FEMA leases Durham building for Helene recovery operations

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is increasing its footprint in the Triangle in the wake of Tropical Storm Helene.

2024-12-31

The agency has leased a 117,000-square-foot office building in Durham, just outside Research Triangle Park. The building, Danbury Hall, is part of the Sheraton Imperial Office Center.

A FEMA spokesman says it will be used “to support long-term recovery operations” for at least the next year, with an option to stay through 2027.

In October, after Helene hit the western part of the state, FEMA moved some two hundred disaster response personnel into temporary space in downtown Durham.

FEMA moved into the much larger Danbury Hall location in November. According to a spokesman, the four-story building can accommodate up to 600 personnel. It’s not clear how many will be working there on a daily basis.

North Carolina Division of Emergency Management spokesman Brian Haines said FEMA and the state also operate a joint field office in Hickory for the same purpose. He said this new facility’s proximity to state government will make cooperation easier.

Some have criticized FEMA's Helene response in North Carolina, accusing the agency of doing too little, too late.

“FEMA has been here since the beginning, actually,” Haines said. “Prior to the storm, they arrived here, and they have been working hard to help us and help everybody in the state as best as they can.”

Even though it’s been three months since Helene, Haines says there are still 5,300 households in transitional housing assistance, mostly living in hotels and motels. On Monday, at Gov. Roy Cooper’s request, FEMA extended the deadlines to apply for disaster relief until early February 2025.

The state has asked for $25 billion in federal aid.

“There's individual assistance, which goes to help individual households. A lot of it's going to go to public assistance, which is rebuilding communities, so all of that infrastructure damage, that kind of stuff, roadways,” Haines said.

Haines says the longer-term lease shows FEMA is here for the long haul.

“I mean, in all honesty, this will be years probably in the making,” he said. “It's unfortunate we can't move faster on these things. But, you know, it's just a lot of work, and it's a lot of moving pieces, and we kind of have to work through the process.”