It has been almost a week since Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region.
And it didn’t stop there. The storm plowed through Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia, leaving a long path of destruction behind it.
The southwest region of Virginia got hit hard with flooded roads, damaged homes and at least two people killed.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin joined WTOP on Tuesday to discuss the recovery efforts in the state so far with Shawn Anderson and Anne Kramer.
Listen to the full interview below or read the transcript. The transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Glenn Youngkin: We had two Virginians who tragically lost their lives, and we have had a whole region of our great Commonwealth that has been overwhelmed by floods, electricity outages, by wind damages, and so many people have lost their lives — everything from their homes to their livelihoods. And we are working hard to make sure that we not only establish electricity and phone service and, of course, food and water, to make sure that people who have been dislocated have a safe place to stay with a warm meal and a hot shower.
But I’ve also been incredibly encouraged by how Virginians have just come together in the amazing way that we do and showing such compassion and support to bring resources to bear. And let me also just add that our first responders performed in the most extraordinary way. We had over 70 lifesaving rescues that were performed on mostly Friday last week, with our Virginia National Guard and our State Police and our local responders from EMS, fire departments, sheriff’s departments and police departments performing just heroic acts in order to rescue people. And I have to say that it was the whole state. We had swift-water rescue crews from Arlington County, Prince William County and Fairfax County, all in the region, selflessly supporting these rescue efforts.
And so at the moment, as governor, I was incredibly proud and humbled by these actions, but also the rallying of our state in order to help these people rebuild their lives.
Shawn Anderson: Governor, you announced some additional federal funding today to help in this recovery effort. How much is coming to Virginia? How much more do you think you’ll need?
Glenn Youngkin: We’ve had two very important steps. Over the weekend, we, of course, had the first declaration of emergency at the federal level. I had declared a state of emergency a week ago in preparation of the storm. And then the federal government provided a declaration of emergency over the weekend, and then we’ve just had this morning the accelerated declaration of a major emergency, which is really important because it opens up additional funding for localities and for individuals.
I want to be clear that this is the first time, literally, in almost 14 years, that we have had this kind of support from the federal government. It wasn’t since Hurricane Irene back in 2011 that we received this kind of support. That just hopefully communicates just how serious and dire the circumstances have been. Now, we have to start assessing the damages and helping people collect those funds and then rebuild their lives.
Anne Kramer: I wanted to take the opportunity to ask you: Former President Donald Trump has criticized the Biden administration when it comes to getting federal help to states like Georgia and North Carolina, going so far to even say that Georgia’s governor (Brian Kemp) wasn’t able to reach President Joe Biden, which Gov. Kemp came back and said, ‘No, in fact, he had spoken to the President.’ You were just talking about federal financial aid for this. What is your interaction with the White House been like?
Glenn Youngkin: So I have not interacted with President Biden, but I have had direct interaction with the head FEMA administrator Ms. (Deanne) Criswell, who has been unbelievably responsive to us, and I’m deeply appreciative of her support. I spoke to her many times over the weekend and subsequently. The FEMA team is colocated with the Virginia emergency management teams. They have set up regional offices, and between FEMA and our Virginia Department of Emergency Management, we are flooding the zone with people and resources.
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