Gov. Roy Cooper delivers Sunday update to Tropical Storm Helene recovery efforts

Well good afternoon everybody and thank you for joining us

2024-09-29

I wanna share the latest updates on the widespread catastrophic

damage hurricane Helene has caused to the western part of

our state bringing historic rainfall and flooding and how we

are working together to help everyone get through this crisis

Yesterday we received word from Washington that President Biden approved

my expedited request declaring a major disaster for 25 North

Carolina counties and the eastern band of the Cherokees

This declaration will immediately pave the way for public assistance

to help our hard hit local governments as well as

provide much needed relief to our residents through the individual

assistance program and people are already signing up

We'll announce more information about this federal aid a little

bit later depending on where you are

This unprecedented storm dropped from 10 to 29 inches of

rain across the mountains causing life threatening floods and landslides

Unfortunately 11 people in our state have died as a

result of this storm

And tragically we know there will be more our prayers

and condolences go out to those families in this terrible

time even as the rain and the winds have subsided

The challenge for people

There increases people are desperate for help and we are

pushing to get it to them

A massive effort

Many people are cut off because roads are impassable

They don't have power or communications

Please know that we are sending resources and coordinating closely

with local governments first responders state and federal partners and

volunteer organizations to help those impacted by this tragic storm

because it's so difficult to get trucks in by land

Yesterday we began airlifting supplies including food and water into

the region

A number of mass feeding sites have been open water

food and other supplies are coming into Asheville and they're

also being airlifted from there to surrounding counties

A 20 bed state medical support center is opening in

Caldwell County today and we will be setting up more

search and rescue teams including 19 teams from other states

and three federal teams have rescued hundreds of people including

more than 100 rescued by the North Carolina National Guard

Nearly 464,000 customers remain without power down from a peak

though of more than a million North Carolina Department of

Transportation is getting food and water supply trucks power and

cell phone utility trucks and other vehicles through the damaged

roads and into western North Carolina

More than 500 North Carolina National Guard members are now

working alongside local emergency responders conducting search and rescue missions

delivering needed supplies and working to restore infrastructure cell phone

providers are working to fix the damage and get stop

GP solutions in place and rapid progress is being made

Restoring communications is critical to saving lives finding out where

people are and getting in supplies

And I've been in constant contact with cell phone companies

urging action and offering them support

Well over 1000 people have taken refuge taken refuge in

24 shelters

People who need help finding shelter or other resources should

call 211 or visit Ready nc.gov

We've seen how during this hurricane how successful our 911

backup systems have worked as 911 calls are now being

handled by counties not affected by the storm

I want to remind people to avoid calling 911 though

with non emergency questions more than 1600 North Carolina Department

of Transportation employees and contract crews are working to clear

roads and get them open again

But travel in western North Carolina remains limited and dangerous

280 state maintained roads are closed including parts of interstate

40 interstate 26

Please stay off western North Carolina roads so that emergency

responders responders utility crews and desperately needed supplies can get

through

We don't need people visiting western North Carolina viewing the

damage

The state emergency response team is working around the clock

and we are grateful for our local state and federal

partners who are helping North Carolina in this time of

need

We're seeing progress but we know the need is great

Helene's impacts will continue and people will continue to need

our help

North Carolina is strong and our first responders are the

best in the country

I'm thankful for their hard work and for risking their

lives to protect all North Carolinians

This is an unprecedented tragedy that requires an unprecedented response

We're hearing from many people who wanna help and we're

grateful for that support

We're also activating the North Carolina Disaster relief fund managed

by the United Way of North Carolina

Later this afternoon you'll be able to donate for hell

for Helene relief at nc.gov backslash donate

Today

I'm joined by emergency management director

Will Ray our North Carolina Department of Transportation Secretary Joey

Hopkins Major General Todd Hunt Hunt the Adjutant General of

the North Carolina National Guard Colonel Freddie Johnson the commander

of the North Carolina Highway Patrol

And we've got Cody Kinsley our Secretary of the Department

of Health and Human Services

Uh our American sign language interpreters are Brian Tipton and

Karen Marion

Behind the scenes are Spanish language interpreters are Jackie Metivier

and Erica Kugler

We first hear from emergency management will

thank you Governor Cooper and good good afternoon Western North

Carolina has experienced catastrophic and devastating damages

And the North Carolina State emergency response team and our

many partners continue to respond to the impacts and the

need of our local jurisdictions

There are stories after stories of actions taken by our

first responders to save lives and to overcome overwhelming situations

I want to remind all North Carolinians that conditions on

the ground remain extremely dangerous even as flooding has has

continued and and it will continue to recede

Roadways are damaged

There are downed power lines and unstable ground

There are still many rain swollen rivers across the mountains

and it may take some time for the flooding to

fully dissipate

We ask people not to venture into storm affected areas

whether to check on property loved ones or just to

sightsee besides endangering yourself

You could also be interfering with emergency responders or repair

crews

Please let the professionals do their jobs

There are 31 county states of emergencies and 28 municipal

states of emergency with 24 shelters open with over 1000

individuals being served

I wish to thank those working in our shelters to

provide displaced North Carolinians with food shelter and access to

critical resources

The work you are doing is vital to helping our

residents

There are over 45 search and rescue teams engaged in

the response from North Carolina and other states such as

Illinois Indiana Oklahoma New York New Jersey New Hampshire Delaware

Michigan Alabama Connecticut and Wisconsin as well as federal search

and rescue assets

We have over 730 brave responders in in the search

and rescue effort

In addition to the hundreds of local first responders these

teams are s are supported by over 200 personnel providing

communications logistics and planning support

These response teams are working around the clock to make

rescues to access neighborhoods to assist communications partners with access

to infrastructure and to conduct welfare checks

As of today there have been hundreds of rescues made

if you need rescue or have an emergency

Please call 911 for general disaster information

You can also visit N CD ps.gov backslash Helene first

to keep phone lines open if it's not an emergency

and you need to report someone missing or if you

are requesting a welfare check please call 211 select your

preferred language and then push option one

Thank you to the United Way and to the 211

operators who are working around the clock to process an

unprecedented number of calls

The North Carolina National Guard is actively engaged and have

deployed 556 guard guardsmen and 100 and 95 vehicles for

multiple missions including high water vehicles to access communities commodity

delivery and search and rescue

Our aviation assets are conduct conducting search and rescue missions

and facilitating the movement of commodities into the impacted communities

We would ask to allow for appropriate safety of aircraft

Individuals refrain from flying drones in the air

These could impede public safety and uh impede repair operations

The North Carolina Office of Ems is working with impacted

counties to ensure that pre hospital care and Ems systems

are supported to provide life saving emergency response

They've deployed ambulances personnel and are closely communicating with hospitals

and licensed care facilities to ensure that fragile medical populations

are moved to safe locations and cared for

There's been a federal public health emergency declared for North

Carolina yesterday to assist in facilitating medical treatment within impacted

communities and to remove barriers to quickly re establishing sustained

medical resources

North Carolina D HHS is also reminding North Carolinians in

western North Carolina that drinking water may not be safe

to drink from from municipal sources or well water flooding

damages infrastructure and wells with contaminants only use bottled boiled

or treated water for drinking cooking and personal hygiene in

impacted areas

For more information please visit your local health departments social

media platforms or websites

Many people are understandably concerned about family or other loved

ones that they cannot reach

There are still several areas where mobile and landline services

remain degraded west of interstate 77

I want to thank the telecom telecommunications professionals that have

been working around the clock to restore cell phone service

and mobile data to the mountains

For those in western North Carolina we ask that you

turn your phones off and turn them back on periodically

to allow the phone to connect to a network on

Friday

Our telecommunications partners activated disaster roaming on all networks

What this means is that any phone on any carrier

can access any network to place calls

This is yet another another example of the whole of

community response across all sectors of government

The private sector are nonprofits and volunteer agencies that are

taking place for those without phone service that can access

the internet

You can activate Facebook crisis response on your profile to

tell your contacts that you are ok

There are 280 roadways still closed and just over 500,000

power outages down from as you heard from the governor

over a million restoration restoration operations are underway with crews

from other states converging on North Carolina to assist

And I want to remind everyone that carbon monoxide is

a concern when you are cooking on a grill or

operating a generator for power

Please make sure you do these things away from your

home as carbon monoxide is a colorless and odorless killer

Last night North Carolina received a major disaster declaration for

the 25 counties and the eastern band of Cherokee Indians

that provides critical recovery resources including individual assistance which can

assist impacted residents with funding for their immediate needs

Please continue to follow the North Carolina emergency management social

media platforms and N CD ps.gov backslash Helene as more

information will be issued on recovery resources in the very

near future

Residents can also call 1 806 213362 for individual assistance

information for those that have asked to volunteer

We appreciate your desire to help

You can visit NC va.org backslash volunteer for more information

for general information links to resources and answers to frequently

asked questions

Please visit N CD ps.gov backslash Helene

This website will continue to be updated with additional resources

as we conclude response phase and move into the recovery

phase

There are many North Carolinians who are tired worried and

feeling the impacts of this significant event to our friends

and family in Western North Carolina

Please know that all of North Carolina stands with you

We are stronger together and make for more resilient communities

Finally I wanna once again acknowledge those that have left

their families and worked long hours in challenging conditions responded

to emergency calls for assistance and have staffed emergency operation

centers and incident command posts across the state to keep

all North Carolinians safe

Thank you for what you do every day to protect

the 10.8 million people that call this great state home

We are truly lucky to have such outstanding first responders

and public safety professionals in North Carolina

Thank you

So we'll now hear from Todd Hunt Major General of

Major General of Adjutant General of the North Carolina National

Guard

Thank you Governor and uh good afternoon as was previously

mentioned the North Carolina National Guard has increased to over

500 soldiers and airmen and over 200 vehicles

Our main effort right now is to include aircraft uh

for the affected area

We have aircraft aircraft that include hoist and emergency responders

on them and also our high water vehicles are being

employed as we speak

As of this morning our soldiers and airmen conducted numerous

rescues in the western part of North Carolina and a

lot of those were air rescues

We've also moved soldiers from the central part of North

Carolina into the western part of North Carolina as the

roads prohibit us to do yesterday we flew over 52

hours

We had 100 and 17 rescues and of those we

rescued over 119 citizens of North Carolina to include 11

of their pets

Seven of these of these rescues came within one area

around the chimney rock area

North Carolina assets have identified

People on the ground are using social media and emergency

calls to locate identify and rescue those stranded citizens in

western North Carolina

We also rescued an infant and we're able to take

that infant directly to the hospital for care

The largest mission we saw and rescue was 41 people

north of Asheville in Buncombe County

We've also moved over 3 34,000 commodities or pounds of

commodities to include water food and medicine for distribution

In the past 48 hours

We've also um augmented our personnel with 15 more aircraft

These are heavy lift aircraft and they came out of

the States of Connecticut Maryland Ohio Iowa Florida South Carolina

and Pennsylvania the North Carolina National Guard in com coordinating

with emergency management and first responders are here until the

mission is complete

In closing

I want to personally thank the guardians of our great

state the soldiers and citizens of North Carolina and our

first responders for their selfless service risking their lives to

protect others

I would also like to acknowledge the families of those

previously mentioned the employers and the universities of our soldier

citizens or our citizen soldiers as they go out and

help fellow North Carolinians

Um thank you very much Governor

We now have our Secretary of Transportation

Uh Mr Hopkins come forward Joey Hopkins thank you Governor

Our hearts go out to the people of western North

Carolina in the wake of the storm

And please know that we have dot Crews already in

the area and they have begun operations

They're working hard to assess damages and also they're beginning

emergency repairs as of 11 a.m. It's already been mentioned

We had just about 280 roads closed in Western North

Carolina and all of those are attributed to Helene

The majority of those are in Henderson Bunkum Lincoln Cleveland

Jackson Transylvania and Yancey counties

52 of these are on primary routes including two locations

on I 41 at mile marker three near the Tennessee

line and the other near Old Fort and there are

dozens of other US and NC routes closed

Many of the closures are due to high water where

the roadway is impassable or flooded

We also have several land and rock slides down power

lines pipe failures and fallen trees

Some good news though

Thanks to our staff's work

A previously closed section of I 26 south of Asheville

has reopened allowing our first major route into and out

of the city

Crews have also opened up a path through the slide

near Old Fort on I 40 to allow some stranded

vehicles and also emergency responders to pass through with assistance

from the state highway patrol

We have more than 1500 employees from all across our

highway divisions responded to incidents related to the storm

This also includes more than 100 from eastern and central

North Carolina and we have others standing by as housing

co becomes available

Many of these employees have left their homes they have

their own damage to their homes and property and even

family

And so I wanna thank them for the work they've

been doing since this storm has hit

I wanna also mention that unnecessary travel is hindering our

crews from doing the work to get the roads reopened

Our main message is simple consider all roads in western

North Carolina to be closed until further notice you can

look for additional drive information and road closure details at

drive nc.gov and as our crews continue to respond to

in incidents we will keep this website updated

I do wanna say though it will take a long

time to recover from the damages Helene left in its

path and we hope that everyone's patient with us as

we work to evaluate the damage and also make repairs

The best thing you can do for us now is

to stay home and we'll continue to keep you updated

across all of our dot social media platforms and our

website

Thank you

Thank you Secretary Hopkins

We also have with us today our F MA partners

and our Secretary of the Department of Public Safety

Eddie Buffalo will now take questions uh from people from

reporters who have called in

Our first question is from Will Atwater with North Carolina

Health News

Will Atwater go ahead

Hi

Um I have a two part question

The first part is um how many hospitals across the

region are functioning and to what degree Um and then

the second part is um uh how many public water

systems are inoperable and um how much water is being

trucked or flown in And how long do you anticipate

having to do So First we made it a primary

objective to get power back to hospitals and to make

sure that they are operating

I'm gonna turn the answer to that question over to

Secretary Cody Kinsley Department of Health and Human Services

We also know that there is significant damage to water

systems throughout western North Carolina

There there is a massive effort going on now to

move water and other supplies into these affected areas because

we know that they're gonna be needed

But I'll first uh ask Secretary Kinsley to come forward

and then Director Ray Secretary Kinsley thank you Governor and

thank you will for that question

Uh Our team is in active contact with all of

our health care facilities in Western North Carolina

And as of right now all of our hospitals remain

operating albeit many of them on backup generator power and

temporary water supply

We'll continue to work with our partners here at Unified

Command and Director Ray as we evaluate the situation and

bring supplies to the hospitals to sustain their operations

Ok thanks will

So of the uh of the systems that we're currently

tracking 52 of them are without power

We have an additional 93 systems that are on a

boil water advisory and of those 33 are awaiting uh

test results to clear that advisory

Um We know that a combination of of power loss

of power um is one contributing factor but we also

know that there's significant infrastructure damage from the amount of

water that impacted a number of these communities that are

gonna have significant rebuild impacts uh for these water systems

to to come online

We're working with our federal partners to look at uh

some official official engineering evaluation scoping some of those projects

to determine uh whether this is a simple repair that's

gonna be needed or whether we're talking an extensive overhaul

of a a of a jurisdictions water system because those

are significant lifts and and challenges

Um We are we are preparing our operation to continue

to move commodities into those impacted areas particularly food and

water um for an extended duration of time

Um As you heard a number of folks referenced today

we are looking at multiple avenues to surge commodities into

these impacted areas

We know there are a number that are still that

have incredibly limited or no access

There are still people that are in desperate need of

of water and food

For that reason we're looking at um both ground transportation

routes as they be become more available while also utilizing

uh some of the air bridge that we have discussed

today and and previously using rotor wing aircraft we're also

uh discussing other major lift um major lift options of

commodities into the impacted area with the goal being to

sustain this for a period of time again as the

governor and others have said this is a significant impact

and one that we are I think preparing to respond

to for some time

Next question my question is from Ray Gronberg with the

North Carolina Tribune in business North Carolina

Go ahead Ray

Uh good afternoon gentlemen

Uh more for Joey Hopkins than anything else

Uh How are uh you're gonna you know prioritize uh

the major road repairs such as uh the one that

file marker three on I 40

We know that these transportation repairs are going to be

significantly expensive uh to do

We want to make sure that we're prioritizing main routes

Uh The first thing we wanna do is to make

sure we get help to people

And so they are temporary solutions being worked on is

to make sure we get trucks in

But I'm gonna turn that question over to Secretary Hopkins

Thank you Governor

Thanks for the question Ray

So in general we're gonna prioritize the interstates and us

and NC routes ahead of the secondary routes

But also we've got to look at how much damage

we have

Like the one you mentioned near the Tennessee line that's

a significant amount of damage

And so even though it's a top priority of ours

it will take a long time to fix that

We're probably talking months at best

Uh We've still got to evaluate that and do some

assessments out there before we can determine what that solution

is

But we're also in in addition to those priorities we're

also looking at communities that may be cut off and

trying to find those neighborhoods and communities and get them

access restored back so they can get back and and

get the commodities and get the food that and water

that they need too

So that'll also be a priority as we continue to

work our way through all the damage and find find

these other areas

Next question our next question is from Will Michaels with

W UN C Radio Go ahead

Will uh thank you so much and good afternoon just

one point of clarification and then a quick question if

I might

Um the point of clarification is about the death toll

and understanding that these numbers can change by the hour

Um Buncombe County officials said this morning that they had

confirmed 10 deaths in Buncombe County alone

Does the number that you mentioned governor 11 include those

10 deaths Well first I'm not sure exactly what data

that Buncombe County is is using

But let me tell you this

I know that there are a lot of people who

are concerned about relatives and friends that they cannot get

in touch with

And it's one of the reasons we are pushing so

hard to get communications back up because we know that

a lot of these people are just simply out of

communication and are ok

We're gonna continue this effort to make sure that we

rescue people

The swift water rescues are going on now as we

speak the confirmation process on deaths is is is long

and complicated

You gotta make sure you notify family members

Uh I I express my deepest sympathy to people who

have have lost family members and friends to this storm

but we'll work on getting that data republic uh reported

to the pub public as quickly as we can

Do you have another question Yes sir

I appreciate that

And this question is for General Hans

I just wanted to see if I could get some

more details about search and rescue operations given that there

have been some reports from small towns like Swana Noa

where the fire chief there says that entire neighborhoods are

gone

Um Does the National Guard help with you know going

into uh neighborhoods like that where local authorities know that

there are issues And then does the National Guard also

help with security Given that there are reports of looting

and arguments breaking out at gas stations in Western North

Carolina Yes

Uh Thank you for the question

Um So I answer the second question first

Yes we we have heard reports of that

Um But you have to remember that the North Carolina

the state of North Carolina has a robust capability in

law enforcement

So you know they will probably respond before the National

Guard does to answer your second question

Our our mission yesterday was search and rescue

Uh We do have some some indications to like I

mentioned previously before on Facebook social media or just people

who are able to get a cell phone call in

and we did go out and and rescue those people

The one specific you're talking about they were 41 people

out of that neighborhood that we rescued when I mentioned

Buncombe County

Um But we are out flying today

We were flying yesterday and if we see somebody that

needs rescuing we have the capabilities with our aircraft and

our hoist aircraft and medevac to to rescue those individuals

uh just by flying through the area

Thank you

Next question

Our next question is from Ted Hessman with Reuters

Go ahead Ted

Hi

Thank you for having the ca uh call

I was wondering if you could give us an estimate

of the total cost of the damage in the state

and what your timeline is for things to be restored

to some kind of normalcy

Well first as quickly as possible we want to return

things to normalcy but we know that it's going to

be a matter of time when you have communities that

are cut off

Everyone is working as hard as we can first to

save lives because there's still water water rescues happening to

get supplies into people to make sure we get communications

back up and to get power back on to people

and to repair roads so that we can get from

one place to the next

All of those things are important as soon as we

are in a position that process of assessing damages will

occur

Uh We're also gonna be getting help to individual families

through the individual assistance approved by this disaster uh declaration

that we just got but we don't know that yet

that that'll be something that we will continue to assess

and we will work to get things uh to get

things improved as quickly as possible

Next question our next question is from Wr A LTV

Go ahead Wral

Hey forgive me guys

Uh I wasn't sure if that was going to be

my number or not

Um My question is is related to the the distribution

of that food uh the water the supplies that's coming

in

Uh You know it's been mentioned that you know this

is a massive operation

Um But we're still hearing from so many people here

in Western North Carolina who you know who are waiting

on that and who are looking for some kind of

specific timeline here So can we say when uh specifically

for these communities they can expect to start receiving this

water and start receiving this food Well first it is

happening now these commodities are being delivered

Remember there are a lot of places that we're having

difficult even even getting to and communicating with uh I'm

gonna turn it over to Will Ray to give you

the specifics of what is happening to coordinate that effort

I think as the governor said there we're dealing still

with access issues into some communities

Um That's the reason we are looking at ground options

as well as options via air and why you see

all the partners up here that you see really it

takes all of these partners to be able to clear

roads uh to provide support uh to physically lift the

the the commodities in and people out

And so that is an operation that started yesterday

Um It started very early this morning in both in

air and ground to get it into some of the

areas we know that are that are critical right now

that will go on uh throughout the day to day

and and as we've talked we are preparing to be

able to do this for for many many days ahead

so that North Carolinians have the support that they need

Thank you very much for tuning in

We're going to continue to work around the clock to

make sure that western North Carolina gets help

We thank everybody for their support and for their prayers

Thank you