CAROLINA GOVERNORS

September 16, 1999
		The governors of North and South Carolina discuss the damage left behind by Hurricane Floyd, as the winds calm and residents return to their homes.

Sept. 16, 1999: Floyd hits North Carolina and Virginia. Sept. 15, 1999: Max Mayfield of the National Hurricane Center reports on Floyd's path. Sept. 14, 1999: Hurricane Floyd begins its trek north along the U.S. east coast. Online NewsHour Special Report: Killer Tornadoes in the Midwest Dec. 28, 1998: A look at the year's devastating weather. Nov. 30, 1998: Honduras begins rebuilding after Hurricane Mitch Nov. 2, 1998: Hurricane Mitch ravages Central America Sept. 28, 1998: Hurricane Georges downgraded to a tropical storm Sept. 25, 1998: Hurricane Georges threatens lives from Florida to Louisiana Sept. 24, 1998: Tracking hurricane Georges Aug. 12, 1998: Flooding on the Yangtze takes over 2000 lives in China Aug. 7, 1998: Texas tops 100 degrees for twenty-ninth day. Browse the NewsHour's complete coverage of weather.     Storm Prediction Center National Weather Service FEMA	JIM LEHRER: Elizabeth Farnsworth updates the Floyd story. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And with me to do that are Governor Jim Hodges of South Carolina and Governor Jim Hunt of North Carolina. Governor Hunt, bring us up to date on what's happening in your state right now as a result of the storm. GOV. JIM HUNT, (D) North Carolina: Well, North Carolina has had terrible damage from this storm. The winds weren't quite as bad as we were afraid they would be, but the flooding is the worst we've ever had in our history. I flew over the flooded areas today. Some of them have flooding right up to the roofs. Some of them have flooding that we know is a 125-year record flood. And most areas we have no records of anything like this. So we've got thousands and thousands of people that are out of their homes, and we have four deaths that we know about, seven deaths that are unconfirmed, and we've got a hundred roads that are underwater, including three interstate highways. I want to appeal to all the people of North Carolina not to drive through any water tonight or tomorrow. We've got an awfully big job ahead. Today the President did declare us a major disaster area, so our people can start calling tomorrow to file their claims, and we'll have crews out there to help; we're still trying to find people, telephones are out, 700,000 people without power; we've got a huge job ahead, and we need the help and prayers of the nation.
	South Carolina spared, a bit
	ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Governor Hodges, tell us about your state. GOV. JIM HODGES, (D) South Carolina: Well, our thoughts and prayers go with Gov. Hunt and all the people of North Carolina. We were far more fortunate in South Carolina. We did have over a foot of rain in the Myrtle Beach area and had wind damage along the coast, about 300,000 people out of power, but now that number's down to about 128,000, and we do have flooding problems up in certain regions of the state. But we came out a lot better than our friends in North Carolina, and we certainly feel for them and the troubles that they're going through now. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And, Gov. Hodges, are people starting to go home? GOV. JAMES HODGES: They are. In fact, we opened up -- the big problem we had was with traffic -- with three states leaving at the same time to try to escape the wrath of Hurricane Floyd we had a traffic problem in our state -- we opened both lanes of the interstate - both sections of the interstate -- back to Charleston today to try to alleviate some of those problems, and the people are returning home. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: You had the problem when people were leaving, as you said, because not every lane was open - I know you've taken a lot of criticism for that from the Charleston newspaper and some other papers. What do you think you learned about the evacuation process? GOV. JAMES HODGES: Well, I think we need to put things in perspective here. This was the largest peacetime evacuation in the history of the United States, and it was all done in about a twelve or a twenty-four hour period, and when you have eight hundred thousand South Carolinians leaving the coast, coupled with over a million from other areas below us in Georgia and Florida, you're going to have traffic problems. Now, what we did was we worked to reverse the interstate to allow traffic to flow a little better, but still I think we all recognize that when you have a mission of this significance and an effort to get people out as quickly as we needed to, that it's going to create some problems. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And Gov. Hodges, before I move back to Gov. Hunt, what about agriculture in your state, are the fields underwater?
	From drought to floods
	GOV. JAMES HODGES: Well, Jim Hunt and I share this same concern. Our farmers in South Carolina are hit by a terrible double whammy. First, they had a terrible drought that was causing reduction in the yield that they had, coupled with low commodity prices, and it's darn near well bankrupt many of the farmers in our state. The rain came a little too late. They may have been flooded, but sadly many of them have lost their crops anyway as a result of the drought that we had earlier in the summer. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And, Gov. Hunt, what's the situation with agriculture in your state? GOV. JIM HUNT: Well, North Carolina agriculture has been terribly hard hit. Like Gov. Hodges said, we did have a drought early on; we have the lowest agriculture prices in memory, they go back to the Depression. And now at harvest time, we have this hurricane come along and do terrible damage to cotton and corn and soybeans and tobacco and everything else, fences down for farmers who have cattle and so forth. So we've got terrible damage to agriculture. Traditionally agriculture has gotten very little help. The President has pledged to me they'll take a new look at that. And the Secretary of Agriculture - I hope that Congress will come up with a way to really help the farmers with what they have lost. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Gov. Hunt, what about the evacuation in your state, how did that go, and what lessons have you learned? GOV. JIM HUNT: Well, I think the evacuation went well in North Carolina. We had slow traffic coming up I-40 from Wilmington. We were about to reverse the flow, as Gov. Hodges wisely did. And about that time it leveled out and we didn't need to do that. But people in North Carolina have had a lot of hurricanes; we respect them; we know they can kill you. And I'll tell you, I think our people were glad to be getting off. In the future I hope we can design these highways, have some intelligent transportation system, some more signaling and other things to help us do it faster, but, again, this was a historic, unprecedented kind of storm - certainly the amount of rain that we had was here - and we always learn. Every time we have one of these, we learn some new things, how to do it better. We've gotten pretty good, unfortunately, but we'll learn from this, and we'll do this better in the future. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And Gov. Hunt, you're really right in the middle of this, aren't you, this water is still rising.
	Rising waters threaten
	GOV. JIM HUNT: This water is coming up very quickly. We have some rivers that have about a 15 historic -- the flood crest is 15 feet -- they're already over 30 feet. And they're going up another five or six feet in the next twenty-four hours. So we have a really tough situation here, and, as I said, we need everybody's help. Lots of governors have called and the President and other folks, and we're going to need it all. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Gov. Hodges, what other lessons have you learned so far from what's happened? GOV. JAMES HODGES: Well, I think we're all grateful that there aren't South Carolina families today that are planning funerals of family members and there aren't South Carolinians that are sorting through a rubble of wood they used to call their homes. One of the lessons we've learned however is the importance of when you have a multi-state evacuation of having a good transportation plan in effect and one that uses both sides of the interstate to try and get traffic out. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And Gov. Hodges, are you afraid that perhaps next time because the storm wasn't as bad as it might have been and also because of the problems people had in getting out, they might not want to leave? GOV. JAMES HODGES: Well, I don't think so. We had a nasty hurricane called Hurricane Hugo 10 years ago, and I think it taught everyone a lesson in South Carolina a lesson about leaving and going to safe shelter, and that lesson is still etched pretty firmly in the memories of most people in our state. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And Gov. Hodges also, are you getting the federal help you need? GOV. JAMES HODGES: We did. We probably won't qualify for some of the individual aid that Gov. Hunt talked about, but we did get an emergency declaration in advance of the storm that will qualify us for reimbursement of up to 75 percent of the state expenses and local expenses associated with hurricane relief. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And Gov. Hunt, you mentioned that you're going to need some agricultural aid, and that farmers are sometimes left behind in these aid programs. Are you getting other federal help that you need? GOV. JIM HUNT: We are, and the Congress is going to need to help us with the agricultural help because the laws don't now permit that. Agriculture is discriminated against. But I want to say, as Gov. Hodges and I said to the President today, how much we appreciate the work of FEMA on this, James Lee Witt, and others, and the President calling us while he was actually flying back from Asia on Air Force One to express his concern, to make a declaration at that time for public kinds of assistance, and today when we met with him, he declared on the spot without us even having to document it formally before it starts happening that those of us who qualify can get individual assistance, so our people can start calling right now. They can call the 800 number; they can report their damage; they can tell how much insurance they have; and FEMA can start working on it; and in some cases have a check coming within a week, so we're getting good help from Washington but there is so much to be done, there is so much loss and damage, and we need everything we can get. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Well, Gov. Hunt, Gov. Hodges, thank you for being with us.