24-04-2025
Govenor's Response and Recovery Fund applications open for Helene victims
UNICOI CO., Tenn. (WJHL) — In one of its last acts, the 2025 Tennessee General Assembly passed the Governor's Response and Recovery Fund (GRRF), a $100 million initiative established to provide flexible financial assistance for current and future unmet disaster recovery needs, including Hurricane Helene.
Wednesday marks nearly seven months since Helene changed the lives of thousands in the Tri-Cities region. Insurance, FEMA and charity groups have helped many with recovery, but others impacted financially felt there was a gap in available assistance. That's where the Governor's Response and Recovery Fund should help.
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Trey Moore, owner of the Eddyhopper Workshop and a whitewater rafting instructor, plans to apply for his part of the $100 million initiative. He has been unable to guide rafters down the Nolichucky River because he's prohibited from accessing the river due to repair work on the CSX railroad.
'So the challenge for a lot of our outfitters specifically is that their buildings weren't necessarily like located in the floodplain and they weren't impacted (flooded). So, Small Business Administration, FEMA assistance was unavailable to us because we had no physical damage to our property, and they didn't understand why we weren't allowed to go do work,' said Moore.
Other businesses, non-profits, farmers, foresters and even local governments in impacted counties are also eligible to apply for the funding. Moore does not know how the funds will be allocated, but he understands that repairing infrastructure like roads and railways helps all businesses.
'I imagine that they're probably going to be more highly prioritized than us because infrastructure is how you get to things, like USA Raft cannot do anything right now because the road to their property is still not fixed, and they continue to be told, 'We'll look at it next month,'' Moore told News Channel 11.
Austin Finch, Unicoi County's Economic Development Director, said news of the funding is a huge relief after working for months trying to find other resources to fill the gap for area businesses impacted by the storm. The next step is the application process, which is lengthy, but Finch said most are ready to complete.
'My hope is that the way we've been preparing businesses and the type of questions that we've asked through this whole process have already sort of teed them up to be able to answer those questions. You know, a lot of the kind of gaps in revenue, total damages, all those different things have been asked before,' Finch said.
Impacted parties can visit TEMA's website to apply. Applications must be submitted by May 31, 2025.
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