[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 38 (Monday, September 23, 1996)]
[Pages 1751-1753]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
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 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--

[[Page 1752]]

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.

[At this point, 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, whereas 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 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.

[At this point, 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 high- 

[[Page 1753]]

way 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.; 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.