From damage assessment in Florida to storm preparation in the Carolinas, Deputy Administrator Erik Hooks explains what FEMA is doing to help as Debby continues rampaging through the Southeast.
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00:00Eric Hooks is FEMA Deputy Administrator. Eric, thank you so much for making time
00:04for us here on this busy day. Thank you, Jeff. Thank you for having me.
00:08It's our pleasure. And Eric, now that Debbie is slowly trudging, trudging
00:13through several southeastern states with emergency declarations in effect, what is
00:17FEMA's role at this stage in the game and how is the agency responding? Well,
00:22because of the uniqueness of this storm and spread up over a wide area across
00:28the southeast, we are doing a number of things. We have been partnered with all
00:33of the states prior to the storm arriving in Florida and we have set up
00:39our distribution center outside of Atlanta where we are fully stocked with
00:43commodities and goods that we can support communities throughout the
00:47entire region. We have about 700 staff throughout the various states that are
00:52placed and embedded with our local partners and well-postured to respond to
00:58any of their local needs. And as you have pointed out, President Biden has issued
01:03an emergency declaration for the states of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.
01:08And we continue to work collaboratively with North Carolina as they prepare as
01:14well. So we're in a number of phases. Some of those earlier landfall areas in
01:20Florida, they are already doing some preliminary damage assessments and are
01:24on the ground and so we're there to support whatever needs that they may
01:28have there. We are also supporting the other states as well for preparations in
01:36North Carolina as the storm ultimately moves that way and working
01:41collaboratively with Georgia and South Carolina as well. So we have
01:46pre-positioned assets. We have pre-positioned people to meet the needs
01:51as they exist and to take the lead from our state and local partners as they
01:57address the storms. So you mentioned a lot of different areas from North
02:02Florida, the point of landfall up into the Carolina coast and beyond. Where is
02:06the greatest need at this moment and also what types of federal assistance
02:11will be needed? Is it all financial? I know that you serve a different role
02:14from a kind of a larger role than something compared to something like the
02:17Red Cross obviously. Right now we are engaged in those life-saving, life
02:24sustaining activities in our response mode. The emergency declarations open the
02:30door for federal resources to support our state and territories and localities
02:34for life-saving, life-sustaining needs. Keeping in mind as you all well know on
02:39the Weather Channel and as you educate the population, the storms not over. Even
02:45in Florida that you can continue to have flooding extending for days and the same
02:50is true for Georgia and South Carolina and ultimately where we believe it will
02:55track into North Carolina as well. So we are postured well with swift water
03:01rescue equipment, urban search and rescue teams as well and incident management
03:07teams to support those areas in life-saving, life-sustaining activities
03:12in the response. We are, as I said earlier, we are well postured to provide
03:19commodities that may be needed to support and sustain communities that
03:23have been impacted and yet we are still in the pre-planning and preparation
03:31business when it comes primarily to parts of South Carolina and North
03:35Carolina to help echo messaging to keep people safe. Some of those things are
03:42echoing the message for individuals should they need to evacuate to find
03:48appropriate shelter, actions that they can take in their communities to stay
03:54safe such as staying out of still or running water, be it walking, swimming or
04:00trying to drive through water in their communities and just making sure that
04:06they are prepared to to address the storm no matter what.
04:13All right, that's FEMA Deputy Administrator Eric Hooks. Eric, thank you
04:17so much for making time for us today. Thank you, Jeff. All right, they're doing
04:22some good things there. A lot of water rescues have been needed and again they
04:25help to facilitate many of these things that local, state, regional efforts work
04:31together under one larger umbrella there to keep many people safe.