    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 37 (Monday, September 20, 1999)]
    [Pages 1756-1758]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Teleconference Remarks With Governors From States Struck by Hurricane
    Floyd and Remarks to Disaster Relief Workers and an Exchange With
    Reporters

    September 16, 1999

        The President. Thank you, Governor. Let me just say, there may be
    some people who question, when this is over, whether we did the right
    thing to recommend all the evacuations. But now that we have this
    technology at the National Weather Center, we have to act on it. And we
    can all be grateful to God that this stormed turned away and didn't hurt
    us as bad as we feared. But I think that this is a terrific test, even
    though it was extremely burdensome, because some day our ability to do
    this evacuation will save hundreds of people's lives.
        And I just want to thank you, Governor. I'm glad that all those
    people, in the end, didn't have to go. But I'm glad we did it because
    we've got the technology now, we knew what was likely to happen, and I
    just wanted to thank you. And I hope that all your people also believe
    that some day our ability to do this will save hundreds of lives. And I
    thank you very much.

    [A this point, Gov. James B. Hunt, Jr., of North Carolina discussed
    three topics: the extent of hurricane damage in his State, especially
    flooding; the need for the President to declare a major disaster for
    North Carolina; and Federal aid in improving and coordinating evacuation
    routes.]

        The President. Thank you, Governor. Let me say that on the third
    point you made, we'll do everything we can to help you. On the second
    point, we'll give you the declaration you seek today. And it's unusual,
    but it's fairly unusual for your wife to be waste-deep in water in
    somebody's home, too. [Laughter] So we'll try to help as much as we can.
    And I regret that your have had to go through this after what you went
    through with Fran. And we'll do everything we can to help you.

    [A this point, Gov. James Gilmore of Virginia described problems with
    flooding, especially concerning water treatment facilities. He also
    described evacuation efforts, high winds affecting electric power
    service, and ask the President to declare a major disaster for
    Virginia.]

        The President. Thank you, Governor. We will do that, and in
    particular, we want to help you with these emergency protective services
    that you will need. I'm very concerned about the water filtration plants
    and the other problems you have. We'll do everything we can to help.

    [A this point, Federal Emergency Management Agency Director James Lee
    Witt thanked the President and the Federal agencies for their response
    to Hurricane Floyd.]

        The President. You know, everywhere I go in the country that's the
    one thing nobody criticizes the Federal Government about. [Laughter] And
    I thank you very much, all of you. I'm very, very--I'm proud of what
    we've been able to do over these last few years to try to make sure that
    when something like this happens, we're always ready, and we do the best
    we can. And we help people. And I'm very proud of you.
        This is something that adds a lot to the confidence of people, when
    they go through what we've just heard about here. Thank you. Thank you,
    Governor Gilmore, Governor Hodges, Governor Hunt, thank you all very
    much. And thank you in the Hurricane Center.

    [Following the teleconference, the President made the following remarks
    to disaster relief workers.]

        The President. Thank you very much. You can all hear that I can't
    speak very well today. I just came back from New Zealand. It's about a
    20-hour trip, and I lost my voice on the airplane, and I apologize.
        But let me begin by thanking all of you and Secretary Daley,
    Secretary Slater, my long-time friend, James Lee Witt. You have

    [[Page 1757]]

    no idea--perhaps you do--but you probably can't imagine how many times
    over the last 6\1/2\ years an American citizen has come up to me all
    over this country and thanked me for the emergency work that we do. And
    I always try to tell them that it's not me; it's you.
        But when I became President, because I had been a Governor and
    because we had dealt with a lot of emergencies, I promised myself, as
    well as the American people, I would do everything I could to organize a
    team and give them the resources necessary to do what has to be done.
    And you have all performed superbly. So the first thing I just wanted to
    do is come by here and thank you very much.
        Now, as all of you know, even though this hurricane was not as bad
    as we had feared, we've got a few problems out there. And I've just been
    briefed by the team here, members of the Cabinet, and I talked to
    Governor Hodges, Governor Hunt and Governor Gilmore. For several
    communities in the Carolinas and Virginia, the storm has brought very
    severe flooding, there are hundreds of thousands of people without
    power. There's been a lot of property destruction, and in the case of
    Virginia, the flooding of at least one, perhaps two, water filtration
    systems.
        Governor Hunt said today that the North Carolina flooding is perhaps
    the worst in history. So, today, I'm releasing another $528 million to
    FEMA to address the immediate needs of the victims of Hurricane Floyd
    and other disasters; issuing an emergency declaration for Virginia to
    cover debris removal and provide funding for emergency protective
    measures, including fire, rescue, and law enforcement officials; and a
    major disaster declaration for North Carolina to provide individual
    assistance to those directly affected.
        In addition, we're working with officials from South Carolina to
    assess what else we can do there. And we're keeping in close contact
    with State and local officials in Maryland and the other coastal States,
    now that the storm has moved on.
        Again, I'd like to say that I want to commend the citizens from all
    the States who heeded the warnings to move safely away, under difficult
    circumstances. I'm sure there will be those that second-guess us now,
    because Florida was not hit, and we moved a lot of people out, and there
    were plenty of people that moved out of other places. The storm wasn't
    as bad as we thought.
        But we now have technology that imposes on us the responsibility of
    telling people what we think is going to happen. And there is no
    question that because we can do this, thousands and thousands of lives
    will be saved. Governor Hunt said today, there is no question in his
    mind that lives were saved in North Carolina, because of the people who
    did evacuate.
        So while we thank goodness that the storm was not as bad as we had
    feared, I just want to reaffirm my absolute conviction that the people
    in the emergency services work did the right thing to issue the
    warnings, did the right thing to recommend evacuation. And we got a lot
    of good practice here, which is going to save a large number of lives in
    the future.
        I also would just like to say, in closing, that the United States,
    at times like this, always pulls together. There are a lot of people out
    there today without power; there are a lot of people with their homes
    flooded; a lot of people feeling fairly desperate. And I know I speak
    for all of you when I say, we don't want them to feel alone. We will do
    everything we possibly can to be good, loyal, helpful neighbors to them
    and get them through this.
        Thank you very much.

    Coastal Development

        Q. Mr. President, with Federal flood insurance, is the Government
    encouraging coastal development at a time when we may be in a new cycle
    of more dangerous and more frequent storms?

    [Federal Emergency Management Agency Director James Lee Witt answered
    the question.]

    Agricultural Assistance

        Q. Mr. President, will there be any central hurricane relief for
    farmers whose crops have been damaged, Mr. President? There seems to be
    a shortfall in the hurricane relief they've gotten.
        The President. Well, that's one thing that Governor Hunt asked me
    about yesterday,

    [[Page 1758]]

    and I am looking at that, because the general disaster assistance
    performers tends to be targeted to the big, grow-crop places in the
    Middle West primarily--not exclusively--as is natural, because that's
    where a lot of the big dollar-volume losses have been.
        So we've got to go back and look, now, and see what we're doing,
    because we've got not only this flooding, but also, in this part of the
    country we've had the biggest drought that these farmers had ever had.
    So most of them--not most but a large number of farmers from Maryland
    north, in this country, had lost their crops before the flood came. So
    we need to look at that, and we will now go back, obviously, down to the
    Carolinas, and go upward and see where we are. And I'll do my best to
    work with Congress to get appropriate relief for them.
        Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 2:10 p.m. at the Federal Emergency
    Management Agency headquarters. In his opening remarks, he referred to
    Gov. Jim Hodges of South Carolina.