The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration made $43.1 million in Emergency Relief (ER) fund available to the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service Friday to repair damage from Hurricane Helene.
The funding is part of the “quick release” process and will be used to make critical repairs to infrastructure in North Carolina, Tennessee and South Carolina. Those funds are in addition to the $144 million already send to those states to repair and reopen hurricane-damaged areas. Officials said $25 million of the funding will be used for repairs on the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina, one of the country’s most visited national parks. In 2023, more than 16.7 million visitors to the Blue Ridge Parkway injected $1.4 billion into the local economy, supporting more than 19,000 jobs in North Carolina and Virginia.
“The damage caused by Hurricane Helene’s heavy rains, strong winds, and flooding is so extensive that emergency vehicles and utility crews cannot make their way into the national forests and national parks to make essential repairs,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said. “The emergency funding we’re sending will help the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service make repairs to vital transportation networks in four impacted states where roads are currently impassable and reopen these roadways as quickly as possible.”
In late September, Hurricane Helene travelled up the southeast and slammed into the Appalachian Mountains leaving many areas inundated with up to 30 inches of rain. The resulting flooding damaged roads in the national forests and parks in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, bringing with it landslides that destroyed roads, water lines, electrical grids and other infrastructure.
“The Federal Highway Administration is working closely with the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service to ensure the roads and bridges in our nation’s parks and forests are quickly rebuilt and repaired so that Americans can make use of these natural resources and communities can benefit from the economic development these amenities provide,” Acting Federal Highway Administrator Kristin White said.
The funding will also cover $5.1 million in emergency repairs in the Pisgah and Nantahala national forests in North Carolina; $1.25 million for emergency repairs in Francis Marion and Sumter national forests in South Carolina; $5.25 million for emergency repairs in Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee; and $6.4 million for emergency repairs in George Washington and Jefferson national forests in Virginia.