‘ANYTHING I CAN DO, CALL ME’
Don visits Flo-lands to offer victims help
President Trump toured the Carolinas on Wednesday to survey the wreckage and rampant flooding in the wake of Hurricane Florence, praising rescue efforts and meeting victims of the devastating storm.
“In moments of despair, we’ve witnessed the true character of the American people. Citizens all across our country rallied to rescue the stranded, to protect the innocent and to restore hope to families who’ve experienced tremendous and unbearable loss,” Trump said in prepared remarks during a briefing at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in Havelock, NC.
Later, he said, “Washington is with you, Trump is with you. Anything I can do, you all know where to call me.”
The president also praised “the incredible first responders, including sheriffs, police officers, firefighters, our great ‘Cajun Navy,’ ” a reference to the private boat owners who assist officials in search-and-rescue efforts, first formed in Louisiana in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina.
“What they’ve done to save precious lives of our citizens has been nothing short of incredible.”
The president warned that the hardest work is yet to come as floodwaters recede and communi- ties start to rebuild amid an estimated $20 billion in damages.
“Some of the hardest work is taking place right now, even though it’s nice and beautiful and sunny,” he said.
Amid the somber reassurances, there were some classic Trumpian moments. During the briefing, he asked a state official, “How is Lake Norman doing?”
Assured that it was doing fine, he replied, “I love that area. I can’t tell you why, but I love that area.” Trump owns the Trump National Golf Club on the shores of Lake Norman near Charlotte.
He was also caught on camera saying, “Have a good time” to a person to whom he had just handed Styrofoam containers of food in New Bern, a low-lying residential neighborhood swamped by the rising waters of the Neuse River.
As he walked along, an elderly man told Trump, “I named my dog after you.”
“That’s nice!” replied the president, who famously is not a pet person.
Later, after glad-handing and distributing food to people at the Temple Baptist Church, he greeted an older homeowner in a T-shirt near where a yacht that had washed ashore was perched against the man’s deck.
Trump gazed at the yacht then asked, “Is this your boat?” The homeowner said it was not. Trump turned and replied with smile, “At least you got a nice boat out of the deal.”
Trump said later the homeowner told him his insurance company didn’t want to pay for the damage to his house.
“We’re going to find out the name of the insurance company,” the president said before marvelling again at the shipwreck.
“I think it’s incredible what we’re seeing. This boat just came here. They don’t know whose boat that is. What’s the law? Maybe it becomes theirs.”
Trump was joined by Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and other federal, state and local officials before departing for South Carolina later in the afternoon.
After a briefing by state and local off icials at the Horry County Emergency Operations Center in Conway, he spent a few minutes speaking to residents bracing for more flooding as rivers crested.
The crowd cheered as he said federal help would be coming.
Some 20,000 federal employees have been mobilized to assist with the recovery, said the White House, including FEMA teams, the Coast Guard and the Army Corp of Engineers.