Dave Masters watched the water rise from his trailer on the hillside as Hurricane Frances struck Western North Carolina in September 2004. Within an hour, his father's home—usually 100 feet from the Pigeon River—was floating down the middle of the road before it cracked in half against a telephone pole downstream. Just 10 days later, Hurricane Ivan dumped more rain on Haywood County, prompting officials to condemn several neighboring mobile homes and buy out a wood-frame house across the river using a federally funded program designed to reduce future flood risk.
The state also paid to relocate Masters' father and another family from the Hyder Mountain Road mobile home park near Clyde, North Carolina, out of the floodplain. But although federal floodplain maps showed the land where the trailer park sat was at risk, the county did not buy out the mobile home park or stop its owners from renting out lots where trailers had been destroyed—including the one where Masters' father had lived. That decision would have consequences two decades later.
In 2021, Tropical Storm Fred flooded five of the six trailers that fronted the river at Hyder Mountain Road. Despite the damage, all the trailers remained. Then in September 2024, flooding from Hurricane Helene swept one of those mobile homes into the Pigeon River, driving it into the same bridge and killing a resident—Joe Rogers' wife—and three of their dogs.
What the Right Is Saying
Conservative critics of expanded federal buyout programs raise concerns about government overreach and fiscal responsibility. They note that FEMA's Hazard Mitigation Grant Program already exists to address flood-prone properties and argue that local governments bear responsibility for land-use decisions.
Some property rights advocates contend that compelling park owners to sell their land through enhanced buyout incentives would constitute a taking requiring just compensation under the Fifth Amendment. Others suggest that mobile home residents themselves should bear some responsibility for choosing to live in known flood zones, even if those properties represent their most affordable housing option.
Haywood County officials have faced criticism for allowing trailers to return to Hyder Mountain Road after previous floods, but county leaders have noted they face limited legal authority to prohibit private property owners from rebuilding or renting out lots in zoned areas. The question of what local governments can do—and what funding they'd need—to prevent repeated losses remains contested.
What the Left Is Saying
Progressive advocates and Democratic officials say the repeated losses illustrate how federal disaster policy fails low-income residents who depend on mobile homes for affordable housing. They argue that FEMA's buyout program, which the agency calls 'the cornerstone of the Nation's system for emergency management,' was designed with traditional homeowners in mind and leaves mobile home residents vulnerable.
'Mobile homes are the country's largest source of affordable housing, yet they're treated like personal property—like motorcycles or boats—when it comes to disaster recovery,' said one housing advocate familiar with FEMA programs. Critics note that park owners have little financial incentive to accept buyouts because FEMA does not compensate them for lost rent or the value of mobile homes sitting on their land.
Some Democratic lawmakers have called for reforming FEMA's Hazard Mitigation Grant Program to address these inequities. 'We need policies that actually protect people living in manufactured housing,' a housing policy researcher told ProPublica. 'Right now, the system is set up so that the same communities get flooded over and over.'
What the Numbers Show
The Hyder Mountain Road mobile home park has flooded at least four times over two decades: Hurricane Frances (2004), Hurricane Ivan (2004), Tropical Storm Fred (2021), and Hurricane Helene (2024). At least one resident died in the 2024 flooding. The Federal Emergency Management Agency's floodplain maps designate the property as a high-risk area, according to ProPublica.
FEMA's Hazard Mitigation Grant Program has funded thousands of buyouts nationwide since its inception, but mobile homes represent a small fraction of properties acquired. The program's structure reimburses local governments for acquiring land and converting it to open space, but does not compensate property owners for lost rental income or the value of structures they do not own.
Renew NC, Gov. Josh Stein's billion-dollar Hurricane Helene recovery program, states in its manual that it can help relocate mobile-home owners whose damaged trailers face future flood risks. However, the program does not prevent new families from moving onto lots with a documented history of flooding. The Hyder Mountain Road park now has families living in recreational campers on plots where mobile homes have washed away twice.
The Bottom Line
The deaths and repeated destruction at Hyder Mountain Road highlight a structural gap between how federal disaster policy is designed and how it functions for mobile home residents—a population disproportionately low-income and with limited options for affordable housing. FEMA's buyout program requires park owners to voluntarily participate, but offers them little financial incentive to do so.
What happens next will likely depend on decisions by Renew NC administrators, Haywood County officials, and potentially state legislators weighing whether to expand relocation assistance or create stronger local zoning authority over flood-prone mobile home parks. Advocates say the 2024 death at Hyder Mountain Road was preventable if the property had been acquired after any of its previous floods. Opponents of expanded government intervention argue that forcing buyouts would raise constitutional questions and shift costs to taxpayers. Watch for whether Renew NC's recovery manual is revised to include stronger protections against repopulating known flood zones.