Back in September, Hurricane Helene came quickly to Western Carolina.

It was a 24 hour storm that left 25 North Carolina counties as major disaster areas.

But why does recovery relief seem to move so slowly, just when victims need it most?

"Carolina Impact's" Jeff Sonier and videographer Russ Hunsinger take us to the mountain communities that are still waiting for help in a story you'll only see on PBS Charlotte.

- Yeah, this makeshift neighborhood of 50 FEMA trailers in Old Fort outside of Asheville is providing temporary homes for victims of Hurricane Helene who lost everything.

But elsewhere here in Western North Carolina, how much help you're getting from FEMA may depend on where you live.

(gentle music) - I've been here about three weeks, and I found out about it through FEMA, they actually placed me here, yeah.

- [Jeff] Beth Keeter says she was living in a hotel paid for by FEMA before moving into her own FEMA trailer here.

Not exactly home sweet home, at least not yet.

But after Hurricane Helene, well, she's thankful for anything she can get.

- I signed about 13 documents and was given a set of keys.

- [Jeff] How surprised were you to get a trailer?

- Very.

- Why?

- Well, my home was a total loss.

I haven't been that lucky before, so it just really surprised me that I was this time.

But it's beginning to be my new home, so that makes a difference.

- [Jeff] Yet here in Old Fort, Beth is one of the 50 FEMA success stories.

A FEMA press release back in February says 150 households now have FEMA trailers in Western North Carolina after Helene with 13,000 more getting temporary shelter from FEMA at hotels since the storm.

(gentle music) But as you follow the path of hurricane damage north to Yancey County, well that's when those thanks FEMA stories start changing to where's FEMA stories.

- I think the disappointment is the aftermath and the way that FEMA is just dragging their heels.

- [Jeff] Ted Knesec's mountain view hasn't changed, but his mountain property is mostly gone now.

All but a few feet from his front door swallowed up by the swollen river.

- I don't know if you can see it on the camera.

This was actually flat out to about the middle of the current river.

- [Jeff] Wow, I mean your garage is literally teetering on the edge.

And your house is not far behind.

- [Ted] No, it's just a matter of time.

- [Jeff] And the time it's taking to get help from FEMA and from the state, well it's time that his family, still hanging on here, doesn't have anymore.

- So it's not only us, there's thousands upon thousands of people that just don't know what tomorrow is gonna bring.

- You're one of them.

- Right.

- [Jeff] What is tomorrow gonna bring for your family?

- We don't know.

- Leaving people in limbo without decisions, especially when it comes to their home is torture, right?

- [Jeff] Yancey County Planner Chris Sigmon feels the frustration about FEMA every day, and so does County Spokesperson Aprel Wilson.

- Yeah, it's the red tape and the wording and knowing how to like translate what's on the form into language that the common person can understand, I think sometimes is if you get denied, there might've been just one box you missed.

- [Jeff] Wilson adds that despite all the hurricane housing damage in Yancey County, FEMA's only located three of its trailers here, while unused trailers sit in a hickory parking lot only a 90 minute drive away.

And it's not just Yancey County homeowners who are battling the bureaucracy either, at FEMA and in Raleigh.

- Yeah, so Yancey County is number two in damage from the storm behind Buncombe County.

If you took the metric of damage or catastrophe on a per capita basis, we got devastated, and here we sit five months removed and they're still figuring that out and the money's not flowing.

It's really been kind of a farce.

The public assistance projects that we've submitted, none of them are being funded.

So what we're asking for is to fund the need and not the population or the votes.

- [Jeff] Is that why you're not being funded, because of your small size, because of your remote location?

- Well you have to ask the question, if the governor immediately goes to Asheville and gives the city of Asheville $225 million and doesn't give us anything, why did that happen when we're number two?

We can make a huge dent in our roads and bridges that are out, which is $5 million, right?

But we didn't get that same treatment.

And why is that?

- [Jeff] In the meantime, the governor's first trip to Yancey County since the storm was mostly a photo-op.

He didn't visit the neighbors still living in donated campers, relying for months on water from temporary tanks and plastic bottles stacked outside with supplies brought in by volunteers.

Everybody just kind of making do I guess right now.

- We've been giving out small propane heaters and stuff, but even that is not gonna be sufficient for folks in any kind of long term situation is.

As bad as the storm was and the devastation it brought, the only thing that's gonna help is a new location.

- Leaving is going to be exceedingly difficult, but we need to figure out where we're gonna be tomorrow.

- [Jeff] That's the feeling shared by other storm victims.

They lost everything to the hurricane too.

- I somewhat feel guilty even sometimes because you hear stories and a lot of them are a lot worse than mine.

So who am I to receive something when someone else doesn't?

- What do you say to the folks who didn't get a trailer who are still looking?

- [Beth] Just don't lose hope.

Don't lose faith.

Keep trying and just keep that hope alive, you know?

- Yeah, for the families here in Old Fort now living in these FEMA trailers, well, they've got 18 months now to start getting back on their feet after the hurricane.

But for thousands more in Western North Carolina, still without help from FEMA, well the question we keep hearing is, what's taking so long?