Gov. Cooper, FEMA discuss Helene recovery and assistance

We also have the dual status commander of uh title

10 brigadier general Charles Morrison

We have the commander of us North com general Greg

Guillo

We also have our Secretary of Department of Public Safety

Eddie Buffalo our Secretary of Department of Military and Veterans

Affairs

Uh Greer Martin we also have uh our Secretary of

Department of Public Safety Buffalo

I've already recognized you

Our colonel commander of the North Carolina National Guard is

is with us today Freddie Johnson and we also have

our acting Assistant Secretary of Defense Rebecca Rebecca Zimmerman

Here there is progress in Western North Carolina toward recovery

We are grateful for the thousands of local state and

federal officials who are working in a co ordinated way

to bring relief to the people here who have suffered

from an unprecedented devastating storm

We know that there is much more to do but

we know that the people here are determined and resilient

We're also grateful for communities that have pulled together like

never before

We're grateful for the volunteers and the communities of faith

who have coordinate their efforts with government officials to make

sure that we are reaching the people who need to

be reached

Please note that anyone anyone who needs help we are

determined to provide it to them right now

We have 1700 active duty National Guard activated

And one of the purposes of this event today is

to talk about the integration of our US armed forces

with our National Guard with our FEMA forces who are

here on the ground with our state emergency management and

state and local law enforcement officers

We're grateful for the work that has gone on

We know that there is much more to do

We're still opening roads

We're still working to reach communities

We still have search and rescue occurring as we speak

But we know we know the people of North Carolina

and we pull together and that the people of Western

North Carolina will recover from this storm and will work

to be more resilient than ever

I'm now going to recognize the administrator of FEMA the

anchor

Well administrator thank you Governor and good morning everybody

I've been here in North Carolina for a week now

I believe today I've visited over a dozen of communities

with the governor

I've been side by side with Governor Cooper talking to

mayors talking to local officials talking to the local sheriffs

talking to the fire chiefs and hearing from them listening

to what their needs are to support their community and

to make sure that we are bringing in the resources

that are needed and I want to assure you as

I have told the governor that we at FEMA and

the entire federal family are here to support the needs

of these communities in delivering exactly what they want where

they want and when they need it I listened to

these local officials during these visits to identify what else

needed to come in to one of the things we

identified was the ability to get commodities from the points

of distribution to the front doors because we knew that

there were a number of isolated and limited access communities

that were out there

I am so appreciative that my dod colleagues are here

with us today to support us in this critical mission

The Title 10 Forces as you'll hear from are augmenting

the incredible work that the National Guard has been doing

since day one helping us to truly meet people where

they are and bring them these basic needs to help

during this response

An event of this size requires a significant support and

it requires that support from the entire federal family

I have been coordinating with my counterparts from all of

the different departments and agencies to make sure we're bringing

in what we need to support this community

I have engaged with their senior leadership and to date

we have brought in nearly 3400 federal responders from across

the different departments and agencies to North Carolina

This is 20 different departments and agencies bringing in these

this is on top of the 1500 personnel from the

Department of Defense that you'll hear from as well as

the thousands that you've heard from

Governor Cooper the National Guard and all of the first

responders that have been out of these communities since day

one

This is a big team but this is what is

required I have seen and I have led complex events

This is a complicated event

But let me be clear fema is good at complexity

Our team we are coordinators we are collaborators we are

problem solvers but we are also part of a larger

team

And so I am grateful to be surrounded here today

by my partners from the Department of Defense who are

so committed to helping us support this mission

And together we will be here with North Carolinians as

long as it takes

And with that I'll turn it over to General

M

Thank you ma'am today

It's my honor to be the dual status commander

And my role is to ensure unity of effort between

our National Guard Forces which the administrator said have been

here since before the storm and now our active duty

military forces that have come in to our assistance and

to achieve unity of effort

Today the citizens of North Carolina have a joint task

force that's made up of over 3300 both active duty

and National Guard Military Forces that includes 918 vehicles and

over 41 aircraft

North Carolina National Guard continues the efforts that they have

had since well before the storm in places here like

Asheville and all across Western North Carolina that also includes

National Guard from across the 54 States of the Union

Just yesterday we received two more engineered task forces from

both Michigan and Virginia to add to that critical need

here to our relief efforts

I want to speak to a moment about the active

army integration that has been seamless

Early communication between senior leaders allowed us to make sure

that these active duty forces were equipped properly for the

mission at hand

Normally active duty forces are deploying to fight and win

our nation's wars

And so we organized for the Mission Task Force Castle

which came right out of Fort Liberty here in North

Carolina arrived in Marion North Carolina and with probably three

or four hours of sleep was conducting missions

They are on their third day of missions here in

North Carolina doing route clearance and at the same time

delivering those commodities that the administrator talked about to places

that may not have had access to them before

But what they are finding is progress

They are that most places have most of the humanitarian

assistance that they need

And in some cases they just needed assistance with donation

management

So you have soldiers both National Guard and active duty

alike helping organize the massive amount of donations from generous

people from all across this nation

And at the same time providing relief as we continue

to push humanitarian assistance relief

The 101st soldiers from Fort Campbell Kentucky arrived with infantry

squad vehicles

I will liken these to all terrain vehicles and they

are immediately assisting our fema partners with wide area searches

to continue to make sure that we have located all

individuals and also where we might need to deliver more

supplies

We also are having them team up with the North

Client Department of Agriculture Commissioner Troxler has provided us with

locals who know the people and the terrain to allow

us to get into areas that we might not have

access so far to this point

Our partnership with the Department of Defense and this status

is exactly why the dual status commander was invented after

the after the response to Katrina so many years ago

it allows us to seamlessly integrate all components the military

both National Guard and active to achieve that unity of

effort in our response to relieve the Western relieve the

suffering of our fellow citizens here in Western North Carolina

And I'll be followed by the Commander of the United

States Northern Command

Ok

I'm uh General Greg Eel

I'd like to thank uh Governor Cooper Administrator Chris

Well and uh bring General Morrison

I'd like to acknowledge the tremendous amount of tireless work

and effort by thousands of people and hundreds of organizations

that are bringing aid to the citizens of North Carolina

as the commander of us

North com we're honored to support the state fema and

the dual status commander creator General Morrison by providing active

duty forces in a number of areas that can fall

under his command and control

Using the dual status commander role that comes from the

president through the Secretary of Defense at the request of

Governor Cooper which allows him uniquely to command and control

both state and federal forces

At the same time that will bring the citizens of

North Carolina unity of effort and response where we can

provide the types of capabilities that are needed that will

fall side by side with the North Carolina National Guard

troops under his able and forward thinking leadership

As General Morrison mentioned the first wave of response has

been helicopters from Fort Liberty Engineering Battalion from Fort Liberty

and then also the infantry battalions that are coming in

from Fort Campbell Kentucky

But I should point out that those in the 101st

airborne but they are part of the 18th Airborne Corps

the elite unit based out of uh for Liberty that

is providing the majority of the 1500 person title 10

response

Additionally we have some navy helicopters that are working directly

for administrator Chris Well and Fema and then we have

some very capable search and rescue aircraft that are across

the border in Tennessee at mcgee Tyson International Guard Base

that are flying 10 hour sorties a day throughout Western

North Carolina providing search and rescue medevac and landing to

provide basic medical care and wellness checks throughout the region

I'd like to close by saying it is a tremendous

honor for us to support not only Brier General Morrison

as the commander of these forces but the state and

fema in this most important and honorable mission for us

which is to help fellow citizens again

Thank you very much

OK

We'll be glad to take your question

Governor Cooper Sean Gallagher Wrl you mentioned progress is being

made but we don't have a timeline of when water

could be restored for the people here making it difficult

for people to plan how to move forward

What's your expectation for having water restored to Western North

Carolina Well that's going to be a community by community

event because we had more than 50 water systems throughout

Western North Carolina that were impaired or destroyed

Many of them are coming back when the power comes

back

So people are getting water a bit at a time

We by that I mean that communities are coming on

one at a time

We're seeing progress in that

As for Asheville and the places in Buncombe County it

serves it's still going to be a while there is

progress being made but we don't know yet

We have uh engineers from the US Army Corps of

engineers who are here working with civil engineers and others

to make sure that that we are doing everything we

can to get water back on all over Western North

Carolina

But we don't have a specific timeline on on Bunkum

right now

What do you say to the people who are saying

you are not there to help them yet Is it

coming or is it not Yeah people who are saying

that are misinformed or intentionally uh providing this information

Uh We have thousands of local state and federal officials

who are working in North Carolina and who are making

sure that people have what they need

There are some very isolated communities that they're doing airdrops

and working to find temporary ways to get to them

But if if you knew what was happening on the

ground you would see that there is a co ordinated

effort to help people already

Uh F MA has I think more than um 100

and 4000 people who have registered for assistance

The $31 million has been distributed

They have 700 people in hotel rooms in their temporary

shelter program

There's a lot that's happening right now to help people

where they're at

What is the timeline for the moment of like what

would you tell me Probably we still don't want tourists

coming to western North Carolina right now

We need to preserve roads for the commodities that are

coming in for utility workers for cell phone workers for

people who are providing medical assistance

There's a lot of work going on to provide uh

making sure that people are getting their oxygen making sure

they're getting their regular medical supplies

So we don't want people coming right now

Uh there will be some roads that will take quite

a while in in order to repair because if you've

been to western North Carolina you know that some roads

are very rugged on a beautiful day with with no

storm roads that have been damaged are going to take

a while to repair

But we've already gotten $100 million in beginning emergency response

from federal dot Our state legislature is going in Wednesday

to provide additional funding

So we've got everybody on the ground working to repair

these roads be able to hear this might be better

now not might be sent to us

Is that ok Absolutely false

We are managing this disaster across six states right now

Uh we continue to bring in resources

I had people on the ground before this disaster before

the storm hit this part of western North Carolina

We have continued to bring in those resources and it

was part of me being here on Monday of last

week working with the governor to identify what additional resources

need to be coming in

And if you've been out and you've seen the air

traffic coming in here and moving out into the communities

the air moving supplies fema supplies but also donated supplies

we have thousands of people on the ground not just

federal but also our volunteers in the private sector

And frankly that type of rhetoric is demoralizing to our

staff that have left their families to come here and

help the people of North Carolina

And we will be here as long as

has what had an effect on operations

The rumor I mean what it does is it really

affects the morale of our people who are trying so

hard to get into communities

But the biggest effect I would say is people that

have been impacted are afraid to apply for our assistance

assistance that then they can get a hotel room they

can get reimbursement for some of the costs or damages

to their home

If I can't get them to apply I can't give

them the money and the resources that they're eligible for

And we're hearing that people are afraid to apply for

the assistance and so we need them to know

I've heard rumors that if you take our $750 and

don't pay it back we're going to take your home

Absolutely false

The $750 gives you money to help with your medicine

or the food you lost in your refrigerator

And then we're going to give additional money for the

repairs to your homes and the items that were lost

We're going to help with any rental that they incur

or any of the displacement costs

If they went and stayed at a hotel all of

that reimbursed but I can't give it to them if

they don't apply and if people are afraid to apply

then it is hurting them

Ok

I really appreciate that question

So we know people have immediate needs right after these

storms

And so what we want to do is just push

a little bit of money out into the community to

help them again purchase their medicine when I went into

Walmart the other day and I saw people going in

to buy supplies

That's what that money is for

So they can go replace the food clothing that they

lost and they can just have those first few days

of support

But we give additional assistance

We will be able to help them with any costs

they incurred

If they're renting a place if they went to a

hotel we will also be able to give them funding

and resources financial resources for repairs to their home and

we will work with them for long term support if

they need if they're going to be out of their

home for a long period of time because the damages

are so extensive

That's just the initial infusion which really helps people in

those first few days

So need it

It's actually a new program that we've just started and

we didn't have this before

The rest of the funding will continue to come

But again I need people to apply for that so

we can get them the resources they need

place

No and what you so that number is rapidly dwindling

as federal and state officials are working to check on

uh reports that have been given to a central place

regarding people who may be missing or people they hadn't

been able to get in contact with

We know a lot of reunifications have occurred that have

not been reported back

We know that a lot of people have finally gotten

cell phone service and talked to the people who made

the report that hasn't gotten back to us

We should have a good number on that

Uh maybe by the end of the day or tomorrow

the administrator and I were just talking about that and

we'll try to get that number out publicly because I

know a lot of people are interested in it and

if they should be because we are checking on every

report that we get their soldiers and National Guard and

emergency management people going door to door working to try

to find people when there is a report that they

have not gotten the communication but that number has dwindled

significantly and we hope to give you that number very

soon group or any vit staff with any updates that

you around many progressive wars and Black Mountain

Amazing what that I don't have specific information with me

on that

And I don't think I have a transportation secretary with

me we will get you that information Jordan

If you can make sure that we find that out

We've got a little over 500 roads that we are

working to clear and those kinds of roads are prioritized

to make sure that we're getting uh utility crews in

repair crews in making sure that we can get commodities

to people who haven't been reached

Yeah I guess I right

I they said no

Yeah like thank you

Oh my God

When you when you were like that what let me

check it out

I been here for