North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, emergency officials give update on Debby response

As we manage the impact of the storm tornadoes strong

wind gusts and flooding caused power outages and damage across

North Carolina

Power restoration crews continue to work diligently to restore electricity

outages

Totaled almost half a million

Uh during the day yesterday they're down to close to

20,000 now

So about 20,000 power outages now make no mistake

This stubborn storm and its effects are not over

The North Carolina has not seen the sustained damaging high

winds that come with a hurricane

This storm brought a slow moving relentless rainfall across several

and with several tornadoes across our state one has been

confirmed by the National Weather service but we believe more

tornadoes will be confirmed today

We hope there won't be anymore but it takes a

little while for the National Weather service to to confirm

them and we must continue to be prepared

Multiple river gauges are at major flood stage and additional

flooding could occur this weekend or early next week

You can see that information at fireman.nc.gov that's F I

MA nf.nc.gov

And over the next several days likely afternoon showers will

increase the threat of additional flash flooding especially across eastern

North Carolina

Yesterday I went down east and met with first responders

at two spot stops in Kingston and looked at damage

caused by suspected tornadoes that hit Lu Coma in Wilson

County

I am so grateful for the efforts of our first

responders as well as the resilient spirit of the people

who have been impacted by severe weather

Teams will be there to help as you recover

The state emergency response team will also continue its work

We've activated more than 374 soldiers and airmen from the

North Carolina National Guard and deployed swift water rescue teams

that have been engaged in getting people to safety

Our Department of Transportation has been working to clear roads

and to warn people about flooded areas and downed trees

We're grateful for their work and the efforts of all

of our first responders because the water from this storm

will continue to impact some communities for several days

We ask people to keep listening to local officials evacuate

if you're advised to do so and don't drive through

flood waters if you're told to evacuate get out of

the danger zone

Several shelters are open for those who need them and

you can visit your county government website or visit ready

nc.gov

For more information

Today I'm joined by emergency management director Will Ray Transportation

Secretary Joey Hopkins Attorney General Josh Stein the Adjutant General

of the North Carolina National Guard Major General Todd Hunt

the commander of the North Carolina State Highway Patrol

Colonel Freddie Johnson emergency management assistant director for Planning Katie

Webster and Fa Federal Coordinating Officer Rod mcallister

We also have FEMA region four administrator Robert Simon who

is also with us on the ground here in Raleigh

Our American sign language language interpreter is David Payne

And behind the scenes our Spanish language interpreters are Jackie

Metivier and Erica Kugler

At this time I will ask Director Ray for his

update

Mhm

Thank you Governor

Good morning

We're continue to experience the impacts from Debbie as the

system fully exits the state today from tor tornado damage

to flash flooding communities across our state have been and

continue to be engaged in response efforts

We have reports of tornado touchdowns or related damage in

Wilson Franklin Green Sampson and Pender counties

The National Weather Service has confirmed that an EF two

tornado touched down in Greene County community of Snow Hill

at 2:08 a.m. on Thursday morning

The national weather service in Raleigh will be conducting damage

assessments on the other reported tornadoes today

As of this morning there are just under 20,000 power

outages

Statewide utility partners remain engaged here at the state doc

and are continuing restoration operations statewide in many areas trees

have fallen due to saturated soil and have taken down

power lines

Please treat all downed power lines as energized and do

not approach them

We have 27 local states of emergency and one jurisdiction

with a voluntary evacuation order remaining in place

Nine shelters remain open with approximately 56 occupants as of

overnight

Inland riverine flooding remains the primary threat to North Carolina

as a result of Debbie due to the extensive rainfall

on already saturated ground

We are monitoring levels on a number of our river

basins where as of this morning five flood gauges are

at moderate or high flooding including the Lumber River at

Lumberton the Tar River at Louisburg the Noose River at

Clayton the Hall River and the lower PD river

An additional seven flood gauges are forecast to moderate or

major flood stage through the weekend and into the beginning

of the week including the Cape Fear River the Noose

the Black the Northeast Cape Fear and portions of the

lumber and tar rivers as well as the Hall River

There were several dam breaches yesterday and we are monitoring

seven additional dams across the state with our partners in

the Department of Environmental Quality

Our deployed swiftwater rescue teams remain on station across the

state to support local operations as needed

And since Wednesday have had over 170 interactions

This could be structure searched or individuals evacuated or rescued

the men and women of the North Carolina National Guard

and the State Highway Patrol also remain deployed across the

state to support local jurisdictions

And as the skies begin to clear aviation assets from

both agencies are being brought up as a part of

the North Carolina Hilo Aquatic Rescue Program to assist with

search and rescue as well as commodity shipments to impacted

communities

We are also bringing in two heavy lift heli helicopters

via interstate mutual aid to be on station in North

Carolina to support large scale movement if needed a state

medical support shelter for those that have had to evacuate

but need skilled medical care has been established by the

North Carolina Office of Ems our Health Care Coalitions and

our partners in the state medical response system

The site in the Sand Hills area became operational yesterday

afternoon as the rivers crest in the coming days and

clean up begins in areas that have experienced damage

Please avoid travel

If possible

If you must drive

If you must travel please visit drive and see.gov to

check roadway status

This website is updated regularly by our partners in the

North Carolina Department of Transportation

Yesterday fema approved eight additional counties to be added to

the pre landfall declaration that we received earlier in the

week

Allegheny Karis Iredale Mecklenburg Roan Stanley Union and Wilkes

This is in addition to the previously approved 66 counties

and as a reminder this is to support initial emergency

protective measures related to mass care including evacuation and sheltering

and direct federal assistance

As we look to transition from active response into recovery

Over the next week we will work with our local

jurisdictions on damage assessments to assist in determining eligibility for

additional state or federal programs for those that are in

flood prone areas

Please make sure you're informed that you have a plan

of action to quickly evacuate if necessary and that you're

receiving information from from reliable sources such as local emergency

management offices and the National Weather service enable emergency alerts

on your mobile device to make sure you receive those

life saving notifications

As a reminder the North Carolina flood inundation mapping an

alert network or Feynman provides access to the state's nearly

600 river flood gauges

As the governor said visit fin.nc.gov and sign up for

alerts for the gauges closest to your home

Remember to utilize 911 only for emergencies

We would ask you to remain alert informed and check

on your neighbors and those in your community who may

need assistance together taking care of our families neighbors in

our communities

We are stronger and make for more resilient communities

Finally I want to acknowledge and thank those that have

left their families and worked long hours responded to emergency

calls for assistance and have staffed emergency operation centers and

incident command posts across our state to keep all North

Carolinians safe

Thank you

Thank you Director Ray

Now we will hear from Transportation Secretary Joey Hopkins

Thank you governor

And good morning we peaked with about 290 road closures

closed at 830 last night as of just a few

minutes ago

That's down to two thou 205

And that's 10 primary routes

Main closures are in Robinson Chatham Sampson County

They had the highest volume

People can check travel conditions like already been mentioned it

mentioned at Drive nc.gov

Uh This site does has a does have a toggle

for tropical storm Debbie to let you see the closures

directly related to the storm

Yesterday we had record use on that site and some

users experience some issues of getting it to to log

on and come on

We we've worked with our sister agency the Department of

Information Technology to increase the bandwidth and it should be

working fine today

As had been stated several counties experienced tornadoes or tornado

like winds yesterday as the storm passed through the state

Notably our maintenance forces responded to and remove trees across

Wilson County as a storm came through there and touched

down our staff was busy setting barricades at the hundreds

of closures across the state

And I do want to stress to anyone that encounters

a barricade or a road closed sign or high water

sign to remember to turn around

Don't drown never drive around barricades

They're there to protect you and it is also against

the law to do so

Our crews are open in roads when it's safe to

do so but some of these roads have been damaged

by the rise in water and need further repairs

Our crews are assessing this damage and we'll work to

get those open as swiftly as possible

In other locations

We have trees that have fallen on power lines and

we're working with the local power companies once they deem

it safe we can work to clear and reopen these

roads

And even though the storm has moved out quickly rivers

are expected to crest in the coming days and some

are projected to remain in moderate to near major flood

stage for several days into next week

As Director Ray mentioned and while no interstates have major

impacts at this time we are monitoring po potential flood

areas around I 95 in Lumberton I 40 Bergh and

us 74 near Boardman and Whiteville

The ports of Wilmington and Moorhead City are operating on

a normal schedule today

The Wilmington Harbor had been closed to inbound and outbound

vessel traffic but it reopened to vessel traffic

Earlier this morning we had also suspended or reduced runs

on a number of our ferry routes in the eastern

part of the state

But thankfully all of our ferries are back on their

normal schedule

However I still recommend you everyone check the ferry schedules

beforehand

If you're traveling east North Carolina by train passenger rail

service was interrupted Thursday after the storm caused trees to

fall across the tracks

Several trips between Raleigh and Charlotte had to be canceled

and two others were canceled this morning

Our railroad partners are checking the track and we expect

normal passenger service to resume later today

Once everything is cleared up you can visit amtrak.com for

the latest schedules

Our integrated mobility division has been in close contact with

public trans transit systems across the state

As of late Thursday there were nine transit systems that

had no service due to the storm and nine others

that were only providing limited service

We also had a few driver's license offices closed yesterday

due to weather but expect them all to be open

today

Road tests were also canceled Thursday at 45 driver's license

offices due to unsafe conditions

As of 9 a.m. this morning road tests are being

conducted at all but two offices and a total of

30 license plate agencies closed yesterday due to impacts from

Debbie this morning

There are no license plate agencies closed due to the

storm

Any canceled appointments will be rescheduled at a time that's

convenient for our customers even though Debbie has left our

state

We're still seeing remnants from the storm and I implore

citizens to stay aware

Far too many people are killed when they try to

drive through the flooded roads

After storm is storms have passed

Please don't let your guard down and again check drive

NC for road conditions and never drive around flooded roads

or barricades

Thank you

Thank you Secretary Hopkins

Uh Now I'll ask Attorney General Josh Stein to come

forward

Thank you Governor Cooper first

I want to offer prayers to everyone impacted by the

storm here in North Carolina and across the southeast especially

the family and friends of those who lost their lives

Second I wanna thank all of our first responders for

working nonstop to keep people safe to to rescue folks

who are in distress

There is no job more important than saving the lives

of North Carolinians and they have done incredible work for

our people

I also want to thank our utility workers and the

dot employees and everyone else focused on getting things back

to normal as quickly and safely as possible

There are many homes and businesses faced with the same

challenges as our infrastructure and even as the threat begin

of Debbie begins to recede we must remain vigilant about

other risks

Scammers who try to take advantage of hard working North

Carolinians who are repairing and trying to get their lives

back in order after the storm

Here are some tips for folks who have been impacted

by the storm

Beware of anyone showing up at your house offering to

do some kind of service or repair

Unfortunately we have a lot of experience with out of

state companies coming and chasing storms and ripping off our

people talk to your neighbors research companies before you sign

a contract with them to do work on your home

Make sure that contractor is licensed get more than one

written estimate about the deal to make sure you're getting

the best one

And finally when you choose your company make sure you

have a written contract that includes a clear description of

the scope of work and the payment schedule do not

pay too much upfront or pay for all the work

until it is done

Finally if it sounds too good to be true it

usually is

I also want to remind folks to be on the

lookout for price gouging

We've had a handful of complaints 13 so far when

Governor Cooper signed the state of emergency that triggers our

state price gouging law which prohibits any seller from charging

too much for a good or service

In these tough times

The vast majority of North Carolina businesses do the right

thing by the people of North Carolina

They try to serve their neighbors who are in need

but there are almost always a few bad actors who

try to exploit the moment and do not play by

the rules

If you see someone charging an unreasonably excessive price for

anything that you need to preserve the life safety health

or economic well being during the state of emergency please

let my office know you can file a complaint at

8775 no scam or NC doj.gov/price gouging

When we see these cases we will act we've won

back more than a million dollars for North Carolina consumers

who were taken advantage of after storms in the past

times

Like these require the best of us that we look

out for our friends our neighbors our community something that

the people of North Carolina are exceptional at

Thank you so much

Thank you General Stein will now take questions and for

those who have questions if you can come over to

either side uh to the mics

If you have questions Adam Adam Light from the news

and observer this is for either the governor or director

Ray um on the dam breaches

Could you provide any more detail about where those are

And maybe also where the water is high right now

kind of where the state is looking for potential risk

Thank you

So thanks for that question Adam I think uh first

and foremost I think we want to make sure folks

are aware of some of the information that we shared

about the flood river gauges that we are also monitoring

both us along with our partners in dot um And

and the state Highway Patrol

Uh Currently we have uh dams across uh Guilford more