Governor Cooper: Update on NC preparations for Tropical Storm Ian

Good afternoon everybody and thank you for joining our briefing

today

As you know Hurricane Ian has landed a devastating blow

to florida and we'll feel the remnants of it in

north Carolina tomorrow while we get ready

Our thoughts are with the people who have already faced

the brunt of the storm and we've provided some logistical

help to florida

Our state will stand ready to assist them more after

the storm passes us

But today it's time for all north Carolinians to ready

ourselves to stay safe

In recent hours IAN has reminded us of the dangerous

unpredictability of these storms as its track continues to change

we now expect the storm to strengthen into a hurricane

again this evening before making another landfall near charleston

South Carolina

So for north Carolinians I want to be clear this

storm can still be dangerous

And even deadly Heavy rains up to 7" in some

areas are likely to bring flooding landslides are a threat

in our mountains and there's a chance of tornadoes statewide

coastal flooding heavy rain and gusty winds are likely as

this storm passes through

Remember it was only 13 months ago that tropical storm

Fred brought destruction and death to our mountains in western

North Carolina

That storm killed six people and damaged 125 homes along

with more than 200 roads and bridges

In addition north Carolinians need to be prepared for potential

power outages throughout the weekend and if you haven't already

it's time to make sure that your family is prepared

It's a good idea to have multiple ways to receive

emergency information like a battery powered radio or a cell

phone so you can receive storm weather watches and warnings

need to gather emergency supplies like nonperishable food water and

flashlights in case you lose power

If you already have an emergency kick kit

Now it's a good time to check for the batteries

and refresh your supplies

If you don't have an emergency kit the ready n

C dot gov

That's ready

N c dot gov website will tell you how to

assemble it

Also it's good to plan to have a place to

go if you have to leave your home

Most important don't drive through water on the roads

Many people have died in past storms when their vehicles

were caught in floodwaters

We're seeing people right now being rescued from cars in

florida

Don't take the chance

If a road is flooded turn around find a different

route

If you can't see the pavement beneath the water then

there's likely a problem

Yesterday I declared a state of emergency to help us

prepare and respond to this storm

This activates the state's emergency operation plan

It eases rules to help with the transport of fuel

and critical supplies including crops and livestock and it protects

consumers from price

Gouging

It also allows us to seek federal assistance and reimbursement

if that becomes necessary

I've also activated 80 members of the North Carolina National

Guard to help with storm response

Some of these men and women will be equipped with

high clearance vehicles to move people and resources safely in

flooded areas

Our state Emergency Operations Center where we are now has

been activated and staffed with people across state government nonprofits

and the private sector making sure that we have the

resources to help our communities if they need it today

We have with us Emergency Management Director Will Ray Public

Safety Secretary Eddie Buffalo Transportation Secretary at eric Boyette Colonel

Freddy johnson the commander of the north Carolina state Highway

Patrol and Major General Todd Hunt the Adjutant General of

the north Carolina National Guard our Sign Language interpreters or

Nicole Fox and Monica Mckee

And behind the scenes Jackie motive and Erica Kugler are

spanish language interpreters

I'll now turn it over to direct array

Mhm

Thank you governor and good afternoon everyone as the governor

said the State Emergency Response Team activated here at the

State Emergency Operations Center this morning along with our three

regional coordination centers across the state and will maintain that

posture through the duration of this event

We have a total of 350 personnel working here and

at our three regional centers in the eastern central and

western branches as well as some working remotely to support

the response that includes employees from state government agencies federal

partners and representatives from voluntary nonprofit and private sector agencies

That is the strength of the state Emergency Response Team

all those organizations working in partnership collaborating to make sure

we can get the right resources to our local communities

when they're needed

In addition to the search and rescue capability that is

held locally across the state

These are teams that are staffed by local fire departments

and other first responders were also deploying and prepositioning some

additional search and rescue and swift water rescue teams to

areas of concern where the higher rainfall amounts are expected

in case they're needed there we're staging components of two

urban Search and Rescue task forces and seven additional swiftwater

teams across the western and central areas of our state

to move into impacted areas as needed

As the governor stated the north Carolina National Guard has

mobilized a number of force packages to support emergency response

and those will also be pre pre staged in western

and central areas of our state

Finally support from the Department of Transportation the State Highway

Patrol the office of the State Fire Marshal in the

office of E

M

S

Are also collated in our co located across the state

in our regional centers to support effective response

As the governor stated please remain aware of the current

forecast and the possible risk to your area or where

you are traveling

The track of hurricane IAN continues to evolve and adjust

where we may see impacts here in north Carolina with

gusty winds and potentially saturated grounds

We're likely to see toppled trees bringing down power lines

and causing power outages

While we are not anticipating widespread power outages at this

time isolated outages are possible with the increase in potential

wind speeds that we have seen

If your power goes out

Please remember some basic safety rules

Always use generators outdoors and away from the home to

avoid the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning

This is the same for gas and charcoal grills

Never use those indoors as their fumes can be deadly

Don't try to charge your cell phone by running the

car in the garage

That creates deadly carbon monoxide fumes as well

Again while we don't expect widespread evacuations will be needed

during the storm for those that live in our coastal

counties where coastal flooding will be a threat

Make sure you know your zone that is no

If you live in a predetermined evacuation zone about 20

counties on the coast have established the zones that local

officials will use

If they need to order evacuations visit know your zone

dot n c dot gov to find out if you

live in one of these evacuation zones and listen for

your zone

If evacuations are ordered again it's good to be prepared

But we don't expect widespread evacuations with this storm

We've received some questions about providing north Carolina resources to

florida as well as other impacted states

We currently have resources providing tactical communications support at the

florida state E O

C

And as soon as we know that other resources will

not be needed here at home we will quickly pivot

to look at opportunities to support our partners in those

impacted states

I want to say I'm incredibly proud of the men

and women of the state emergency response team local state

federal tribal nonprofit and volunteer agencies and the private sector

that all work together to prepare and respond to ultimately

protect 10.5 million North Carolinians

We also need each of you as a part of

that whole of community approach to check on your neighbors

friends and family as we move through this event to

make sure everyone is safe and secure

Thank you governor

Thank you Director A and now we will hear from

north Carolina

Department of Transportation Secretary eric Boyette thank you governor

Good afternoon from the Department of Transportation

I'd like to start by saying our thoughts and prayers

are with our neighbors to the south as they recover

from the devastation brought on by the storm

N

C D O T is actively monitoring the storm closely

and other weather conditions that are impacting our state

This will help us respond to the transportation infrastructure needs

across north Carolina

Our crews have checked necessary equipment to ensure that we

already we have had more than 2200 employees statewide help

us prepare this week for this event

We have about 1500 chainsaws 11,000 barricades emergency signs and

ample fuel supply to respond

We have also specialized equipment ready to clear debris in

about 1400 trucks 400 backhoes and loaders and more than

200 motor graders ready to respond

The divisions have also taken inventory of items that they

need to use for repair of pipes and bridges as

needed

Our traffic safety units have been proactively monitoring speeds on

our North South interstate routes since early this week and

at this point they have not observed any issues with

any additional traffic coming from evacuations

Our road construction across all of our state could pause

due to severe weather impacts in the East Coast Express

Our passenger fare for the 20-2022 season ended early yesterday

due to potential impacts to the outer banks

We've also suspended the ferry routes from cedar Island and

Swan quarter to Ocracoke island this morning due to weather

conditions due to the anticipated use of high winds are

ports authority will pause vessel operations friday in Wilmington and

Morehead City at this time

All state run passenger trains are continued to operate but

for the latest schedules please visit N

C

By train dot org

Looking ahead

Once the damage is assessed we will work to get

our roads open swiftly as possible using our contract partners

as needed

Safety is always our number one priority and we want

to make sure everyone stays off the roads in the

storm affected areas

Please don't drive through roads with standing water turn around

don't drown never drive around barricades the barricades are there

to protect you please be patient And we always encourage

you to look at and visit N

C

Or drive in C dot gov for the most up

to date information on travel conditions again

Thank you

And please be safe Government

Thank you Secretary Boyette

If you guys have questions we have micro microphones on

both sides of the room and there will also be

will take questions from people who may have called in

In addition to Director Wray and Secretary Boyette we have

Secretary Buffalo uh Commander johnson and General Hunt here to

take questions as well

Any questions guys Uh my name is Evan Siri with

spectrum news One

Thanks for taking my question

How has what has transpired in florida affected strategies here

uh for preparation for this storm

We know that these storms can be unpredictable and their

strength can be so impactful

We we know the plan unfortunately here in north Carolina

we have a lot of experience having gone through these

storms

And so I think we are ready across the board

We know too that even though this storm will lose

strength by the time it reaches north Carolina that even

tropical or subtropical storms with heavy rains and wind can

cause severe damage and death in north Carolina

So we're gonna be ready

Uh we also once this storm passes here and we

make sure that we've got the resources we need

We will help provide more resources to florida if they

need them john von with the news and Observer

Um you all mentioned watching it and potential changes once

it reaches here

Um what kind of plans are in place for potential

emergency shelters if it doesn't track exactly where everyone thinks

it's going and and other response Yeah there there's at

least one county that's talking about putting together an emergency

shelter

But I'll let Director Ray address that specifically

So thank you for that question

Don I think as you said and as we've talked

about we are going to see probably some continued shifts

and evolution of of where this storm will actually make

landfall in south Carolina uh tomorrow I think making sure

that this team is here that we are all working

together closely monitoring it is gonna allow us to quickly

pivot and adjust and see if that storm does enter

south Carolina in a more northern area that impacts in

our southeastern part of the state a different way or

central part of the state

A different way to be able to have those partners

here ready to move those resources around particularly as it

relates to uh immediate emergency sheltering

I think it's going to be critical

We've had a lot of discussion over the course of

this week

Um It has ramped up today with our local partners

um with our local emergency management officials on what they're

looking at um from both a need and staffing staff

point to be able to support emergency emergency sheltering

Again we have one county that has kind of proactively

leaned forward and is looking at potentially opening one tonight

Um that's pending

I think discussion with the county leadership

We know there's discussion with many other counties about what

may be needed based on storm track and understanding that

as we move through the rest of today and into

tonight we still have a amount of time for this

storm to continue to shift and evolve

So again to me this reinforces why we need to

have this forward lean why the state Emergency Operations Center

needed to be activated proactively today to make sure that

we have those partners in this building and in our

regional centers so that as we see what the impact

will be on the ground we can quickly move the

right resource around and for people thinking about the next

days ahead is it primarily tomorrow is the most concerned

as far as as far as north Carolina's impact

So right now we will start to see impacts tomorrow

through the day into the evening primarily the timing has

shifted and again this is one of the reasons why

you folks need to be aware of the forecast earlier

this week

It was gonna be a saturday impact

Now it's largely a friday impact

We will see some lingering parts of the system moving

through the state saturday into sunday

So there will be additional rainfall and precipitation and risk

from weather through the weekend

But the bulk of the weather and the risk that

we're talking about right now from either the western part

of the state or on the coast is gonna really

be concentrated right now

Tomorrow and tomorrow night

I just wanted to clarify regarding the pre positioning the

cruise

It sounded like they're primarily in the western and central

parts of the state

Is anything going on in the eastern part of the

state or are you all just not expecting the eastern

part to be as heavily impacted as the central and

western parts

So I think a couple of things like great great

question

A couple of things

One um there are a significant amount of search and

rescue and swift water rescue capabilities that we have across

our counties across north Carolina especially in the eastern part

of the state

Um one of the reasons we picked the task forces

that we did to move to western north Carolina was

to leave some of the capability organic to those areas

in eastern north Carolina

Additionally not knowing exactly where the storm will track into

north Carolina and what those impacts may be having the

team stationed in central north Carolina along the major through

ways are gonna allow us to move them either direction

if we see the major risk or threat occurring because

of landslides and flash flooding in the mountains

We already have some pre positioned there but to be

able to move some that are staged in the triad

area

That direction um would be would be one possibility or

the other direction to these

Again that's gonna be determined based on final track into

the state

What impact we're seeing as well as what the local

jurisdictions identify Are there gaps or needs Because again we

have some incredible local public safety agencies in the state

that do incredible work every day and have done a

really great job at building capacity especially around search and

rescue and swift water

Do we have any questions on the phone We don't

reporters on the line please press one at this time

If you'd like to ask a question reporters on the

phone press one to ask the question

Don't see any hands at this time

Governor thank you very much for joining us today

Everybody stay safe out there