How is FEMA helping in response to Hurricane Debby?

AccuWeather

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.

Transcript

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.

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