Extreme weather events have left some towns in eastern North Carolina struggling, and fearing for their futures

Fair Bluff, N.C., can't afford to buy and demolish such ruined buildings.
(Photo by Mike Belleme, The New York Times)

"Climate shocks are pushing small rural communities . . . many of which were already struggling economically, to the brink of insolvency," Christopher Flavelle reports for The New York Times. Rather than bouncing back, places hit repeatedly by hurricanes, floods and wildfires are unraveling: residents and employers leave, the tax base shrinks and it becomes even harder to fund basic services. That downward spiral now threatens low-income communities in the path this week of Hurricane Ida and those hit by the recent flooding in Tennessee — hamlets regularly pummeled by storms that are growing more frequent and destructive because of climate change." (Not all are hamlets.)

Downtown Fair Bluff (Photo by The News Reporter, Whiteville)

Flavelle's object example is Fair Bluff, N.C.: "The town’s only factory, which made vinyl products, closed a few months after Matthew. The population of around 1,000 fell by about half. The federal government tried to help, buying the homes of people who wanted to leave, but those buyouts meant even less property tax, tightening the fiscal noose. Al Leonard, the town manager, who is responsible for its recovery, said his own job may have to be eliminated, and maybe the police department, too."

The city has received money from several sources for recovery, but it has a bigger plan, Flavelle reports: "Buy the ruined stores downtown, tear them down, clean up the land and turn it into a park that can flood safely. Build a new downtown a few blocks east on land is less likely to flood. Rebuild, revive and regain what has been lost. But the town can’t afford any of it." The price tag: $10 million. Leonard told him, “Fair Bluff’s recovery will go as far as someone else’s money will take us.”

Such money is usually federal, and the federal government lacks a coordinated approach, Flavelle reports: "In 2016, the Obama administration set up a working group among agencies that handle disaster policy and recovery, including FEMA, HUD and the Army Corps of Engineers, asking them to devise a coordinated approach for what experts call managed retreat — relocating entire communities from areas that can’t be protected. But that work stopped under President Donald J. Trump and hasn’t resumed. Instead, agencies continue to pursue their own programs, even if they conflict with each other." As examples, he cites the troubles of nearby towns, Princeville and Seven Springs, and reports the sad calculus: "With each flood, more people leave. The tax base shrinks. Those who stay lose the will to improve their properties, knowing that they’ll likely flood again."