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North Carolina continues to rebuild six months after Hurricane Florence
WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Six months after Hurricane Florence made landfall in North Carolina, storm survivors are getting help to recover and work is underway to make homes, businesses and infrastructure more resilient.
However, much work lies ahead and North Carolina and its recovery partners are committed to helping people and communities rebuild, Governor Roy Cooper said today.
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“Hurricane Florence was a devastating storm that swamped homes, businesses, farms, schools and entire communities. But the devastation was quickly followed by amazing acts of bravery and kindness from first responders, volunteers, and neighbors helping neighbors, and impressive cooperation among local, state and federal partners to get help to those in need,” Governor Cooper said. “People hit hard by Florence are determined to recover and we’re determined to rebuild North Carolina stronger and smarter.”
The governor traveled to Craven County and Jones County Tuesday to check on recovery progress.
North Carolina’s wettest storm on record, Hurricane Florence moved slowly across the state for days, dropping more than 8 trillion gallons of water according to the National Weather Service. Some areas got as much as 35 inches of rain. As a result, many communities experienced catastrophic flooding.
The storm took the lives of 44 people in North Carolina. Many more lives were saved by the heroic work of first responders. During and after the storm, 5,214 people and 1,067 animals were rescued and evacuated by first responders, including local law enforcement and firefighters, State Highway Patrol troopers, Marine Patrol Officers, 2,800 National Guard soldiers and 70 swift water rescue teams.
North Carolina suffered an estimated $17 billion in damages from Hurricane Florence. More than $1.2 billion in state and federal help is already approved for North Carolina, and Gov. Cooper is pushing for more recovery help from Washington.
To lead the state’s efforts to rebuild smarter and stronger the wake of Hurricane Florence, Gov. Cooper established the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency, or NCORR, in the wake of Hurricane Florence. The office provides disaster recovery coordination with services that include oversight of recovery funding, processing of program applications, construction and vendor management, and public outreach and education, among many other responsibilities. With NCORR up and running, North Carolina is now on the road to recovery with a team of state, federal and volunteer partners dedicated to helping communities rebuild to be more resilient and better prepared to weather future storms.