Thom Tillis: Florence Going To Produce Financial Impacts Greater Than Hurricane Matthew

‘We are still recovering from Hurricane Matthew’

WALLACE: How much damage — obviously, it’s just a guesstimate at this point, but how much damage will this do to your state? Are we talking billions of dollars, and how long before life in North Carolina gets back to anything close to normal?

TILLIS: Well, Chris, they gave you a comparison, Matthew had about two years ago, a little less than two years ago, we are still recovering from Hurricane Matthew. I think that this storm is likely going to produce impacts greater than Hurricane Matthew.

The agriculture industry, the largest industry and our state is hard-hit. We will have to sort out the crop damage. The floods that are going to come, as you mentioned with the FEMA director, the floods that come midweek are likely to be as damaging or more damaging than the original event.

So, we’ve got to sort all that out. I think that it’s fair to say, in terms of economic impact, rebuilding that we are talking in the billions of dollars.

WALLACE: And how long before life in North Carolina gets back to normal?

TILLIS: Well, it’s very difficult to say. With the rivers and with the statewide impact, I mean, I’m in Charlotte right now. We are beginning to get the rain bands that have been taking days to get here. Then, it’s going to move up into the mountains. Those are all going to fill river basins. They’re going to flow down to North Carolina and South Carolina or out to our coast, and it’s very difficult to really understand what’s ahead. But I did a flyover about 36 hours after Matthew at the eastern part of the state and we thought it was bad then.

And two days later, we saw damage that far surpassed what the initial impact of that category one storm. So, people need to take it seriously. The fact that it’s a tropical depression means that it’s a very serious weather and rain event.

So, listen to local authorities, find access the help. I was also going to mention also, FEMA has an app that you can get on an Android or iPhone that will give you access to resources. You may be able to volunteer in your community and help other people know what their resources are that out there at the state and local and federal level to help us as we go through this disaster.

Video files
Full
Compact
Audio files
Full
Compact