Hurricane Helene Washed His Wife Away From Their Mobile Home. Now New Residents Live on the Same Land.

Dave Masters watched as his father's house careened into a telephone pole and split in two, after Hurricane Frances lifted it from its foundation in 2004. Hayward County, in Western North Carolina, bought the house and declared the patch near the town of Clyde 'permanent open space under a federally funded program to reduce the risk of future loss of life and property damage.' Not all homes were treated equally, though, in the aftermath of distaster. Hurricanes Frances, Ivan, and Helene, along with Tropical Storm Fred, all brought heavy rains and flooding to the nearby Hyder Mountain Road mobile home park. They're 'part the result of a gap in disaster policy that allows mobile home residents to be put in harm's way again and again.' For The Assembly , in a piece produced for ProPublica 's Local Reporting Network, Ren Larson explains why. The federal government's programs to buy out disaster-prone buildings are 'the cornerstone of the Nation's system for emergency management,' according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But the program was developed with traditional homeowners in mind, and mobile homes, the country's largest source of affordable housing, are often left out. Trailers, even when they become immovable and lifelong homes, aren't typically considered real estate but instead personal property, like motorcycles and boats. That still leaves people living on flood-prone land. For the state to actually buy that land, mobile home park owners have to take the buyout, and FEMA's program offers little incentive for them to do so: They can't collect from the government for lost rent or for the value of the mobile homes on top of the land. Some park owners say the payouts are not high enough to allow them to relocate; others aren't even aware of the buyout program. So park owners regularly allow new trailers to move into the vacant spots. Art and Lynne Heinmiller, who own the Hyder Mountain Road mobile home park, did not respond to questions — which were emailed, texted and mailed via certified letter — about allowing trailers and campers to move back to where they'd washed away Clint Smith | The Atlantic | August 8, 2025 | 2,567 words 'The storm destroyed the home where I grew up, and changed New Orleans forever.' Katie Thornton | The Guardian | August 28, 2024 | 4,464 words 'Windell Curole built a vast levee to protect his district from disappearing into the ocean—despite federal resistance to his plan.' Jessica Martell and Zackary Vernon | Salvation South | October 19, 2024 | 2,909 words 'Appalachia's 'climate haven' myth unravels.'