Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina in September 2024. By December 2025, more than 800 storm victims had applied for FEMA buyouts. Zero had been approved. The first group-level awards came in January 2026. The first closings were scheduled to begin in late May 2026, twenty months after the storm. Demolition follows closing. Open-space restoration follows demolition. Perpetual maintenance, unfunded by the grant, follows everything.
This is normal. FEMA's own guidance says buyout projects typically take two to three years. Peer-reviewed research puts the average at 5.7 years from disaster to project closeout. During that interval, households pay mortgages on homes they can't occupy, can't make repairs that might be wasted, can't accept other options that might disqualify them. A GAO analysis found that the average buyout project acquired 21 percent fewer properties than originally proposed. The attrition isn't people deciding they're fine. It's people who couldn't afford to keep waiting.
Where the process stalls:
Announced → Program can be canceled or defunded before applications open. BRIC was halted in April 2025; partially restored by court order a year later.
Applied → States averaged 16 months to submit applications to FEMA after a disaster declaration (FEMA data, 1998–2018).
Reviewed → Requires benefit-cost analysis, environmental review, approved hazard mitigation plan, signatures from every person on the deed.
Approved → No new HMGP funding has been approved for disasters declared after March 2025, per CRS analysis.
Obligated → Legally distinct from "approved." Funds aren't released until a separate set of conditions is met.
Contracted → Small counties may have two staff managing 80+ properties. Haywood County, NC hired consultants to handle Helene paperwork; their Tropical Storm Fred victims from 2021 were still waiting four years later.
Maintained → Communities must keep acquired land as open space forever, verified every three years, with no grant funding for upkeep.