In North Carolina in 2016, more than 1.5 million people received some benefits from the SNAP program, according to a January report from the Department of Agriculture. As of July 2017, North Carolina had more than 10.2 million residents.
The change is allowed under the disaster declaration for the state, but it may take up to 36 hours for retailers who accept SNAP to accept the change due to programming changes, the Department of Agriculture said. Due to power outages, some stores may only accept cash.