Remembering Floyd: 10 Years Later 

Release Date: September 16, 2009
Release Number: R4-09-137

» 2009 Region IV News Releases

ATLANTA, Ga. -- Ten years ago, in the pre-dawn hours of Sept. 16 and following several days of uncertainty, Hurricane Floyd struck North Carolina.

Disaster declarations were issued for 10 states, triggering one of the widest-ranging response and recovery efforts ever by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).  Ultimately, the North Carolina response brought about the largest buyout program in U.S. history.

Floyd was the deadliest U.S. hurricane in more than a quarter-century. At nearly 600 miles across, it was one of the largest storms ever to come out of the Atlantic Ocean - large enough to cover the entire Florida peninsula. It threatened Florida before turning north but stayed at sea longer than forecast before making landfall, and between the threat to Florida and the actual track it forced the largest peacetime evacuation in American history to that time.

With much of the Tar Heel State already saturated by Hurricane Dennis, Floyd didn't have to hit directly to do serious damage. In fact, the so-called near-miss inflicted the worst disaster in the state's history in terms of lives lost and dollar damages. Every river and stream in the eastern half of the state flooded, and the ground became so saturated that hundreds of caskets floated from their graves. Hundreds of thousands of farm animals drowned - eventually creating a separate health hazard.

"So much happened in that disaster - the extent of the flooding, the number of people displaced, the health issues raised by the animal carcasses, and the need to identify and re-bury the caskets," said FEMA Region IV Administrator Phil May. "That reinforced for us the value of planning, which starts in homes and businesses."

In the other two declared Region IV states, 1,000 homes were flooded in South Carolina while Florida dealt with warnings and evacuations from one end of the state to the other.

FEMA spent $297.6 million helping state and local governments in North Carolina recover, as well as $34.7 million in Florida and $20.5 million in South Carolina. The declarations also made help available to individuals in the two Carolinas, with $182.3 million going to people in North Carolina and $16.5 million into South Carolina. The agency followed those dollars with more federal funds aimed at reducing the impact of future disasters. As of July 31, 2009, FEMA has sent $66.9 million in Floyd-generated mitigation funds into North Carolina, $5.9 million into South Carolina and $3.5 million into Florida. In another key piece of federal assistance, the U.S. Small Business Administration approved over 14,000 applications for low-interest disaster loans to homeowners, renters and businesses in the three states - nearly 13,000 of them in North Carolina. The resulting loans totaled $511.1 million in North Carolina, $23.3 million in South Carolina and $4.4 million in Florida.

North Carolina proved to be an especially strong partner in the recovery effort. The director of the state Division of Emergency Management, the late Eric Tolbert, led the way in a creative response to a disaster of such composite complexity: he and Gov. Jim Hunt asked Congress to fund buying out flooded properties that would likely flood again. Between the resulting special appropriations at the state and federal levels and the $66.9 million in regular mitigation funds, more than 3,000 properties were acquired and turned back to greenspace. The total cost was nearly $210 million, not quite $157 million of that in federal funds.

"We were pleased to be able to help fund this critical buyout to get people out of harm's way," May said. "That said, the more than $52 million non-federal share highlights the huge commitment they made as well."

Every disaster offers lessons to be learned, and emergency management organizations across the nation learned plenty from one the scale of Floyd. For FEMA, Floyd resulted in the creation of the Evacuation Liaison Team - a unit that coordinates the work of the many agencies involved in a major evacuation.

"Citizens can best be safe by having a disaster plan and an emergency kit, learning a life-saving skill and checking on one neighbor after they make sure their own families are safe," May said.

Over the years, September has brought many major disasters and is now observed as National Preparedness Month. For more information on that observance or getting prepared, call 800-BE-READY or visit www.ready.gov, its Spanish-language version www.listo.gov or www.citizencorps.gov for free preparedness resources, such as family emergency plan templates, emergency supply kit checklists, and much more.

The Ready Web site also has a special sections for children, ages 8-12, (Ready Kids) and small- to medium-sized businesses (Ready Business).

FEMA's mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.

Last Modified: Thursday, 17-Sep-2009 08:54:54