Valdosta still waiting for $17 million in Helene reimbursements

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Ronda Bell looks on after an Oak tree landed on her 100-year-old home after Hurricane Helene moved through, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in Valdosta, Ga.

Credit: AP Photo/Mike Stewart

Hurricane season is here and all this week at GPB we’re giving you the information you need to know to help you prepare for the next storm.  Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson has kept us updated on Hurricane Helene recovery efforts in his city where Helene caused extensive damage. In a wide-ranging and candid interview, he talked with GPB's Orlando Montoya about the federal relief that Valdosta is still waiting on, what he thinks about the possible elimination of FEMA and other hurricane preparedness topics.

Orlando Montoya: First of all, how are things going in Valdosta?

Scott James Matheson: Good, we're just now entering the long-term recovery phase. For the next two years, we'll be organizing efforts, groups that will still once again descend on our community, offering to help all over again, the godsend that they are. And we'll organize those, we'll organized everything into the community that is necessary from still feeding, to still repairing, to still removal of debris and trees.

Montoya: Looking back at the year since Helene, what do you know now about hurricane preparedness that you wish you had known before the storm?

Matheson: Oh gosh, I don't know. Best laid plan. We're very good at community preparedness. We're very good at emergency management preparedness, but you can't dig the Grand Canyon. For stormwater and otherwise, there's a lot that gets overwhelmed, and there's just no level of preparing. There's knowledge that it can happen to you. There's knowledge where you can get a little better, but yeah. We put 550 county employees, 650 city employees to work on cleanup and we were probably about 5,000 too short. So the groups that come to town make a big difference. So your best laid plans, 70 agencies coming together, all the resources at your disposal, and they're still not enough.

Montoya: What issue is Valdosta still grappling with the most since Helene?

Matheson: Reimbursement, I'm afraid to say. We're — the city of Valdosta is still waiting $17 million in reimbursement. That's an expense we've already put out there. So in a very fiscally responsible city, we might be approaching not a cash problem, but a cash flow problem in our world. You don't just — you don't just wake up one day and say "We can put $17 million of outlay into the community," for community repair and debris pickup and everything else and not have it come back to us in short order. So we're $17 million light and that's probably the biggest problem we're facing right now.

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Mayor Scott James Matheson is shown at a Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce event in December 2024.

Credit: City of Valdosta via Facebook

Montoya: Is that $17 million that needs to come from the state, the feds, or both?

Matheson: Federal government, but I imagine it'll pass through GEMA. Yes, the federal government designated 100% reimbursement and we went right to work. We dipped into funds and rainy day funds and we did what we had to do to get the citizens back to some sense of normalcy, but we're waiting on reimbursement for that. So that's our No. 1.

Montoya: Recent cuts to FEMA have left many current and former employees of the agency concerned about FEMA's capacity to respond to major disasters. How did FEMA respond to Helene in Valdosta, and are you worried about that help being there in the future?

Matheson: Yeah, I got nothing but praise for FEMA. FEMA, in our community, for Helene especially, wrote $59 million worth of direct assistance. They wrote $59 million worth of checks to our citizens in one county alone. So you can do the math on what, 44 other counties in our state and multiple states beyond that. I don't know how they do it. But for us, we had ARPA funds that we shifted in [Hurricane] Idalia to respond immediately. We had vast cash reserves in Helene to respond to immediately. But if I get another storm, I truly do not know where that money's coming from. I will just have to change the expectation of our citizenry. It's gonna be a lot longer in recovery or I'm gonna be lot slower to respond. We just — we don't have that resource again.

Montoya: In June, the city broke ground on a $32 million wastewater treatment facility. How will that impact storm preparedness in the community?

Matheson: Oh, everything; we, what we actually broke ground on was another water treatment plant we have long since since 2000 and about '14 we went online with a brand new wastewater treatment facility. A 7-and-a-half million-gallon holding pond beside that. We're actually going to double that in capacity in the next couple of years, so all that was wonderful. The force main spine was wonderful and here's what we took great pride in and I think I preach this all over the state: Through all the chaos, you could still flush a toilet and you could still go to your sink and have water in the city of Valdosta. Now in the county with wells, that was a different situation. You had to have power. But through it all, we kept those services flowing. And we take great pride in that. That was no easy feat.

Montoya: What kind of relationships did Valdosta forge during Helene with corporate, nonprofit, faith-based and other private relief agencies that could step in to help the city in the future disaster scenario?

Matheson: Yeah, lifelong friendships. I'll name some and forget twice as many. The Minutemen, Eight Days of Hope, Samaritan's Purse was a godsend. They stayed months longer than they said they were gonna stay. They stayed through February. Just amazing groups. Catfish, the Catfish Navy, they came in and fed us for three days. Again, total strangers. It's no subtle thing that you have to treat them well when you hear that — you've got to say thank you, you've got to house them, and you've gotta feed them. Or guess what? It's a one and done. So we have forged wonderful relationships with those groups. And I hope they've benefited as well. Through every interview, we tout them. Through every, through every interview we thank them. And we hope that means some level of funding. We have given back directly to those organizations. After Idalia, we acted on a COAD, community organizations active in disasters. What we do well is infrastructure. What they now do well, is the human factor. Organizing every bit of the feeding efforts, every bit of the relief efforts through that organization takes that load off our emergency management response, which is supposed to be clearing roadways and critical and key infrastructure and storm water. So that COAD is something that we have since organized with all our United Way, Second Harvest Food Bank, and all our human service organizations. So if you want a major improvement, that's it.

Montoya: Will the city recognize the Helene anniversary in a few weeks, with any public events?

Matheson: I do not want to, no. I just saw the 20-year anniversary of Katrina in a party — in a street party. And I was going, "No, that's not for me." I'd rather have it forgotten.

Montoya: Well, that's Valdosta Mayor Scott Matheson, thanks again for talking with me.

Matheson: Anytime.