RALEIGH, NC — North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper on Friday approved more than $600 million in disaster relief funds for western North Carolina counties affected by Hurricane Helene after legislators passed the recovery bill the day before.

The invoice is the second legislative iteration of recovery funding for western North Carolina after the General Assembly passed o the initial $273 million aid package at the beginning of this month. It tries to address what the governor’s office said $53 billion in damage and recovery needs in the region after Helene passed.

“Western North Carolina needs significant investment to fully recover from the largest storm our state has ever seen,” Cooper said in a statement Friday. “Lawmakers took a small step here and should follow it up with a more comprehensive package to help families and businesses. and communities rebuild stronger.”

Helene brought widespread devastation to western North Carolina, triggering 1,400 landslides and destroying more than 160 water and sewer systems, according to the state budget office. It also disrupted transportation networks across the region by destroying at least 6,000 miles (9,650 kilometers) of roads and more than 1,000 bridges and canals, the budget office said.

There have been 98 reported deaths in North Carolina from the storm, according to state officials.

Among the relief efforts funded in the last recovery bill from the Republican-controlled Legislature, the legislation includes $50 million in small business loans, $100 million in loans for local governments to use for water repairs and $5 million to fund mental health resources for students public schools.

The amount of money agreed to Thursday was far less than the $3.9 billion Cooper requested to help businesses, agriculture and utility repairs. Republican legislative leaders said they would consider Cooper’s funding request in the next few weeks. The General Assembly is scheduled to return to work on November 19.

“The evaluation of what needs to be done is still ongoing,” Senate Leader Phil Berger told reporters Thursday. “What we’ve done is deploy an appropriate amount of resources right now to deal with more immediate things that have some time sensitivity.”

Legislators also passed a separate invoice On Thursday, state law requires at least one in-person early voting location for every 30,000 registered voters in 13 western North Carolina counties as soon as possible. Because the legislation is considered a local bill, it was not subject to approval from Cooper’s pen.