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12 REBUILDING: A YEAR AFTER HURRICANE MICHAEL One year after Hurricane Florence, Buildfax examined how North Carolina has prepared its properties for increased risk of damage from natural disasters. According to Buildfax, properties in the path of Hurricane Florence were expected to see major repairs completed in seven to eight months, given the severity of the storm. However, the elevated severe weather, including the recent Hurricane Dorian has curtailed recovery progress. Even though Dorian made less of an impact than Florence, it encountered North Carolina in a very different condition than it was a year prior. Property risk in North Carolina is still high not only from Hurricane Florence, but also from the severe convective storms and snowstorms that impacted the state in the latter half of 2018. While these storms don't bring about the headlines that a tropical storm does, they have the potential to inflict serious damage on properties. Repeat weather events combined with tightening construction materials and labor markets and a slowing housing market have resulted in slow recovery across North Carolina. On top of hurricanes, North Carolina was hit by severe snowstorms in December 2018, when over a foot of snow blanketed the state, stalling maintenance activity, causing thousands of power outages and leading to increased property risk in North Carolina. Additionally, five months before Hurricane Florence made landfall in North Carolina, the state experienced severe spring convective storms, which ultimately necessitated a major disaster declaration from the Federal Emergency Management Association. Following April's storm and tornado activity, BuildFax research found maintenance activity in North Carolina rose 20.32% month-over- month. In September 2018, maintenance activity remained heightened in North Carolina as homeowners worked to repair properties damaged by spring convective storms. However, in the wake of these updates, Hurricane Florence hit, driving maintenance even higher. Maintenance activity rose 34.84% between September and October 2018 following Hurricane Florence. Florida also continues to recover from the impact of Michael, with many homeowners still displaced a year later. According to Panama City News Herald, Panama City and Bay County officials say they're working on the issue, developing plans to bring more affordable housing while drawing in state and federal dollars to fund programs to help more people afford rentals and buy homes. "e most acute impact on our community is our housing stock," Mark McQueen, City Manager of Panama City, said about the hurricane. Following Hurricane Michael's landfall in October of 2018, HUD offered foreclosure relief and other assistance to families living in Bay, Franklin, Gulf, Taylor, and Wakulla counties. For homeowners who have lost their homes, HUD said that its Section 203(k) loan program enabled such homeowners to finance the purchase or refinance of a house along with its repair through a single mortgage. "It also allows homeowners who have damaged houses to finance the rehabilitation of their existing single-family home," HUD said. In Bay County, officials have been undertaking a variety of plans and programs to ease the housing crisis. Michael Johnson, director of Community Development, manages all aspects of affordable ownership housing development for the county, said the current goal for the area is to help create 500 new homes by 2022, including 200 affordable rentals, 100 energy efficient homes, 100 affordable low-income homes and 100 houses for seniors of low income. "We're hoping to break ground on a lot of these this year," Johnson said. "While Florida was hit hardest by Hurricane Michael with $2.5 billion to $4 billion estimate in wind and storm surge damage, the destruction in Alabama and Georgia was estimated at $0.5 billion to $1 billion." e federal government recently allocated $448 million for Hurricane Michael housing recovery projects. Since the county received the bulk of the damage from the storm, it's expected to get at least 60% of those funds, Johnson said. "We've got to get housing here so we can get workers back here," Johnson said.