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| AFTER FLOYD | |
 September 20, 1999 
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JIM LEHRER: The destruction caused by Hurricane Floyd has been worst in North Carolina, which was visited today by President Clinton. North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt joins us now from Raleigh. Governor, welcome. GOV. JIM HUNT: Thank you, Jim. JIM LEHRER: Sir, give us a feel for just how terrible it is in the eastern part of your state. GOV. JIM HUNT: Well, Jim, I've flown over these rivers for three days. I've seen them getting higher and higher and higher. Some of them are now just beginning to go down a little bit, back in the western part. I've seen them get up to the windows of the homes, then I've seen them get up to the roof. And today as the President and I were flying over, I saw water over the tops of the roofs. You could just barely see the tin underneath the water. I've seen the water on the farms getting higher and higher. And, finally today you'd find a little bit of land, maybe, you know, 20 or 30 square feet out there and all the animals there, nothing to eat, just waiting for it to hopefully go down, about a million poultry dead in this state, 110,000 hogs. And they're out there. We got to get them and incinerate them somehow. I've seen the water plants, I've seen the water coming up. You said oh, that one's going to make it and the next day it's gone over. It's gone over the power plants, the telephones are out. People in those shelters that the President and I visited today have seen in there four, five days. For a while they didn't have enough food and water. We couldn't get in there to them. JIM LEHRER: Why? Because they were isolated by the water? GOV. JIM HUNT: Yes. The flooding all around them. It's just been a terrible situation. It's on every river across eastern North Carolina. You know how the rivers go from West to East in our state down to the coast and every one is flooded. And so we just have an awful situation. I will say that, you know, people's spirits are better than I ever thought. We hear about these acts of heroism. Yesterday people out in boats checking the homes that were... you know, the water way up to the roof almost. They heard a noise in one home, they pulled over there and listened to the roof... I mean to the house. There were noises in there. They cut a hole through the roof and there were 11 faces peering up at them. JIM LEHRER: Wow. They didn't know they were in there? GOV. JIM HUNT: They didn't know they were in there, no. Thanks like this are going on, people worked 24, 48 hours in a row, trying to keep the water out of their homes and helping people clean up when their homes are ruined. We're going to have tens, hundreds of thousands of people without homes. Many of them are poor and they don't have anything. And, Jim, you know, I've never done this before but tonight I want to appeal to the people of this great, rich, fortunate company to please help us in North Carolina. JIM LEHRER: What can be done, Governor? What do you want folks to do? GOV. JIM HUNT: Now, our government has some programs and we're going to take advantage of every one of them, as people have in other situations, but tonight I want to ask people to please send a check to the Hurricane Floyd Relief Fund, the Governor's Office, Raleigh, North Carolina. JIM LEHRER: You have a zip? GOV. JIM HUNT: We do. It's 27699. JIM LEHRER: 27669. GOV. JIM HUNT: No, 27699. The telephone number is 1-888-835-9966. JIM LEHRER: Now, what will that money be used for? If somebody is listening, writes a check, sends it to you, how are you going to spend that money? GOV. JIM HUNT: We're going to use that money for people who have lost their homes, lost all their possessions, have nothing. There are some federal programs. We’re going to take advantage of every one of them. Our state is going to put up a lot of money. There are going to be a lot of gaps, people that fall in between who just can't get anything to get started back with. That's what we're going to have this money used for and it's going to be controlled by the Red Cross in this state. JIM LEHRER: Now, we reported in the news summary, a moment ago, Margaret Warner did, that 300 of your roads are still flooded. Is that... how long is that going to be? How long is it going to take for this water to start going down? GOV. JIM HUNT: Well, that's down from 500, Jim. JIM LEHRER: So that's progress at least. GOV. JIM HUNT: That's some progress. It is beginning it to go down. But, you see, when you get that kind of flooding, you've got to go out and inspect all those roads. You know, the dirt's been washed out underneath the pavement, and it's ready to cave in. We’ve got to check all of these bridges. We’ve got dams; some of them collapsed. And we've just got to do so much work. It's going to be a massive -- kind of like rebuilding a country after war in a sense. JIM LEHRER: What about schools and transportation and all that? GOV. JIM HUNT: Schools in that part of the state have been closed for at least a week. I mean, will be closed all this week. East Carolina University football team beat Lou Holtz' team -- Saturday night in South Carolina. They can't come home. The airport is under five or six feet of water. It's just that kind of a situation. JIM LEHRER: What about... excuse me…what about health problems? GOV. JIM HUNT: Well, we've got some real health problems. Eastern North Carolina is a big agricultural area, especially poultry, hogs, all kind of crops. The fields are six, eight, ten feet under water. We've lost all the crops, I would say, just all of them. JIM LEHRER: What kind of crops are they? GOV. JIM HUNT: Well, they're corn, soybeans, tobacco, cotton. JIM LEHRER: You lost everything? GOV. JIM HUNT: Yes, all of that is lost. And there will be a few high places but the great part of that is lost. And then, of course, our animal agriculture has been hit so drastically. You know, I don't want people, Jim, to think that we aren't going to try hard. We're going to come out. We're going to dig in, we're, you know, cleaning up. It's the messiest stuff in the world, but our churches are pitching in, they're having special offerings for these folks. And incidentally, we’ve probably had 50, 75, 100 churches that have been destroyed. But we're working hard at it. We want people to have us in their prayers and their thoughts. If they can help us with some funds, we'd appreciate it. But North Carolinians will come back. JIM LEHRER: Governor, this hurricane was there four days ago. Why... what happened this...what made this one so different than other hurricanes? We're sitting here talking now about flooding and you're talking about water still rising into some places. What's going on? GOV. JIM HUNT: Jim, do you remember Hurricane Dennis that came across us, back to the Atlantic, came back in across us again. JIM LEHRER: Yeah. GOV. JIM HUNT: That dumped about 12 inches of rain on this affected area. Then when Hurricane Floyd came through, the winds were a little less than we thought, although we've got dead trees everywhere, it came in at 110 or 120 miles per hour, still a pretty good hurricane, but it dropped from 15 to 20 inches -- on my farm I think we got 20 inches of rain on top of the 12 inches we had gotten, you know, two weeks before. Well, that's before the floods start coming down the rivers. I mean, that's three feet of water on your land that fell on it. And then you get the water coming down the rivers and it's just a massive thing. JIM LEHRER: And what is this about in the forecast for more rain tonight down there? Can that be so? Can that really be true, Governor? GOV. JIM HUNT: We're praying it isn't so but yes, they think we'll have an inch or two. It could be a good bit more if it comes up from Florida as a tropical depression. But let me say again, listen, we've had a hard blow. It's going to take us a long time to come back. It's going to be rebuilding homes, whole communities, a whole area of the state. With people's hopes and prayers and all the help they can give us, we'll come back. This is a good state. We're blessed by God in lots of ways. And we're blessed that we didn't lose more lives, and with people’s help, we'll come back. JIM LEHRER: Governor, we made a graphic out of all of that information you gave us. It has all the address. Hurricane Floyd Relief Fund, Governor’s Office, Raleigh, North Carolina, 27699, and if you want to call, it’s: 1-888-835-9966, is that correct? GOV. JIM HUNT: That is correct, Jim. JIM LEHRER: Governor, good luck. Thanks a lot. GOV. JIM HUNT: Thank you, Jim. |
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