    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
    [September 14, 1996]
    [Pages 1567-1569]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks in a Roundtable Discussion on Hurricane Fran in Raleigh,
    North Carolina
    September 14, 1996

        The President. Thank you, Governor. I don't want to say too much
    right now. We mostly just came down to listen and to see what we could
    do to help. But I would like to say, first of all, that like most
    Americans, I've followed the course of the hurricane and the storms and
    the rains. I have followed very closely. I did see the video on the way
    down of the--specifically focusing on your damage along the beach, but I
    also have watched over the last several

    [[Page 1568]]

    days as the damage took its toll and then this remarkable job of
    cleaning that has been done.
        I want to thank all of you who have worked on this. I frankly was
    amazed when we flew over the damaged area and how much had been done to
    at least prepare the way to rebuild the homes and to get the trees up
    and do the other things that have been done, and I take my hat off to
    you. And we will do whatever we can to help.
        A lot of our administration people have been down here. Secretary
    Riley--I asked Secretary Riley this morning, I said, ``Dick, why are you
    coming with us today?'' And he said, ``Well, I'm a Carolinian,'' he
    said. [Laughter] He said, ``Besides, there were schools damaged; I
    belong down there.'' And I thank you for what you said about James Lee
    Witt. I thought I should send someone down here who did not speak with
    an accent--[laughter]--so that you would--there would be no time lost in
    translation. But I believe that if we can perform as well over the next
    several weeks as the people of North Carolina have performed in the last
    week, we will be able to recover from this.
        I also know, Governor, you told me on the way down there has been an
    enormous amount of loss to the agricultural crops, to the tobacco, the
    corn, perhaps some others, and I'd like to hear about that. We just want
    to know what the full dimensions of the problems are and what we can do
    to help, and we'll do our best.

    [At this point, the roundtable discussion began.]

        The President. First of all, I would like to--let me begin by
    thanking all of you who have spoken and those who worked in public
    capacities and the citizens who told their stories. Thank you in
    Wilmington, Mr. Mayor, and the others for joining us by satellite. The
    wonders of modern technology have given us a picture of that house,
    which proves that no matter how modern technology gets, we are not in
    total control, and I thank you all for what you have done.
        What I'd like to do in the time we have available here is just to--
    first of all, let me tell you that we talked--the Governor and
    Congresswoman Clayton and I talked on the way down here with Leon
    Panetta and Mr. Witt and others about what we could do before the
    Congress goes home, maybe, to get a little help here for North Carolina
    and for the other States that were damaged not as badly but there was
    still quite a bit of significant damage from Hurricane Fran in some
    other States and whether we could get something done. So we're looking
    at that. What I'd like to do is to have the clearest picture I can when
    I leave here today of what your priorities are.
        Phil Lader, our Small Business Administration director, is here.
    Jim, you told me, I think, 50,000 small businesses have been hurt by
    this hurricane. And I think we've acknowledged everyone else here. North
    Carolinian Martin Lancaster is here from the Defense Department, and
    General Genega, the head of the Corps of Engineers.
        We'd like to know exactly what you need done the most quickly, and
    what priority--what we need to be sensitive to. And we want to do the
    best we can to try to fashion this relief package that's as adequate as
    possible within the limits of the law. We also want to organize our own
    efforts in a way that is most helpful to you.
        We've been dealing with the emergencies in the last week, but Mr.
    Culbreth just said--I mean, I frankly was astonished that you had over
    98 percent of the people hooked up to their power again. I think it's a
    stunning achievement. But now we need to focus on where to go from here
    and how to do the rebuilding. I'm glad to see Commissioner Graham out
    there, and Mr. Campbell, I'm glad to see you.
        I asked on the way in about the farm losses and how we could help to
    deal with that. So I'd just like for anybody here around the table or
    out in the audience--again, there are a couple of public officials I see
    on the television there in Wilmington or at least citizens who haven't
    said anything. Anybody wants to say anything else to me about what you
    feel should be done in what order, I would like to hear it.

    [The discussion continued.]

        The President. I guess one of the things I would like to point out,
    just parenthetically, on the Federal assistance, most of the Federal
    assistance I think is funds we need to get to you for these big
    categories of things where, as the mayor said, the people will know what
    to do with it. There are some things where we have direct Federal
    appropriations, where we're going to be looking to see that we have done
    everything that we should do--I'll give

    [[Page 1569]]

    you an example--to fix the Federal-aid roads and the bridges, you know,
    where we ought to be moving that money as quickly as possible. I think
    that--and they've unleashed another $5 million or something today that
    can fix a lot of the bridges. And then there's money we have directly
    from the Department of Labor to help people who have lost their jobs,
    either to hire them as temporary workers or to retrain them, do whatever
    is necessary, and I believe that about $8 million has been allocated for
    that. And so I think that's important, too.
        We want to make sure that we have--that on the laws already on the
    books, the money already appropriated, the things that the Federal
    Government can just go ahead and pay for directly, even though the work
    may be done on contract or by people down here, we're getting that out
    here, too, because I think--the magnitude of the losses here is so great
    that there may be things that we haven't even thought of yet that we
    could be moving on. And we want to just--I think the main thing is just
    to get as much happening as quickly as possible. It's obvious that you
    are all very well organized and will make the most of whatever is given
    to you.
        I'd like to thank the Red Cross and all of the volunteers. I know
    you've had people here from 18 or 20 States coming in. I see some of our
    AmeriCorps volunteers out there; I know they've been working; I thank
    them for doing that.
        If you can think of anything else--let me tell you what we're going
    to do on the budget issue. We talked to Congresswoman Clayton, and we'll
    get in touch with Senator Helms and the others next week--well, the
    first of the week, the day after tomorrow--to see if before the Congress
    recesses for the election recess, we can find an amendment process by
    which we could actually get some relief now so that it's not just a bill
    that everybody says they're for, that we actually produced something for
    you in the next 3 or 4 days. We could do it next week if we got real
    lucky and everybody just pulled together.
        You know, this country has been so afflicted by disasters in the
    last 4 years, just since I've been President, I mean from the
    earthquakes and the floods and the fires in California to the Pacific
    Northwest and the 500-year flood in the Mississippi River Valley to any
    number of things that have happened along the East Coast. My guess is
    that there will be an enormous amount of sympathy for this across the
    country, because all of those people know that people from North
    Carolina and West Virginia and Virginia helped them when they were in
    need, and I think they will respond.

    [The discussion continued.]

        The President. Thank you very much, Governor. Let me just say in
    closing, I've been coming to North Carolina for many, many years now,
    long before I ever got into my present line of endeavor. And I've always
    been impressed by the combination of sort of old-fashioned, friendly
    hospitality and creative aggression--[laughter]--in this State. I mean,
    I think it really accounts for a lot of your success. And I will do
    exactly what you ask. That's why I made the point I did about the Labor
    Department funds and the highway bridge funds. We want to be a good
    partner and a good friend and a good neighbor.
        The second thing I'd like to say is that you were very generous in
    complimenting everybody else, but you and I have been friends for nearly
    20 years now, and I can say that if every one of us in public life had
    the level of energy, intelligence, and determination you do, we wouldn't
    have as many problems as we do, and I thank you for your leadership.
        The last thing I want to say is, you told me today North Carolina
    State was getting a new basketball gym, and as somebody who once gave a
    speech in the old one--and it was so hot I destroyed a suit while I was
    doing it--I'm proud they're going to do it, and I wish them well this
    year, and I hope they have a good season.
        Thank you very much. God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 11 a.m. at the State fairgrounds. In his
    remarks, he referred to Gov. James B. Hunt, Jr., of North Carolina;
    Mayor Don Betz of Wilmington; Maj. Gen. Stanley Genega, USA, Director
    and Assistant Commander for Civil Works, Army Corps of Engineers; Carson
    (Doug) Culbreth, energy division director, North Carolina Department of
    Commerce; James Graham, State commissioner of agriculture; and Wayne
    Campbell, State auditor.