Governor Nikki Haley held a press conference Thursday saying she did not want to wait until the anniversary of October’s historic flood in which 19 people died and caused more than $1 billion in damage to talk about recent progress in relief efforts.
Haley spoke about the financial losses affecting individuals, businesses, and communities, and also addressed public infrastructure needs in the wake of the flood.
She also touted the $1.6 million in private donations to the One S.C. Recovery Fund and urged people to attend five town hall meetings in July to discuss the state’s recovery plan.
After the announcement, Governor Haley, South Carolina D.H.E.C. Agency Director Catherine Heigel, and South Carolina D.O.T. Secretart Christy Hall, answered questions from reporters.
Governor, what is the biggest need out there that you think still needs to be addressed?
Speaking of the dams, from a D.H.E.C. standpoint, I know that was one of the problems. It’s not in the budget to inspect [and maintain]. Where do things stand in improving that and beefing up the dam inspections?
Governor, what lesson did you learn from the October flood that you think applies to the next disaster or the next problem we have to recover from?
When you saw the news reports last week from West Virginia, was there a little bit of a, did you mind go back [to last October]?
Looking at the D.O.T., there are still two dozen dams that are TBD, mostly due to the dams, but is this something that South Carolinians will just have grit out for a while, that these roads will not be open for that period?
Is there any date, or is still indefinite?
Do you have a basic idea of how much disaster recovery is costing us right now and how much it is going to cost us going forward?
There’s another set of relief [funds] that’s going to become available July 1st, that’s for state farmers that you fought pretty hard. Are you past that now, or are you fine with letting the farmers have it, or does it still bother you a little bit that one last one class got [more]?
Listen to Gov. Haley's entire announcement: