Unprepared: There is No Plan

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Unprepared: There is No Plan"

Up First from NPR
Episode Release Date: June 8, 2025

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Introduction and Context

In the episode titled "Unprepared: There is No Plan," NPR's Up First delves into the critical issue of disaster recovery in the United States, focusing on how communities rebuild—or fail to rebuild—after significant storms. Hosted by Aisha Rascoe and co-reported by Laura Sullivan from Frontline, the episode contrasts the recovery efforts in North Carolina following Hurricane Helene with those in New York and New Jersey after Superstorm Sandy. The central theme explores the challenges and shortcomings in current disaster management and rebuilding strategies.

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Recovery After Superstorm Sandy

Laura Sullivan revisits areas affected by Superstorm Sandy in 2012, particularly along the coast of New York and New Jersey. Sandy caused unprecedented flooding, with over 12 feet of water inundating numerous communities. Thirteen years later, many neighborhoods still bear the scars of the storm, highlighting the prolonged struggle for recovery.

Key Points:

• Persistent Damage: Despite the passage of time, some areas, especially on Staten Island, remain desolate. Sullivan notes, "it almost felt like they were trapped in time" (01:31).
• Recovery Strategies: Residents adopted various approaches post-Sandy—some elevated their homes, others accepted federal buyouts, while a few did nothing, leaving their homes as they were during the storm (01:31).

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Federal Buyout Programs and Community Reactions

The federal government, in collaboration with state authorities, invested over $200 million to buy out more than 500 homes on Staten Island with the intent to revert these areas to natural landscapes. However, this strategy has received mixed reactions from the community.

Notable Quotes:

• Joe Tyrone (Local Realtor): "They all knew each other... People died on the street and they all knew each other." (02:12)
• Bridget Wiltshire (Resident across from proposed soccer fields): "We should welcome people to build near the water when possible and bring life back as opposed to watching empty lots." (04:44)

Challenges:

• Implementation Issues: Many of the bought-out properties are being repurposed contrary to original promises. For instance, a soccer league purchased buyout land to construct a soccer complex, deviating from the expected transformation into wetlands (03:16).
• Community Sentiment: There is widespread dissatisfaction with how recovery funds have been utilized, leading to skepticism about future rebuilding efforts.

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Influence of Home Builders and Building Codes

A significant portion of the episode examines the role of the Home Builders Association in shaping building codes and regulations. The narrative suggests that homebuilders wield substantial influence, often prioritizing profitability over safety and resilience.

Key Points:

• Legislative Impact: House Bill 488, championed by the North Carolina Home Builders Association, altered building codes to favor cost-effectiveness over enhanced safety measures. This bill faced opposition from over 40 organizations concerned about increased vulnerability to storms (17:31).
• Lobbying Power: The homebuilders' ability to fund campaigns and influence legislation is highlighted through the extensive lobbying efforts and financial contributions they make to lawmakers (21:17).

Notable Quotes:

• Ron Jones (Former Board Member, National Home Builders Association): "Affordability to them means being able to close sales, hand the keys, and walk away." (22:49)
• Representative Laura Budd: "You should not have a couple of people that you call to run all your bills when they want something done." (23:09)

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Political Dynamics and Special Interests

The episode underscores the complex interplay between government officials and special interest groups, particularly the homebuilders' lobby. This relationship often leads to regulations that favor industry interests at the expense of community safety.

Key Points:

• Regulatory Resistance: Efforts to implement stricter building codes or update floodplain maps are frequently stymied by homebuilders’ opposition, citing increased costs and bureaucratic overreach (07:13).
• Economic Prioritization: The prioritization of economic gains over sustainable and safe rebuilding practices is a recurring theme, with developers and homebuilders exerting pressure to relax safety standards.

Notable Quotes:

• Bridget Wiltshire: "I think in some cases it was justified. Sometimes the pendulum swings too far in one direction..." (05:03)
• Ron Jones: "They pretend that they're an advocate for the American home buyer and it's all for show..." (24:20)

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Case Study: North Carolina's Recovery After Hurricane Helene

Shifting focus to North Carolina, the episode presents a case study on the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. The state's response to the disaster reveals systemic issues in disaster preparedness and recovery.

Key Points:

• Mapping and Prediction Failures: Geologist Rick Wooten discusses the importance of disaster mapping for predicting landslides, emphasizing that funding cuts have left many counties unmapped, increasing vulnerability (14:01).
• Legislative Hurdles: Susan Fisher, a former state lawmaker, explains how legislative support for safety regulations often dissipates, influenced by lobbyists and special interests (15:16).

Notable Quotes:

• Bridget Wiltshire: "Change is hard." (08:04)
• Rick Wooten: "A landslide like this is what we call a debris flow. It's like a huge locomotive going down the mountain." (14:30)

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Personal Stories and Human Impact

The narrative is enriched by personal accounts, illustrating the human cost of inadequate recovery and planning.

Case Example: Shalaina Jordan Shalaina Jordan shares her harrowing experience searching for her deceased parents after Hurricane Helene. Her story personalizes the broader systemic failures, highlighting the emotional toll on affected families.

Notable Quotes:

• Shalaina Jordan: "I really wanted to let their bodies rest because they went through something horrible." (26:24)

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Concluding Insights and Reflections

The episode concludes with a critical assessment of current disaster preparedness and recovery strategies. It underscores the urgent need for comprehensive planning, stricter building codes, and reduced influence of special interest groups to enhance community resilience against future storms.

Key Takeaways:

• Lack of Comprehensive Planning: The absence of a cohesive and effective recovery plan leaves communities vulnerable and perpetuates cycles of devastation and inadequate rebuilding.
• Need for Regulatory Reform: Strengthening building codes and ensuring their enforcement is essential for enhancing the safety and resilience of storm-prone areas.
• Balancing Economic and Safety Priorities: Finding a middle ground between economic development and community safety is crucial for sustainable recovery.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• James Sinagra: "It's kind of sad." (01:31)
• Joe Tyrone: "This is where my house was. See that ridge right there?... Your properties won't even have access." (02:39)
• Bridget Wiltshire: "We put a lot of stuff right back where it was." (06:52)
• Representative Brody: [No direct quote, but discussed legislative influence] (18:12)

Note: Timestamps refer to the minute and second marks within the episode transcript.

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Conclusion

"Unprepared: There is No Plan" offers a compelling exploration of the challenges in disaster recovery and the intricate dynamics between government policies, special interest groups, and affected communities. Through detailed reporting and personal narratives, the episode highlights the urgent need for reform in building practices and disaster planning to ensure safer and more resilient futures for storm-impacted regions.

Transcript

[Aisha Roscoe]

Build it stronger, build it safer, build it back fast. Welcome back to the Sunday Story and part two of our series on how badly we as a nation do at rebuilding after a big storm knocks us down. Laura Sullivan and the crew at Frontline have been following along as North Carolina struggles to bounce back after Helene in Houston, they learned you can't always engineer your way out of danger. Now they're looking for answers in another storm prone area, New York and New Jersey seacoast, to see how they've done in the years since Superstorm Sandy. The idea there, get out of the way of the water.

[Laura Sullivan]

In 2012, Superstorm Sandy sent more than 12ft of water over communities along the coast of New York and New Jersey. It was one of the worst flooding events in New York's history. Recently we headed back to some of the neighborhoods we first visited in the aftermath of Sandy. And even though 13 years had passed since the storm, it almost felt like they were trapped in time. Midway through a recovery here on Staten Island's seacoast, the community used to be tight knit with families living in little bungalows. Now it feels desolate. After the storm, some residents used recovery money to elevate their homes really high. Others took a buyout from the federal government. Their homes were leveled and some did nothing. Their houses sit right as they were the night of the storm.

[Bridget Wiltshire]

It's kind of sad.

[Laura Sullivan]

Resident James Sinagra calls it the Jack o' lantern effect. Imagine the teeth, jagged and irregularly spaced.

[Bridget Wiltshire]

I mean, they should either make it into wetlands like you can see down the road there, that's all wetlands. Or they should at least gave more of an incentive for a community to.

[Laura Sullivan]

Be built back up like these houses are built up. It was hard to find people who thought the recovery had turned out well, even people who decided not to rebuild at all, like Joe Tyrone. He's a local realtor known for organizing one of the nation's first large scale home buyout programs in Staten Island's Oakwood beach neighborhood.

[Joe Tyrone]

All they talked about when we were mucking out the houses, how much they loved the neighborhood. So I said, there's no way they're gonna wanna leave. But the reality is, first there was Isaac. That was bad. And then Irene came, put them back on their heels. And when Sandy came, that was a knockout punch. They were like, that's it. People died on the street and they all knew each other.

[Laura Sullivan]

He took me out to see the old neighborhood.

[Joe Tyrone]

This is where my house was. See that ridge right there? That was my backyard right here. And the Other side of that was another house.

[Laura Sullivan]

Along with the federal government, the state spent more than $200 million buying out more than 500 homes on Staten island, intending to turn the area back over to nature. As we drive around, it seems in some ways it worked. Where hundreds of homes once stood, there are long stretches of empty lots punctuated by a few isolated homes. But these holdouts, they mean the roads and the power lines have to stay. And as Tyrone pulls around the corner, he points to several empty lots with a chain link fence around them. There have been rumors. Why does this have a fence?

[Joe Tyrone]

Well, this is the exact area that the Staten Island Soccer League purchased from the state for some nominal amount. And they're going to build their soccer fields here.

[Laura Sullivan]

So they're really doing this?

[Joe Tyrone]

Oh, yeah, 100% they're doing it.

[Laura Sullivan]

This youth soccer league, which has more than 4,000 players, bought six acres of buyout land from the state. They plan to build a soccer complex with bleachers. There's talk of a clubhouse, and everyone's going to need somewhere to park for. Is this what you thought was gonna happen when you sold your property?

[Joe Tyrone]

No, no. When I sold my property, I thought that it was just gonna be like a big marsh and that, you know, I wouldn't even be able to get to my property.

[Laura Sullivan]

That's the vision then. Governor Andrew Cuomo had promised wetlands and oyster beds that would soak up stormwater like a sponge. We're now rebuilding oyster beds, wetlands, and marshlands and grasslands. Why?

[Vito Fasella]

Because they all had a purpose.

[Bridget Wiltshire]

They were all part of the balance.

[Laura Sullivan]

Bridget Wiltshire lives across the street from one of the proposed soccer fields. Oh, they lied to us. They said they're gonna build a park, then it was gonna be wetlands. What do you think? If you're looking around here in 10, 20 years, what are you gonna see? I think you're gonna see very high end homes down here next to the water. Yeah. State and local officials have always said that would never happen, but 13 years is a long time. Vito Fasella is the borough president of Staten Island.

[Bridget Wiltshire]

You have some of the best views around and underappreciated of the water. We should welcome people to build near the water when possible and bring life back as opposed to watching empty lots.

[Laura Sullivan]

So taxpayers spent a lot of money buying out these properties. Was it all for nothing?

[Bridget Wiltshire]

I don't know if it was all for nothing. I think in some cases it was justified. Sometimes the pendulum swings too far in one direction and maybe it becomes time to reevaluate some of those Decisions and see where it is safe if people can move back in.

[Laura Sullivan]

What if those people come back but they end up under 18ft of water and their homes are destroyed and more people die?

[Bridget Wiltshire]

Well, that's what I'm saying. If we have the mechanisms to mitigate against that, then by all means. But if we're just going to live in fear forever, it's probably not the way I want to live.

[Laura Sullivan]

Frankly, few people in these neighborhoods seem to be living in fear. Homes continue to sell at a brisk pace and prices keep going up. Many of these houses are elevated, but few are high enough to avoid the massive surge of water that hit parts of this area. New York City's comptroller Brad Lander says 30% of New Yorkers now live in the floodplain. How long do you think it took for people to forget? Mm, a few weeks, honestly. Really?

[Bridget Wiltshire]

Yes.

[Laura Sullivan]

Is that what you thought was gonna happen after Sandy? I mean, we have an affordability crisis and we're desperate for more housing and we have a climate crisis that when it wallops you like it did in Sandy those days, you're really looking at it. And then the sun comes out again and it kind of recedes from memory.

[Bridget Wiltshire]

And we are not as good as.

[Laura Sullivan]

We need to be. Do you think that New York is ready for the next storm? New York is not ready for the next storm. The person who oversaw New York and New Jersey's recovery from Sandy was Craig Fugate. He ran FEMA as one of its longest serving administrators.

[Bridget Wiltshire]

We put a lot of stuff right back where it was.

[Laura Sullivan]

I told him we had been driving around some of New York's hardest hit areas. There are some neighborhoods that are rebuilt right next to a neighborhood where 70% of the people did take a buyout. Next to a neighborhood that hasn't changed at all and is hoping for a seawall. I mean, what's the plan here?

[Bridget Wiltshire]

There is no plan. People like to think there's a plan, but understand the complexity of one. I gotta deal with property rights and property owners. I also have to understand most of this is economically driven. Developers will come in there and start putting cash on the streets to buy out distressed property.

[Laura Sullivan]

Fugate said FEMA and other federal agencies had to compete with those developers when they would create programs to elevate homes or buy homeowners out. But what was more frustrating, he said, is that often local officials preferred the developers plans. Just south of Staten island, around the Raritan Bay on the Jersey Shore, I met up with Sean Latourrette. He's the state commissioner of environmental Protection and in charge of getting people to build differently. I asked him how it was going. It's tough.

[Bridget Wiltshire]

Change is hard.

[Laura Sullivan]

We're standing on top of a massive earthen levee as workers complete the final section of a new sea wall in Port Monmouth, the kind many communities are hoping for. But they're expensive and take years. And Lacherette says coastal areas also need to protect themselves by elevating new homes five feet. But he's facing resistance.

[Bridget Wiltshire]

There are so many pressures that work against building resilience and projecting forward, imagining the world not just as it is today, but as it will be tomorrow in a decade from now and a decade from then.

[Laura Sullivan]

I asked him where that pressure was coming from.

[Bridget Wiltshire]

In some instances, leaders of local governments.

[Laura Sullivan]

Really? Because the leaders of local governments didn't want the homes to come up five feet.

[Bridget Wiltshire]

They were misinformed about what the rules did.

[Laura Sullivan]

By whom?

[Bridget Wiltshire]

By special interests who are worried about their bottom line.

[Laura Sullivan]

Special interests. We were starting to hear a lot more about special interests back in North Carolina, in particular the development industry and homebuilders who, it turns out, hold a lot of sway.

[Aisha Roscoe]

When we come back, a look at the forces shaping North Carolina's recovery. Stay with us.

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[Aisha Roscoe]

We're back with a Sunday story. Laura Sullivan picks up the story in North Carolina.

[Laura Sullivan]

We returned to Swannanoa early this spring. It had been five months since Helene and we headed straight to the trailer home park where Shalaina Jordan's parents, Nola and Robert Ramsor, had lived next to the river. The remains of their trailer and all the others were gone. A few piles of debris were ready for pickup and recently the property had been put on the market. Don't miss this high visibility land, the Real Estate Flyer said, with abundant river frontage that, quote, can be rebuilt as a mobile home park. Nathan Pennington came to meet us. He's Buncombe County's planning director and he spends his days thinking about flood rules and floodplains. He points across the way up at those duplexes we had heard about in episode one that survived the storm. Contractors were almost finished with the cosmetic repairs.

[Bridget Wiltshire]

These duplexes are built to modern standards. They have flood vents which prevented the structures from floating off their foundations. Yes, they still took water, but they can go right back into emergency repair permitting.

[Laura Sullivan]

Did you see a difference between the houses that were built to modern standards and the ones that weren't during the storm?

[Bridget Wiltshire]

Absolutely. In fact, there was a manufactured home on the other side of the duplex there. There were structures down here. You see all the structure gone.

[Laura Sullivan]

Now that you know where the water is coming, are the rules going to change for what you can do here?

[Bridget Wiltshire]

No, no. We still have the same flood maps. We still have the same set of standards.

[Laura Sullivan]

I asked him why the community wouldn't want to adopt new standards, new rules to help protect whoever lives here next.

[Bridget Wiltshire]

Building to higher standards increases cost. So many times you increase cost on just about anything, you're going to have folks that are not going to necessarily be for it.

[Laura Sullivan]

One of those folks is Congressman Chuck Edwards who told us earlier property owners should make most of those decisions for themselves.

[Bridget Wiltshire]

There's a significant shortage of housing and a good portion of the reason that we have such a lack of inventory today is that government has over imposed its will on what someone's house should look like and the standards by which it's built.

[Laura Sullivan]

He says this isn't just affecting housing along the rivers.

[Bridget Wiltshire]

Not everything that we're talking about here was even a result of the flood. We had so many landslides around the district that no one could possibly anticipate. Are we going to tell those folks that they can't rebuild because a landslide that was totally unknown, totally unpredictable, happened no, we're not going to tell them. That's why we call these natural disasters. They are not predictable.

[Laura Sullivan]

23 people died in landslides here during Helene. And some scientists say while it's hard to know when landslides will happen, there's a lot of data to show where they'll happen. On a recent cold, rainy day, as thick gray fog covered the horizon, I headed into North Carolina's mountains with geologist Rick Wooten. We made our way up a steep path to the site of an enormous landslide that tore the mountain down to the bedrock.

[Bridget Wiltshire]

A landslide like this is what we call a debris flow. It's like a huge locomotive going down the mountain.

[Laura Sullivan]

Water trickles down 400ft of now barren rock, and in the valley below, family homes lay smashed. Eleven people died in this landslide.

[Bridget Wiltshire]

There's been at least one debris flow event that we can see in the older deposits.

[Laura Sullivan]

You can see that in the rocks.

[Bridget Wiltshire]

You can see that that's a good indicator of where they could happen in the future.

[Laura Sullivan]

Wooten has spent two decades mapping landslides, helping to create a database that predicts where they'll occur. This hillside was marked in the database, but he says funding for the project was cut off at one point. For seven years, 10 counties still haven't been mapped.

[Bridget Wiltshire]

The statement that was made in the legislature at the time, the argument that won the day to cut the funding was the landslide hazard mapping is just a backdoor approach to more regulations.

[Laura Sullivan]

I went over to see Susan Fisher. She was a lawmaker in the statehouse at the time of the funding gap and co sponsored a bill to create statewide safety regulations on mountains. Her bill and another similar bill made it through the committee without a problem. And then what happened? It just dies. In the years that you've had to think about why these bills died, who do you think didn't like them? I think that anyone who was representing developers or home builders didn't want that bill. Why? Because it's money. People are spending money to have houses built on top of ridges. These developers and home builders across the nation, they're often powerfully organized. And I wanted to understand just what kind of influence they have here in North Carolina. So I headed to the state House in Raleigh, and in a hallway overlooking the Grand Staircase, I met up with Representative Laura Budd. She's opposed bills pushed by the home builders lobby. Do people talk about the home builders around here? I would say they're pretty special, spicy topics. Some days, yes. Bud said a lot of individual home builders want to make strong, safe homes. She even Represents some of them in her law practice. But at the state house as an industry, she says the lobby pushes for less regulation. There are certain actions they've taken that have whittled down or diluted the efficacy of the building code. Do you think they've had too much power in this state? Way too much power. You should not have a couple of people that you call to run all your bills when they want something done. Those are the people that they call. They are the point person for the home builders association when it comes to filing legislation. So you're saying when the home builders want a piece of legislation passed, they know who to call here? They know exactly who to call. In the spring of 2023, more than a year before Helene hit, the state's main building group, the North Carolina home builders association, pushed for legislation called House Bill 488.

[Bridget Wiltshire]

The big news this week is House Bill 488, our annual building code bill and our association's top legislative priority.

[Laura Sullivan]

The bill made changes to the state's building code that the home builders supported. As the group explained on their YouTube.

[Bridget Wiltshire]

Channel, it prohibits exterior sheathing inspections except in wind zones 140 and up.

[Laura Sullivan]

Prohibits modifications to various chapters within the.

[Bridget Wiltshire]

Residential code, including mechanical, fuel, gas, and energy efficiency standards.

[Laura Sullivan]

More than 40 organizations publicly opposed the bill, saying it would leave the state more vulnerable to storms. Still, some lawmakers took the lead to get it passed.

[Bridget Wiltshire]

Also, a special thanks to representative Brody, who worked relentlessly on this bill every.

[Laura Sullivan]

Step of the way. At the time, Mark brody was a state representative and chair of a committee that oversaw land use. We. We read through hundreds of pages obtained through open records laws, including emails between Brody and the homebuilders association in the run up to the bill's passage. In one, Brody goes over the draft language of the bill. In another, Brody asked the homebuilders, guys, is this how we want it to look? I asked representative Bud, why is the legislature doing this? Money powers politics. It's expensive, expensive to run for office. Even in north Carolina. My first race in 22 was over a million dollars. They give tens of thousands of dollars to those candidates that they think will advance their interest in the legislature. The home builders were Brody's top donor in the last campaign cycle. According to state finance records, the group spread half a million more dollars around to other state and local officials. Brody did not respond to NPR's request for comment, but the home builders did give us an interview.

[Bridget Wiltshire]

Yeah. So our heart and soul in regard to what our mission is, is to provide The American dream of homeownership to as many North Carolinians as possible.

[Laura Sullivan]

Chris Millis is a top lobbyist for the North Carolina Home Builders Association.

[Bridget Wiltshire]

So we're keeping an eye out for all state level regulations.

[Laura Sullivan]

I met up with him at the organization's Work Raleigh headquarters and just making.

[Bridget Wiltshire]

Sure that the rules that are being put in place and statutes that are being put in place is done so in a way that's protecting life and safety as it relates to building codes and the development industry, but it's done so in a way that's affordable.

[Laura Sullivan]

Millis told me the association has never opposed mapping in the mountains and it believes statewide steep slope legislation is unnecessary and counterproductive because they say many local communities already have such rules and that they can best establish regulations that reflect their community's needs. He said the Bill 488, which is now law, will enhance safety while preserving efficiency and that building code enforcement remains robust and fully intact in the state. He said the bill did not eliminate or diminish any existing inspection authority. In this email that is sent to you, the lawmaker lists the nine things that they're putting in the code. And he's asking you let me know if I miss something. I mean, why is the lawmaker, who's the chairman of this committee, asking you what he's missing when he's changing the codes?

[Bridget Wiltshire]

Because we are experts in regard to the chapters that are applied to different aspects of residential construction. So we are providing input to lawmakers that are going to be going through a committee process to make sure that we're answering his question in regard to what detail needs to be addressed. And so I don't, I don't understand the concern. Is this email that you're referring to? Is the email that I'm on?

[Laura Sullivan]

Yes.

[Bridget Wiltshire]

Okay.

[Laura Sullivan]

Are you guys experts or are you advocates for an industry that wants to build in a way that makes them more money?

[Bridget Wiltshire]

Oh, absolutely not. We have experts on our staff. We have a director of codes that is most certainly an expert in building codes. He's a former employee at the Department of Insurance, and he lives and breathes all things building code. And so we most certainly are experts in regard to how the code applies to residential construction.

[Laura Sullivan]

Millis said the group donates to lawmakers who, quote, understand the importance of safe, affordable and attainable housing for all. The North Carolina Homebuilders association, though, is just one state group. The national association of Home Builders, based in Washington, D.C. spent almost $3.5 million last year alone lobbying Congress. I Wanted to understand what exactly the industry has been pushing for. And there was one more person I had heard about. He had been on the board of the national association for 25 years. But he was hard to track down because he lives in the Colorado mountains and doesn't have a cell phone.

[Ron Jones]

Well, hello.

[Laura Sullivan]

Ron Jones built houses for 50 years. He's known for building ambitious homes in difficult places, including one perched 80ft down a cliff near Albuquerque. He says he joined the homebuilders because he loved what he did and he hoped he could encourage his colleagues to build in a different way. I asked him what he thought about the homebuilders, saying they're just trying to keep homes affordable. What do you think of that?

[Ron Jones]

Is bull, plain and simple. When they say affordability, and I've heard this line ever since I first went to a meeting in 1989, what their meaning is profitability. Affordability to them means being able to close sales, hand the keys, and walk away.

[Laura Sullivan]

Jones says three times a year he would sit in board meetings at fancy hotels around the country listening to his colleagues reject rules that would make home safer, last longer, or, or be better able to withstand the storm.

[Ron Jones]

Listen, I saw the association fight for a decade fall on its sword and twist it over a $200 exhaust fan requirement. They spent thousands of dollars in staff hours, you know, just grinding on this issue of, of a requirement for an exhaust fan.

[Laura Sullivan]

He says he and other board members would accompany the lobbying team to Capitol Hill and they would tell lawmakers that elevating a home in a floodplain was un, that building codes did not need to be updated frequently. And remember those outdated FEMA flood maps that prevent the federal government from enforcing resilient building more widely? Jones says the national association lobbied on those, too, because they can drive up the cost of insurance.

[Ron Jones]

They don't want those maps updated because all of a sudden a lot of areas that were previously developed are off limits or the rates because of the higher proven risk go up substantially.

[Laura Sullivan]

Jones says he left the group in 2019 when he felt his opinions were failing to make any difference. He says he wanted to build safe engineering marvels the best of what humans are capable of building. And he says that was not what the association was interested in. What was its main goal?

[Ron Jones]

Advocacy. Look, trade associations exist for one reason, and that is to help facilitate the profit making ability of their members. And it really doesn't owe an apology for that. What it owes an apology for is for pretending there's something that they're not. They pretend that they're an advocate for the American home buyer and it's all for show because what it's really about is figuring out how you can warehouse the American home buyer for the least amount of cost and the most amount of profit.

[Laura Sullivan]

In a statement to npr, officials from the National Home Builders said the group, quote, advocates for common sense and cost effective codes that make homes safer and more more energy efficient. They said unnecessary regulations, quote, provide limited protection from natural hazards while driving up the cost of housing for hard working families. At a time when the nation is already suffering through a housing affordability crisis. The group said new homes built to modern codes are, quote, already energy efficient, safe and resilient and that communities need to focus on improving older homes and infrastructure, which are less resilient. In recent months, the Trump administration has cut staff and grant programs at fema. It's taken steps to stop enforcing some rules for flood prone areas and has ended some funding to help communities update building codes. Back in North Carolina, for those who died in Helene, it's too late for building codes, programs and grants anyhow, and it's too late for buyouts or infrastructure projects. For weeks after the storm, Shalaina Jordan walked the banks of the Swannanoa river searching for her parents, Nola and Robert Ramsor, hoping for some kind of a clue. I had to look, like it was.

[Aisha Roscoe]

Silly to think that I could do that on my own, but I had to look.

[Laura Sullivan]

Finally, six weeks after the storm, the state medical examiner's office called to tell her both her parents were dead. They had been found a mile apart down the river.

[Aisha Roscoe]

It just, they died in separate places.

[Laura Sullivan]

And alone and stuff.

[Aisha Roscoe]

So I just, I really wanted to.

[Laura Sullivan]

Find them because I felt like I needed to let their bodies rest, if that makes any sense. Yeah, yeah, I just wanted to let them rest because they went through something horrible. In those weeks that Jordan spent searching, she always found herself stopping at this one bridge just down the river from the trailer park, lingering next to the pile of debris, the cars and homes and pieces of people's lives. The medical examiner said it was there at the bridge that they found her mother.

[Aisha Roscoe]

Laura, thank you so much for your reporting.

[Laura Sullivan]

Thanks so much for having me, Aisha.

[Aisha Roscoe]

For more of Laura Sullivan's reporting from North Carolina, check out the PBS Frontline documentary Helene's Deadly Warning, streaming now on Frontline's website and YouTube. This Sunday story series was produced by Graham Smith and Andrew Mambo. It was edited by Jenny Schmidt and Robert Little. Kwesi Lee mastered the episode. This series was co reported with Our partners at Frontline, Jonathan Sheinberg, Kate McCormick, Dana Irvin, Lauren Iszel Kinlaw and Rafael Kubersky. The Sunday Story team includes Justine Yan and Liana Simstrom. Irene Noguchi is our executive producer. I'm Aisha Roscoe. Up first is back tomorrow with all the news you need to start your week. Until then, have a great rest of your weekend.

[Craig Fugate]

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[Vito Fasella]

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[Craig Fugate]

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