs.”

In total, NCDOT recorded about 6,900 damaged sites from Helene.

“This is the largest storm that we’ve had,” said Emily McGraw, director of highway operations for the department.  

She says, as of late August, about 40% of the damaged sites had been repaired.

“We had a lot of exposure from Helene,” McGraw said. “We had a lot of roads damaged in the western part of the state.”

Arguably, the roadway that sustained the most damage was I-40. Parts of the major thoroughfare in the Pigeon River Gorge area were washed away or even collapsed, leaving it closed for months.

“We have two lanes open, for which we are grateful,” McGraw said. “And I would say that we’re in, we’ve been doing a lot of planning and obtaining permits, the preparatory work before we do the major construction work.”

It’s this project and others that have proven to be costly. McGraw tells CBS 17 that as of late August, the department had already spent $1 billion on repairs.

NCDOT estimates that when all repairs and rebuilds are completed in 2028, the total cost may be just under $5 billion.

“Some of that money, a lot of that is federal money. We are getting that from our emergency relief funds with that and public assistance funds with FEMA, as well as state funds from the general maintenance reserve,” McGraw said. “As a point of reference, Hurricane Florence, we expended about $250 million.”

It’s not just the money, but the manpower. So far, NCDOT has spent about 1.75 million hours on Helene response and recovery. 

“We’ve had about 2000 state employees with the department who have been involved in the restoration efforts,” McGraw said.

Also involved: 354 contracting firms, 61 consultant firms, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, Florida Department of Transportation, and even the military.

“The National Guard and even the Army have assisted us,” she said.

Helene was the most deadly and damaging storm in state history, claiming the lives of 108 people.

A storm, that NCDOT says, has left quite an emotional impact.

“When some of DOT hurts, all of DOT hurts,” McGraw told CBS 17.

“Seeing everybody come together, the unity, the compassion, and just having all of those forces come together, whether you were a state, local government or a church donation group, or just any citizen in North Carolina or other neighboring states that just drove down and found a way to participate and contribute,” Jaimes said.

McGraw tells CBS 17 that the department has not postponed other major projects across the state due to repair efforts following Hurricane Helene.