Just a fraction of homes and businesses in western North Carolina were insured against the floodwaters that deluged the region during Hurricane Helene.
An estimated 10.2% of commercial properties had FEMA-backed flood insurance, and just 5.2% of homes were protected.
The low figures had devastating implications in the face of Helene, a lower-windspeed, heavy-rain storm that hit mountainous communities poorly acquainted with flooding. When the water subsided and recovery began, it became clear that many wouldn’t be reimbursed for the kind of damage their buildings had suffered.
But even for those that were protected, it’s been a long road. Six months after Helene, some property owners looking for a bounce back through insurance have struggled to access it.
It took until late March for one business owner to see any payment — and when it came, it was just a fraction of what she had expected. Another was able to recoup some flood money, but was bewildered when he was denied payment on other parts of his policies. And a larger group of business owners in the region’s largest city are considering going to court to pursue money they believe they qualify for.
Two businesses’ long paths to payment
Bryan and Angela King, who own 12 Bones Smokehouse & Brewing, filed claims on both of their locations: one on the river by Asheville’s downtown River Arts District, and the other further south.
The Kings had been paying into their insurance on the south location since it opened in 2019; they had put down around $300,000 total there, Bryan King estimated.
They were able to get about $100,000 from flood insurance, he told NC Newsline, but they were denied reimbursement on two other policies: contents and business disruption. Contents insurance covers flood damage to movable objects within a building; business disruption insurance covers lost income, often after a disaster.
King kept in frequent contact with other business owners in the area. He heard similar stories — particularly as others tried to navigate those same contents and business disruptions policies. Now, he told NC Newsline, a group of them are considering going to court over the matter.
“There’s discussion of trying to pursue a class-action lawsuit,” King said in a late March interview. “I honestly think that’s basically going to be the only way that we get anything out of this.”
North Carolinians who have sought insurance payouts in the months since Helene described other similar frustrations and bureaucratic hurdles that complicated an already fraught process.
That includes homeowners who told the Asheville news station WLOS that they had received cancellation notices from their providers months after the storm.
Among the other layers of complexity: adjusters who live out of state, multiple subcontractors and extensive documentation requirements.
Carly Brown, who runs Ashewell Medical Group in Asheville, told NC Newsline her provider had subcontracted out to another group, which had then subcontracted out to another adjuster.
When Brown finally received a flood insurance payment in late March — six months after the storm — it was a “fraction of our losses.” Her practice’s office had filled with 11 feet of flood water during the storm. She, too, has now engaged with a law firm.
“They just nickel and dime you after paying faithfully on a flood policy for eight years,” Brown said. “You think you’re doing everything right, being a responsible business owner and citizen. Then the insurance companies essentially keep all their profits, without upholding their responsibilities.”
The Kings ran into other barriers as they filed their claims.
They were told by their Utah-based adjuster that as part of their documentation, they needed a letter from Duke Energy testifying that the damage to their south Asheville location was from wind, and not water.
That seemed unnecessary, Bryan King said — there was no real flooding in that area, but there were plenty of downed trees and power lines to show for the whipping winds.
“You definitely get the sense that it’s like they’re trying to make it as hard as possible,” he said. “So that people just give up. Like, you know, ‘screw it — I don’t have time to work on this, I’ve got a business to run, and I don’t think we’re going to get it anyway.’”
Duke Energy said customers could request a power outage verification letter by contacting the company’s customer care team.
“During significant weather events, multiple factors can contribute to outages, making it difficult to identify a single cause of a power outage,” a Duke Energy spokesperson said in a statement to NC Newsline. “Our primary focus is restoring power as quickly and safely as possible for our customers and communities.”
Rep. Jennifer Balkcom (R-Henderson) (Screenshot: NCGA)The chair of the North Carolina House Insurance Committee, Rep. Jennifer Balkcom (R-Henderson), said she had heard from constituents about slogging through insurance in the region — specifically on business disruption claims, some of which are denied outright.
“I’m asking the insurance commissioner to kind of help me look into what’s going on, and we’re trying to get some specifics so that we can work with those individuals,” said Balkcom, whose district was among those that were hardest hit by Helene.
In western North Carolina, spotty insurance coverage meant confusion
There are around 150,000 flood insurance policies in place in North Carolina, according to FEMA and NC Department of Insurance data. The vast majority of those (around 130,000) are federal policies; the rest are private.
Many of those policies are for properties in eastern North Carolina, which has been struck multiple times in recent decades by deadly hurricanes. The extent of the mountainous west’s coverage pales in comparison: according to FEMA data, there are a total of just 1,295 federal policies in the region’s most populous county of Buncombe and its communities, including Asheville.
A total of 1.8 million North Carolinians live in the 25 counties that were part of Helene’s disaster zone.
Jason Tyson, communications director for the NC Department of Insurance, said in an interview that Helene had brought about “a whole variety of situations and scenarios” in the region. The minimal flood coverage, he said, combined with early communication struggles and a host of different providers, often led to confusion.
“I think the industry and the carriers have done the best they can, in light of difficult circumstances,” Tyson said.
The department has asked providers to report updated data on claims periodically in the months after Helene.
The scope of that information is limited, as it does not include federal flood policies. And only data from one reporting deadline — January — is available publicly. NC Newsline requested and received claims data from October 2024. Data from the department’s other reporting deadlines, in November and December, are not posted publicly and were not provided.
But the data that is available gives a sense to how complex — and long — some flood claims can be.
As of January, 32.4% of those private flood claims were closed. That’s a far lower closure rate than other types of claims made after Helene. Residential property claims had closed at an 84.4% rate; just over 70% of business interruption claims had closed as of January.
Those 547 reported private flood claims account for more than a half-billion dollars in damage, according to DOI’s data. Just over $240 million had been paid as of January.
The department is expected to have updated data from providers in the coming weeks.
FEMA’s federal flood insurance program (NFIP) paid out almost $214 million to North Carolinians in 2024, across more than 2,500 claims. That’s roughly 20% of the total paid out by the program to the state over the last decade.
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