How many Helene refugees temporarily called Haywood home?
A family staying in a hotel all month would count as 30 room nights. Another family may stay in a hotel for only a week, say if their temporary living arrangements with a relative wore thin. That would count as seven room nights.
So the 7,669 room nights during the month of January could account for as few as 300 to 400 individual families staying in hotel rooms for various durations.
One thing is clear, however: the flood victims filling hotel rooms here weren't all from Haywood. Many came from other ravaged counties, seeking shelter in Haywood.
Nor were displaced flood victims the only ones filling Haywood hotel rooms after Helene. Some hotels were so full of the recovery workers who poured in, they had no space or limited space for flood victims initially, let alone room for tourists.
"As much as we are a tourism-based economy, we were doing the right thing in housing construction workers, linemen and folks who were here to help rebuild Haywood County — plus sheltering families in need," said Patrik Shaw, a long-time hotelier in Haywood County and owner of Days Inn. "That is the benefit of having multiple hotels be able to open their doors in time of need."
The Haywood County Tourism Development Authority was a key player in getting hotels enlisted to house flood victims. The TDA put out the call to its database of lodging owners that FEMA needed hotels willing to participate and created a spread sheet of interested hotels for FEMA.
"They answered a lot of questions about how FEMA transitional housing worked. It helped us figure out if it was something we wanted to participate in and what this process would look like," Shaw said.
Interestingly, the presence of the Helene refugees in Haywood's hotels and motels artificially inflated the key tourism metric of overnight stays, suggesting tourism was up after Helene when in fact the bump was attributed to flood victims staying in hotels — not tourists.
The numbers
Hotel stays in October got off to a slow start, then rose dramatically in November, stayed roughly level in December, and rose sharply again in January. February saw a huge fall-off, followed by a more gradual decline in March.
This curve reflects a combination of factors: weather, the availability of other housing solutions and news that the program would be ending chief among them.
—In October, 1,679 total room-nights were rented for flood victims.
—In November, that number jumped to 5,000.
—December saw another bump, up to 5,461.
—Another large increase came with January and the new year, with 7,669 room-nights recorded.
—In February, the number dropped to 2,712.
—In March it dropped again to 1,216.
By the end of April, there were no flood victims staying in Haywood County hotel rooms, at least not on FEMA's tab.
The large jump between October and November is due in part to displaced flood victims staying with friends and relatives immediately following the storm before turning to hotel rooms. Numbers continued to climb as more people quit couch surfing or could no longer stay in tents and campers as temperatures dropped.
Meanwhile, the drop-off after January is likely due to displaced flood victims finding more permanent housing solutions. Others victims lost their eligibility for the hotel housing program.
How it worked
The FEMA program that housed flood victims in hotels is called the Transitional Shelter Assistance program, also referred to as TSA. Participation by Haywood's lodging businesses was voluntary, and not every business participated for the entire six-month stretch. Some didn't participate at all.
It was up to flood victims to call participating hotels and find if any had room. FEMA then paid the hotels directly. The program was extended twice, once to Jan. 11, 2025, and again to May 26.
The TSA program did not cover short-term vacation rentals, providing payments only to hotels and motels.
Complicating an analysis of how many flood victims were using hotels, FEMA only knows total room nights for the month — not individual families. Because of the migratory nature of families involved in the program, obtaining an average nightly number was also impossible.
Similarly, FEMA had no record of which hotels and motels within the county had TSA-booked rooms on any given date.
It's difficult to say how many were from outside Haywood County — places like Chimney Rock or Spruce Pine where there wasn't nearly as much hotel inventory for flood victims to tap.
During their time here, the county's hotel and motel proprietors did the best they could to make the storm victims feel comfortable in a less-than-ideal situation.
At the Days Inn, the hotel staff held a Christmas party for flood victims, complete with presents brought in by a charity that had conducted a toy drive down east for Helene victims.
"There were multiple kids that had a wonderful Christmas even away from their traditional homes," Shaw said.
Shaw also reached out to First United Methodist Church, which was a clearinghouse for flood relief, to get supplies brought directly to the hotel.
"Twice a week, they went to hotels and stocked water and snacks and dry food. It was really neat, because I would tell them what the need was for our guests, and they would leave a stack of it in the lobby," Shaw said.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Atlantic
a day ago
- Atlantic
The Pull—And the Risks—Of Intensive Parenting
This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning. In 2024, Russell Shaw made the case for the Lighthouse Parent. 'A Lighthouse Parent stands as a steady, reliable guide,' Shaw writes, 'providing safety and clarity without controlling every aspect of their child's journey.' The term, used by the pediatrician Kenneth Ginsburg and others, is a useful rejoinder to the strong pull of intensive parenting. Parents' first instinct is often to give a solution, to get involved, to fix it. It's a natural impulse—'we're biologically wired to prevent our children's suffering, and it can be excruciating to watch them struggle,' Shaw writes. But that mindset is both exhausting for adults and damaging for kids. Instead, try to think of yourself as a lighthouse: ready to illuminate the way when your kid needs you, ready to stand back when they don't. On Parenting The Gravitational Pull of Supervising Kids All the Time By Stephanie H. Murray When so many people think hovering is what good parents do, how do you stop? Read the article. The Isolation of Intensive Parenting By Stephanie H. Murray You can micromanage your kid's life or ask for community help with child care—but you can't have both. Read the article. Lighthouse Parents Have More Confident Kids By Russell Shaw Sometimes, the best thing a parent can do is nothing at all. Still Curious? What adults lost when kids stopped playing in the street: In many ways, a world built for cars has made life so much harder for grown-ups. How to quit intensive parenting: It's the prevailing American child-rearing model across class lines. But there's a better way, Elliot Haspel argued in 2022. Other Diversions
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Inheritance tax raid fears ‘are damaging house sales'
Fears of a fresh inheritance tax (IHT) raid by Rachel Reeves have sent a chill through Britain's housing market, a leading estate agent warned. Bosses at Savills, one of Britain's largest property agents, said a 'vacuum' of information on IHT changes from the Government was forcing prospective house buyers to hold fire on purchases. The Treasury has reportedly been exploring plans to rework IHT to fill a gap in the public finances of between £20bn and £70bn. Simon Shaw, Savills' finance chief, said speculation over Ms Reeves's next round of wealth taxes was increasing uncertainty among prospective buyers, especially across middle England where IHT changes bite the most. 'The rhetoric changing towards IHT does not help. It certainly doesn't help in the rural arena,' he said. 'I suspect a lot of things are being market tested through that rhetoric. None of us know what will really happen and what the market will have to contend with. 'What that does mean is, in the interim period, it creates a level of uncertainty in the residential market particularly. It's classic uncertainty. People fill the vacuum with their own fears about what might happen.' The Chancellor is thought to be considering a lifetime cap on the value of gifts that can be passed on before death. At the moment, gifts made seven years before someone's death are not subject to IHT, while a sliding-scale tax rate of between 8pc and 32pc, known as 'taper relief', is applied to gifts given between seven and three years before death. Savills is particularly exposed to UK tax changes, and it blamed a 'difficult' six months of trading on 'the rhetoric around taxation changes in the future'. The property agent saw half-year revenues from housing sales decline by 8pc, blaming the impact of 'actual and potential tax changes on sentiment'. Savills also described a 'dampening effect' on corporate and private investor activity through the second quarter as a result of tax changes and Budget uncertainty, leading to a 13pc reduction in property investment volumes to £21.5bn. The FTSE 250 group is the latest to sound the alarm over Budget tax fears dampening house buyer interest. Marshalls, a building materials supplier, last week said there was growing reluctance from homeowners to spend their savings on renovation projects and a lack of confidence from first-time buyers and employers. Housebuilders Persimmon and Bellway have also flagged weakening demand, pointing to 'affordability constraints' for buyers. A government spokesman said: 'We are delivering the biggest boost to social and affordable housing in a generation, and our landmark planning reforms will help to drive UK housebuilding to its highest level in over 40 years while growing the economy by £6.8bn. 'Thanks to measures taken at the Budget, there will also be an additional 130,000 transactions over the next five years by first-time buyers and others buying a primary residence.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Politico
3 days ago
- Politico
From air surgeon to congressional candidate
Good morning and welcome to Thursday. State air surgeon DARREN MCAULEY helped coordinate the medical response in Tampa Bay last year as hurricanes barreled toward the area. Now he's running for office for the first time, vying to challenge incumbent GOP Rep. LAUREL LEE. McAuley, a third-generation combat veteran, serves in the Air National Guard and completed six deployments. He has also worked as a physician for the Veterans Health Administration and is the lead osteopathic expert at Orlando College of Osteopathic Medicine, a job he'll continue while campaigning. McAuley told Playbook in an interview that he thought it was important to have more doctors and educators in Congress, 'because we bring a logical thought process to assessing problems' using facts and history. Otherwise, he said, politicians 'stick their finger up in the air and go along with whatever the current opinion is' and 'lose focus of what is guiding them.' The district he's seeking to represent covers parts of Polk, Hillsborough and Pasco counties, is home to nearly 46,000 veterans — and not one of the seats House Democrats' campaign arm is targeting to try to flip. Yet Lee, a former Florida secretary of state under Gov. RON DESANTIS, won her reelection by 12 points in 2024, a smaller or similar margin to other seats Democrats targeted (and lost) last cycle. And McAuley's biography has links to some of the changes the Trump administration has planned as it considers revamping federal disaster relief. He predicted overhauling or phasing out FEMA would hurt states' ability to respond and rebuild. Problems that are already occurring — with high insurance costs as well as real estate investors buying up storm-damaged homes in long-established communities — would only worsen, he warned. 'Shifting the burden to the states sounds like a good catchphrase, except the states don't have the money and resources necessary to shoulder the burden,' he said. 'That's why FEMA is in place. That's why the federal government plays a role in making sure that states can foot the financial bill, but also that they have the expertise in terms of disaster strategy and management.' Thankfully, Florida appears poised to avoid the first major hurricane of the season, reports the South Florida Sun Sentinel. McAuley's advice for peak season is to write down important phone numbers and directions, and for Floridians to know their neighbors, especially vulnerable older adults and pregnant women. 'Know their face, know their kids, know who lives in their house,' he said. 'That will enable you to look out for them.' Asked about FEMA's involvement in immigration, given that the agency plans to send hundreds of millions of dollars to states to help them build immigration detention centers, McAuley said government funding should 'stick to the reason for which it was appropriated.' (It's worth noting responsibilities for housing detainees in Florida also have fallen to the state Division of Emergency Management.) 'Immigration is not an emergency in Florida,' McAuley said. 'Hurricanes, natural disasters — those things can prompt emergency response. But I think shifting money and reappropriating funds that are supposed to be spent to deal with emergencies towards another one of the administration's priorities is reckless and puts us in a position of not having those funds when an actual disaster strikes.' McAuley stressed he supported securing the border and wanted to work on an immigration reform plan if elected. But he took issue with the Trump administration 'arresting people who are going to work or showing up to court.' 'It's an about-face on the mission that was presented to the American people when they had the opportunity to vote,' he said. McAuley raised more than $115,000 in the first 24 hours after launching his campaign in late July, per his political operation. Lee has nearly $840,000 cash on hand. WHERE'S RON? Gov. DeSantis has a press conference at 9 a.m. in Sanderson with Lt. Gov. Jay Collins and Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie. Have a tip, story, suggestion, birthday, anniversary, new job, or any other nugget that Playbook should look at? Get in touch at: kleonard@ and @leonardkl. CAMPAIGN MODE DESANTIS WEIGHS IN ON 2026 — DeSantis said Wednesday that Jay Collins — his newly appointed lieutenant governor — could be a 'compelling' candidate for governor in 2026 but stopped short of endorsing him for a potential GOP primary bid against Rep. Byron Donalds and others. The governor also sidestepped a question about the political future of first lady Casey DeSantis, framing speculation about her running for governor as 'not anything she has ever outwardly sought.' But he added she wants to continue 'to help make a difference in one way or another.' — Gary Fineout ... DATELINE TALLAHASSEE ... FIRST BEAR HUNT IN A DECADE — The state wildlife commission voted Wednesday to allow Florida's first bear hunt in a decade, prompting opponents to say they will immediately file a legal challenge to block the move. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission approved new proposed rules that would allow hunters to kill 187 bears in four regional zones in December. The unanimous vote followed more than two hours of public comment, during which hunters clad in fluorescent orange supported the proposal. Opponents, many wearing black 'stop the bear hunt' T-shirts, said the allowed methods of killing were cruel. — Bruce Ritchie 'VAPE SHOP HEROIN' — Food safety inspectors from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services will be hitting the streets armed with new rules banning a synthetically derived chemical said to give the same dangerous effects as morphine. State Attorney General JAMES UTHMEIER said Wednesday he used the emergency rulemaking authority given to him under a recently enacted law to ban the sale of 7-hydroxymitragynine. Traces of the chemical, commonly known as 7-OH, are found in Kratom. Products made with 7-OH have recently become popular at vape shops and gas stations for providing the same sedative effects as the most powerful opioids. 'It's clearly something more potent than morphine that should not be sitting on a shelf next to a pack of Skittles,' Uthmeier said. 'We're going to remove that immediately.' Researchers also believe 7-OH is even more addictive than opioids, prompting the FDA to recommend heavy restrictions last month. Other than medical marijuana, Florida's GOP leaders have repeatedly failed to approve key regulations for hemp and other new products hitting the market. The state's few hemp restrictions mostly address product safety for children, leaving enforcement to the state Department of Agriculture. Uthmeier was joined by Agriculture Commissioner WILTON SIMPSON, who said his team of food safety inspectors will start enforcing the 7-OH ban at the more than 5,000 stores selling it statewide. Before the emergency rule was made, Simpson's inspectors had no way to address complaints about 7-OH filed by residents. 'Let me be clear, we are going to aggressively pursue this issue, and issue stop sales immediately,' Simpson said. 'We have fielded complaints, but have not been able to act. That ends today.' — Arek Sarkissian DECISION COMING WITHIN A WEEK — U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams sharply questioned lawyers for the state of Florida and federal government Wednesday about why the 'Alligator Alcatraz' immigration detention facility had to be built on an airstrip in the Everglades' delicate ecosystem. She questioned why the tented facility, which is expected to have the capacity to hold as many as 4,000 undocumented immigrants at a time, wasn't constructed elsewhere, including outside a standing detention center, at an abandoned commercial property, a decommissioned airport or 'an abandoned speedway' — in an apparent reference to the 'Speedway Slammer' detention facility under development in Indiana. State and federal lawyers explained the location was helpful for sending out deportation flights directly from the airstrip, and that the remote site was important for public safety. But Williams, an Obama-era appointee, shot back that deportation flights could leave out of other Florida airports. — Kimberly Leonard ORDER ISSUED ON LGBTQ+ LAW — 'A federal judge agreed with a transgender teacher that state law prohibiting teachers from telling students their preferred pronouns discriminated based on sex and altered her employment conditions, violating federal law,' reports Stephany Matat of USA Today Network — Florida. A LOOK AT THE NEW EDUCATION SECRETARY — Anastasios Kamoutsas, 'the former deputy chief of staff to Gov. Ron DeSantis, has gained attention through his use of threats, warnings and public shaming to demonize school board members, district officials and union leaders whom he accuses of not adhering to the DeSantis agenda. At the same time, he has heaped praise on groups and individuals who share his views,' reports Jeffrey S. Solochek of the Tampa Bay Times. — ''Conservatives' press for continuation of Obamacare enhanced premium tax credits,' by Christine Sexton of the Florida Phoenix. TODAY — Simpson state Senate President BEN ALBRITTON and Senate President Pro Tempore JASON BRODEUR are joining the Farmers Feeding Florida initiative in Tampa for a noon kickoff event. The initiative makes more food available in more locations for people who can't afford it and connects fresh food from Florida to state food banks. PENINSULA AND BEYOND 'NOT GOING TO BE SUNSHINE AND RAINBOWS' — Alachua County school board members received a free speech refresher course Wednesday after a recent public meeting devolved into a 'circus,' all triggered by a callous social media post after HULK HOGAN's death. Will this be enough to satisfy the state Board of Education, which is poised next week to consider potential sanctions against Alachua school leaders for threatening to remove a parent who criticized the anti-MAGA sentiments? The issue is the latest First Amendment spat in Florida, as state Education Commissioner ANASTASIOS KAMOUTSAS calls for the state to dock school board members' pay for violating the rights of parents. The controversy stems from Chair SARAH ROCKWELL scribing a post on social media that generated national blowback from conservatives: 'Oh did Hulk die? I didn't even know. Good. One less MAGA in the world.' The state Board of Education is set to weigh 'probable cause for noncompliance' with Florida's parental rights laws at its upcoming meeting. In the face of this showdown, Alachua's school board attorney held a training on free speech and social media Wednesday, warning officials that although public comment can be 'uncomfortable,' they should be hesitant to toss speakers. 'It's not going to be sunshine and rainbows when people are coming down to share their grievances,' said school board attorney DAVID DELANEY. — Andrew Atterbury DATELINE D.C. JRE TREATMENT — Rep. ANNA PAULINA LUNA (R-Fla.) joined JOE ROGAN on his popular podcast this week to share her take on unidentified anomalous phenomena, the term the US government uses instead of UFOs. Luna said she had viewed top-secret photos in a secure location that make her 'very confident there are things out there not created by mankind' and said she and several other members of Congress are working on pushing for more material to be declassified. TAKING THE TEMPERATURE ON REDISTRICTING — POLITICO's Lisa Kashinsky and Meredith Lee Hill a piece today about concerns some members of the House have regarding redistricting. One of them is Rep. RANDY FINE, who told POLITICO's Gary Fineout that he wasn't sure how it could legally be done in Florida given a law prohibiting lawmakers from redrawing the map to help incumbents or a particular party. ODDS, ENDS AND FLORIDA MEN — 'Man arrested after nude photos found displayed at Florida Publix, police say,' per Click Orlando. BIRTHDAYS: Tim Tebow ... Martin J. Sweet, author and professor ... Sean Miles, principal at the Mayfair Group and a Rick Scott alum … state Rep. Sam Greco.
