Remarks in a roundtable discussion on Hurricane Fran in Raleigh, North Carolina

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Sept 23, 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 - I mean, I frankly was astonished that you had over 98 percent of the Couple 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.