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North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper issues State of Emergency for Hurricane Ian
RALEIGH, N.C. — As Hurricane Ian has made landfall in Florida, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper issued a State of Emergency on Wednesday in advance of potentially severe weather.
Cooper’s declaration allows for farm equipment to be moved out of flood-prone areas.
“The most serious concern that we have is flooding, particularly the more west it moves,” Cooper told WRAL News during a Wednesday groundbreaking event in Raleigh. “We know the potential for landslides in the mountains, and we know from Tropical Storm Fred [in 2021] just devastation it can cause.”
The State Emergency Response Team is also moving equipment around North Carolina to prepare for possible use depending on how Ian evolves as it moves north from Florida.
“It’s also going to be important for us to move equipment around the state as the storm gets closer, and we will feel some impacts from a storm,” Cooper said. “We want to make sure that all of the equipment, vehicles and teams are positioned in the right place.”
Cooper said the plan right now is to activate the Emergency Operations Center in Raleigh sometime Thursday as the storm’s northernmost edge begins to move into the state. There are also plans to move to 24-hour operations on Friday morning.
When disasters strike, whether natural or manmade, state leaders need quick access to resources that allow them to manage a crisis and return things to normal. A declaration of a State of Emergency allows leaders to do this by:
- Enabling government leaders to take extra measures to protect the public
- Triggering anti-price gouging laws
- Seiking state or federal funding aid for disaster response if it is warranted
A governor, local mayor, governing body of a municpality, county and General Assembly can declare a State of Emergency.
Cooper said it’s a big storm that will bring a lot of rain with it, and state leaders are continuing to track it.
The WRAL Severe Weather Team said rain could begin as early as Friday morning in North Carolina, but the heaviest rain will fall Friday night and all day on Saturday. Models call for 1 to 4 inches of rain in the Triangle and maximum guests between 35-40 mph.
Up to 5 inches of rain will be possible in coastal communities, with isolated totals reaching 10 inches.
The mountains of North Carolina near the Blue Ridge Parkway are also expected to experience heavy rain with the chance for landslides and up to 7 inches of rain.
Showers and thunderstorms are expected linger into Sunday and possibly Monday.
Cooper said the good thing is that North Carolina does not have a lot of wet ground across the state. Some areas are even in drought conditions, so the risk of flooding will be minimized. However, Cooper said people should still be prepared by making sure they have emergency kits and making sure they have plan to evacuate if necessary.
Cooper responds to criticism about state’s disaster recovery from previous hurricanes
Cooper’s administration has received criticism from state lawmakers about the handling of ReBuild NC. Specifically, the state lawmakers have questioned the N.C. Office of Recovery and Resiliency (NCORR), which manages disaster recovery in North Carolina.
North Carolina has received about $780 million in federal assistance for storm recovery from Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and Hurricane Florence in 2018. Still years later, thousands of families are trying to get their homes rebuilt or replaced.
On Wednesday, WRAL News asked Cooper about people who are still unhoused from the previous storms.
“It is so important to get people back into their homes as quickly as possible, and this administration is committed to doing that,” Cooper said. “We’ve helped to rebuild roads, bridges and public buildings.
“We’ve gotten [more than] 10,000 people back into their homes. There’s still work to be done. With the pandemic, there was some slowing down of the supply chain and construction. NCORR is moving to make some improvements to get people back into their homes as quickly as possible.”