Darrick Virgil walked WRAL through his rebuilt home
\nWednesday after Hurricanes Matthew and Florence severely damaged his family
\nhome.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt still feels like a dream,\u201d Virgil said. \u201cEven though I
\nlost a lot, I gained a lot.\u201d <\/p>\n
Now, Virgil is saving up his money to buy furniture. <\/p>\n
In 2024, WRAL talked At the time, the program called off their deal to build him \u201cA lot of times I wanted to give up, but I’m not a quitter,\u201d WRAL\u2019s reporting inspired Sarah Hill Waters to get involved.\n<\/p>\n \u201cThere was no way I could continue and not help out. I knew Waters\u2019 persistence led to Brightspeed donating a portion of WRAL asked Pryor Gibson, the director of the North Carolina North \u201cIn this case, he didn’t really own enough land to do a Generally speaking, he said, coordinating funding between the federal government and the state took a long time.<\/p>\n Struggles with ReBuild NC<\/p>\n WRAL’s Documentary Unit has extensively covered the ReBuild NC was tasked with using nearly $800 million in However, delays, red tape and mismanagement left many As of April 8, 2026, ReBuild NC reports 4,140 homes have \u201cWe certainly wish it could’ve been faster; we certainly
\nto Virgil about his struggles<\/a> with to get a new home through ReBuild NC. <\/p>\n
\na new home on his land \u2013 saying the home would be too big to rebuild on his
\nland. <\/p>\n
\nVirgil said. <\/p>\n
\nI could help out,\u201d she told WRAL Wednesday. \u201cI said, \u2018We\u2019re not going to let
\nthem leave him in this position.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\nthe land needed to rebuild the home, removing one of the biggest barriers to
\nmaking the project happen. The company also funded the required land survey,
\nhelping clear the way for construction to begin.<\/p>\n
\nCarolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency, why the process took so long. <\/p>\n
\nrebuild of his home. It took us over a year just to get the environmental parts
\nand the infrastructure parts put together,\u201d Gibson explained. \u201cWhen we got that
\ndone, we realized he didn’t have enough land to do a septic field. That’s where
\nBrightspeed came in, gave a little portion of their property. We were able to
\nconvince the county that Mr. Virgil deserved the house, and we were able to put
\nit in place.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nprogram’s struggles in\u00a0Aftermath:
\nNorth Carolina Hurricane Left Behind<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\ntaxpayer funds to help uninsured residents like Virgil rebuild their homes
\nafter\u00a0Hurricanes
\nMatthew (2016)\u00a0<\/a>and\u00a0Florence (2018)<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nwaiting years for help.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nbeen completed through the program; another 105 homes still need to be
\ncompleted, according to spokesperson Bridget Munger. All but one of them is
\nofficially in the construction phase. <\/p>\n
\nwish we could’ve done it with everybody being happy. But, we did make 4,200
\nfolks happy,\u201d said Gibson.<\/p>\n