NC voters not thrilled with Helene response, WRAL/WSOC Poll shows. How Cooper, Whatley were involved

North Carolinians are underwhelmed by the government’s response to Hurricane Helene, according to the findings of a new WRAL/WSOC poll. The storm ravaged the state two years ago, killing more than 100 people in western North Carolina and causing an estimated $60 billion in damage in the state.

Officials said almost immediately that the vast scope of the damage, as well as the logistical hurdles rebuilding in mountainous terrain, meant that any recovery effort would last years. Roads and bridges in the area have almost entirely been rebuilt since then. So have many downtown areas and other business corridors. But efforts to address people whose homes were damaged or destroyed are still in the early stages.

Only 9% of North Carolinians reported feeling “very satisfied” with the government’s response to Helene, the poll found, including just 5% of people living in western North Carolina.

But while respondents largely weren’t thrilled with the handling of the storm and its aftermath, they were split on how exactly to rate the response so far. The poll found that 28% were “somewhat satisfied,” 27% were “somewhat dissatisfied,” 23% were “very dissatisfied” and 13% weren’t sure.

The poll, conducted by SurveyUSA, surveyed 900 North Carolina adults and has a credibility interval of 4.2 percentage points. A credibility interval is similar to a margin of error but takes into account more factors and is considered by some pollsters to be a more accurate measurement of statistical certainty.

Usually after large storms, the federal government pays for half or more of the damage. But so far the federal government — initially under President Joe Biden, but primarily under President Donald Trump — has paid for only a small fraction. It comes as Trump has sought to cut costs and floated the idea of getting rid of the Federal Emergency Management Agency altogether, shifting more costs onto state and local taxpayers rather than the federal government.

It also has implications for the state’s 2026 U.S. Senate race — not only because Congress could vote to give North Carolina more money, but also because the leading candidates for the seat have held leadership roles tied to response efforts.

In the state’s U.S. Senate race, Democrat Roy Cooper and Republican Michael Whatley have both been personally involved with the recovery efforts. Cooper was governor when Helene hit in September 2024 and remained governor for the next several months until he left office after his second term ended in January 2025.

And since January 2025, Whatley has been in charge of recovery — given the task of leading the charge by President Donald Trump, who visited Asheville that month and announced to Whatley and the assembled crowd there that: “I’d like to put Michael in charge of making sure everything goes well.”

Last month, in advance of the two-year anniversary of the storm, Cooper and Whatley each declined interview requests about their work on Helene recovery. But both spoke on the topic briefly with reporters following campaign stops, each accusing the other of dropping the ball while defending their own records.

“Roy Cooper was just an abject failure,” Whatley said.

“Michael Whatley has just completely failed,” Cooper said.

The issue has come up only rarely on the campaign trail. Perhaps wary of their own association with the largely unpopular recovery efforts, neither candidate has sought to bring attention to it.

Similarly, the poll found no real partisan difference in how voters feel about the Helene response. The opinions of Cooper supporters, as well as of Whatley supporters, were almost identical to the overall numbers.

The only real difference in opinion appears to be in how exactly people define themselves politically. The most extreme partisans, who identify as either very liberal or very conservative, were the most positive about the response to Helene. Meanwhile, the most negative group was people who identify as moderates.

While 9% of adults overall said they were “very satisfied” with the government’s Helene response, only about half that amount of moderates — just 5% — agreed. Meanwhile, the “very satisfied” sentiment was shared by 22% of very liberal voters and 12% of very conservative voters.