Earlier today, Governor Hochul was a guest on Spectrum News to update New Yorkers on extreme weather.

AUDIO of the Governor's remarks is available here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Casey Bortnik, Spectrum News: On Friday, what was left of Hurricane Debby made its way to New York and communities across our state felt it. Rain beginning last night and persisting throughout the day. We've seen flooding in several communities and plenty of power outages. Steuben County seeing the worst of that flooding. This caused damage, destroying properties and making roads impassable - storm even bringing a tornado warning the Hudson Valley Friday afternoon.

Governor Hochul issuing a State of Emergency as communities in Steuben County face serious flooding. The Governor joining us now to talk about the situation here in New York. And Governor, these images we've seen from across the state really heartbreaking - but communities like Addison, Campbell, Canisteo out in the central part of our state really hit the hardest. I know you just got briefed, what can you tell us about the very latest?

Governor Hochul: Yes, we've been monitoring this for days. We set up our emergency operations center. I deployed the National Guard well in advance of this storm because we saw the trajectory of this storm, this hurricane, coming up from Florida to the East Coast and that New York State would be in the bullseye. And that ended up being very accurate. And that's why earlier today, I declared a State of Emergency as the remnants of Hurricane Debby were beginning to hit the state. You're absolutely right - some of the hardest hit areas were Steuben County, and we are concerned about what's happened in Jefferson County, Oswego, Lewis, Delaware County. So, it was widespread.

And we've deployed people. We've had swift rescue teams have to go to places like Addison. There have been rescues, and I'm so grateful to our first responders and my state team to ensure that there's no loss of life. That we have to be concerned about flooding on properties, but the most important thing is that everyone is safe thus far.

Massive flooding at the Tuscarora Creek, and that's what happens when you have three inches an hour. I mean, that's an extraordinary amount of rainfall coming down in a short time and we're very concerned about this. We're monitoring the situation, continue to deploy people. We have somewhat over 100,000 people without power right now, not as a result of the flooding, but actually the high winds that brought down limbs.

We have over 7,500 personnel brought in from other states as well to be part of the utility crews to restore power as soon as humanly possible. So, we're starting to see the weather move out of the area, but it was a widespread statewide event, and that's why I declared a state of emergency.

So, we are concerned. We're in constant communication with our local emergency management personnel and letting people know, making calls all day to let them know we are here to help and making sure that people continue to stay off the roads. It's still a volatile situation in many of these areas. And the worst place that someone can be when there's heavy rains coming down or creeks that are overflowing and cresting, is in a vehicle. And that's the most dangerous place. We want people to stay home and be safe.

Casey Bortnik, Spectrum News: We've had swift water rescues like you've mentioned, and obviously we've had some evacuations in certain parts of Central New York.I do want to ask you this is the fact that there was some preparation coming into this - I know I talked to Jackie Bray yesterday about this, and it seemed like you were mobilized ahead of time. Have you seen those efforts paying off of the fact that we've had no loss of life so far and just really, I know it's been a headache for people, but better to be rescued than to end up in a dangerous situation?

Governor Hochul: You're absolutely right and that's why I went on statewide press just two days ago and again yesterday spoke to everyone about the need to be prepared for this. Be monitoring your cell phones, watching for those alerts that come from the National Weather Service because once this hits, if you're still in a home that is in a compromised area, vulnerable area near the creek bed of a raging creek that now is overflowing its banks. That is a dangerous, dangerous situation. At that point, it is too late to do something.

So, I commend our residents of these areas for listening to our warnings, paying close attention, being ready to move out as many have had to be evacuated. And that's why while this is not over, we're feeling that those early preparations and warnings have made a huge difference.

Casey Bortnik, Spectrum News: A lot of cleanup that's going to have to be done over the next few days. There's a lot of standing water still out there. What's your biggest concern? I know that the thick of it is behind us in the rearview mirror, but what's your biggest concern for the days to come, for the hours to come?

Governor Hochul: Well, what happens is many times the flooding can occur in people's basements, the mold sets in, that people don't have the resources to be able to, have the insurance coverage, many don't have flood insurance, so there is an impact on many households, and so we've seen this in the countless extreme weather events that I've had to experience just in less than three years as Governor, but we have teams that will go out there, we'll have what's necessary, we'll deploy our Department of Financial Services mobile vans to help people apply for their insurance.

Of course, I stand ready to ask for a disaster declaration based on the scale of the damage, but we need to do those assessments over the immediate days. But right now we're still in the throes of this extreme weather event. There are still parts of our state that are in vulnerable positions, and I want to make sure that everyone continues to be vigilant, at least through the next day.

Casey Bortnik, Spectrum News: It's been a summer filled with severe weather. I know we had those tornadoes, uh, setting a record in New York State this summer, and the summer isn't over yet, but we really appreciate some of your time. Governor Hochul joining us on this situation. Governor, thank you so much.

Governor Hochul: Thank you and thank you for keeping all your viewers so aware of what's going on.That is really helping us save lives.

Contact the Governor's Press Office