JONES COUNTY, N.C. -- Two months after Florence, the road to recovery in Jones County is a slow struggle.

  • Many residents lost their homes due to flooding and are waiting on insurance and FEMA to come through.
  • Some are living in trailers while they rebuild, others are cutting their losses and moving.
  • Jones County staff is holding a FEMA buy-back informational meeting for residents looking to sell back their homes to the county.

“We had over 800 structures that we did damage assessment on throughout the county and different levels of damage. It was into the thousands of citizens that were impacted,” said Franky Howard, Jones County Manger, who says early numbers indicate at least $26 million in damage.

Many residents lost their homes due to flooding and are waiting on insurance and FEMA to come through. Some are living in trailers while they rebuild, others are cutting their losses and moving, like Robert Tew, the City Works Director for Pollocksville. Many others did not have flood insurance.

“We are not rebuilding. We got flooded one time before during Hurricane Floyd, but that time we only had about 8 inches in the house so we went ahead and rebuilt the house. But this time it was like 6 feet. It just more or less totaled the house,” Tew said.

Jones County staff is holding a FEMA buy-back informational meeting for residents looking to sell back their homes to the county. It starts Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the Jones High School Gym. Howard says there are at least 50 interested applicants and they’re trying to get a headcount before writing an official letter of intent to the state in mid-December.

To fill out an application, click here.

The Food Bank teamed up with Jones County staff to do a food giveaway Saturday, November 17 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Jones Civic Center before Thanksgiving.