Sandhills_Sentinel

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The state House is reconstituting an oversight committee that will keep monitoring challenges state government has had in distributing federal long-term housing grants to hurricane victims in eastern North Carolina.

House Speaker Tim Moore announced Tuesday that the House Select Committee on Disaster Relief has been authorized to meet again.

The panel met in 2018 and scrutinized why the state was slow giving out $237 million in federal community development grant funds received after Hurricane Matthew in 2016 for housing repairs.

A report by the legislature’s government watchdog agency last month quantifying that slowness again led House Republicans from eastern North Carolina to seek the committee’s reauthorization. The agency issued a follow-up report Monday.

North Carolina also will receive $337 million in similar housing grant block money after Hurricane Florence.

Feature photo of Deep River, at Highway 22 in High Falls, during Hurricane Florence courtesy of Bobby Hancock.

Copyright 2019, The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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