LUMBERTON — Six months and a few days after Hurricane Matthew left a path of destruction across North Carolina, hitting Robeson County harder than the rest, Gov. Roy Cooper spent Tuesday promising “help is on the way.”
“I pledge to you the resources of the governor’s office,” Cooper told at gathering of elected officials and aid groups during a private meeting at the Robeson County law enforcement complex. “You have pulled together in disaster; now you have to pull together in recovery.”
Cooper was in town at the invitation of the Committee of 100, a private group that works to promote economic development.
The hurricane hit Oct. 8, and in the days that followed the Lumber River swelled to never-seen-before levels, causing widespread damage and making Matthew a murderer.
More than 800 homes in Lumberton alone where damaged by flooding, city leaders estimate. There are 267 public housing units in need of repair, 128 people still are living in hotels, and West Lumberton Elementary School and the Public Schools of Robeson County’s central office and maintenance facilities remain unusable.
With $198 million coming to North Carolina from federal flood relief, Cooper has asked Congress for an additional $1 billion in funds. A separate request for additional aid has been sent to the North Carolina General Assembly. The legislature tapped its billion-dollar rainy day fund for $150 million, while total losses from the hurricane statewide near $5 billion.
Mike Wade, a Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman, was pleased with what he heard Tuesday.
“It takes a whole community to come together to recover from a disaster like this,” he said. “That’s what I saw today.”
Before speaking at the Committee of 100’s annual dinner, the governor’s entourage made stops at Currie Chainsaw, a Lumberton business that recently reopened on West Fifth Street after sustaining flood damage. He visited the Robeson County Public Library, where he donated books for the bookmobile. Cooper also visited a home on Alamac Road that is being rehabilitated by the Baptist Men’s Ministry.
He also found time to visit with Dr. Robin Cummings, the chancellor of The University of North Carolina at Pembroke, on that campus, and dropped by the temporary offices for the Public Schools of Robeson County.
The governor’s touring group consisted of Erik Hooks, the secretary of the Department of Public Safety; Michael Sprayberry, the director of Emergency Management; and Dempsey Benton, the director of recovery in the governor’s office.
During the Committee of 100’s annual dinner in the Southeastern Agriculture Events Center, Cooper spoke to an audience of more than 400. The gathering included representatives from education, business and industry, and municipal and county governments.
The mission of the Committee of 100 is to assist in the economic development of Robeson County, and Cooper addressed that theme.
“I am working on a rural strategy to provide jobs and a better future for communities like Robeson,” he said. “We want to be a top education state.
“We need a commitment from state leaders that education is the key to our future. I want a better educated and healthier North Carolina.”
Cooper is a Democrat serving opposite a veto-proof Republican majority in the General Assembly, and he acknowledged the divide.
“We’ve probably never been as politically divided as we are now — as a state and nation,” Cooper said. “My disagreements with the legislature are well known, but what is not seen is the common ground we’ve found.”
“When we sit down, I try to find areas where we agree,” the governor said. “I’ve said I want to increase teacher pay, and they said they did too. They are considering returning the Teaching Fellows Program.”
Cooper, who grew up in rural Nash County, said he has found the people here to be “Robeson strong.”
“Being here today, listening to people’s hopes and dreams, has made me believe that positive things can happen,” he said. “I believe that Robeson County can recover to be even stronger.”
