ICYMI—Hagerty Joins Surveillance on BloombergTV to Discuss Hurricane Helene Impact on East Tennessee, Ongoing Disaster Relief Efforts

NASHVILLE, TN -United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) today joined Surveillance on BloombergTV to discuss the tragic impact of Hurricane Helene on East Tennessee.

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Partial Transcript

Hagerty on the impact of Hurricane Helene: "The devastation is enormous here. Just to put it into perspective: They talk in terms of events that occur one in 100 years, one in 200, sometimes an event like this one in 500 years, and we've seen one of those back in 2010 very concentrated around Nashville. This is one that is greater than 1,000 years. We've never seen anything like this, Chris, and it was explained to me, if you look at the volume of water that came down through this rainfall, this storm, and spread it across the state of Tennessee, it would equate to a depth of three feet of water across the entire state. Just let that soak in for a moment. I was talking with the director of the Newport, Tennessee Utility District yesterday. He told me as the water came in, it was ankle deep, and then he started seeing it moving. He told his men to run. In five minutes time, it was chest deep. That's like a tidal wave hitting. It's going to forever change the terrain in this part of the country. I was with Mayor [Patty] Woodby yesterday in Carter County. She was telling me about the Black Hawk helicopters that I just saw her get off of - she disembarked a Black Hawk helicopter to come talk with me - they're running water generators, supplies. She said she needs oxygen [for those in the area who need it]. They are having to use helicopters because these towns and cities are cut off. They've lost the bridge access. They've lost road access. There's no way to get there except by military helicopter. And I have to say, our National Guard has stepped up tremendously. As of yesterday afternoon, they're going to be between 200-250 guardsmen on the ground there. We've got to continue to accelerate this. We got to get debris removal crews in here now. FEMA has got to step up, and I think they're doing everything they can working with our local Tennessee Emergency Management to step up, get resources here, and assess the situation immediately. The water's receded adequately now to see the massive extent of damage, but people are hurting very, very badly right now. As I said, we need oxygen for people that have to have this. We got to get these [resources] to people who are landlocked and cannot access roads and highways to get out of the area. Helicopters is the only [way to] access right now."

Hagerty on the response from the Federal Government: "My job is to make certain that we do [receive federal aid], and I spoke with White House yesterday. I'm sure I will speak with them again today just to continue to update them and make certain that we keep pressure on the situation. I think all eyes were pointed toward Florida in the beginning - that was the initial landfall - but the resources that have been diverted there far more are needed up here in Tennessee right now. The same is true in North Carolina. I talked with my colleague [Senator] Ted Budd yesterday. Western North Carolina [was] hit extremely hard. And what happens is you've got whole communities that are isolated. They don't have water. The water management system here is in enormous, enormous trouble. Wastewater management: There are several systems that are completely out, meaning people on boil alerts. They can't even get water through the pipes, and if you can imagine how water gets to some of these communities, they use bridges not only to transport vehicles and people, but those bridges have pipes running underneath them that they're using for water supply. Those bridges are out. The water supply is gone. Electricity [is] a big issue. Tennessee Valley Authority, the largest utility in America, the most sophisticated when it comes to water management and dam management systems. They've done a tremendous job getting people back online, but we still probably have 16-18,000 people that don't have access to electricity. Thankfully, it's the fall. The weather is relatively mild, but this is a serious, serious challenge. And what we've got to do right now is manage the level of our lakes, manage the dam system, so that we can get this water moving out of here because there's another storm brewing in the Atlantic that if it turns the wrong direction, could be here again in another week."

Hagerty on whether Congress should return to address disaster relief: "I would be all for that. I know that we're looking at every way to accelerate funding right now, but this is a critical situation, one that we've got to address. And if additional emergency funding needs to be put through, we should get to Congress. We can do it in a day, but we need to do everything we can. We have citizens that are literally going to get worse by the day as they don't have access to water. They don't have access to electricity and importantly, don't have access to critical medical care. As I mentioned, access to oxygen[…]you think about kidney dialysis, those sorts of things. This is going to get critical [and] more and more severe as we move along. The ground is also saturated, so if we do have another event, it's going to be much worse, so we really have to deal with this as rapidly as possible and resource this very, very quickly."

Hagerty on the timetable to regain power in East Tennessee: "The Tennessee Valley Authority is working night and day on this. I met with many crews yesterday. I was with the TVA team a good part of the day yesterday. They're getting power up as quickly as they can. An important piece of this though is getting broadband back up because our wireless system isn't working in that area, so we have a lot of people that are missing. I talked to a school principal yesterday. He's missing a number of the children in the school. That doesn't mean that they're in harm's way, but he can't communicate with them. That is creating a tremendous amount of anxiety for families here as you can imagine. They don't know where their loved ones are. They don't know how to reach them, and it's going to make it extremely difficult to locate folks until we can get that system back up. So Tennessee Valley Authority is working night and day on this aspect too, as are the carriers."

Hagerty on the possibility of Starlink used for recovery efforts: "Starlink is being implemented right now. I was with emergency responders yesterday. They were uploading Starlink, so that is being utilized right now. At this point, it's only with emergency responders. We'll continue to see how we can broaden that access, but as you note, communication is going to be very critical, and Starlink may be an important part of that."

Hagerty on the potential for another upcoming storm to the Southeast: "Well, as I said, this storm is so unique. The magnitude of it, it's something that we haven't seen in recorded history. It's a greater than one in 1000-year event. At the same time, though, this has put us in a much more vulnerable situation for the next big storm that comes along. So the saturation of the ground, the fact that we already have water treatment facilities that are out, it's going to require incredible management just over the next week to make certain that we're in the best possible condition to take another hit like this. I'll just share with you a snippet, a story, of what's happened here just over the past couple of days. An important bridge, a critical bridge to get to a community was tested. The bridge was okay, but a 2000-yard segment of the approach had been washed out. The local county managers are out trying to assess what to do, and a gentleman came up and he said, you know, 'I've got a bulldozer. Maybe I can help.' They said the next thing they knew, he brought several more pieces of equipment, he brought more friends, and in about 36 hours they worked through the night. They had rebuilt this 2000-yard section. That bridge is open now. That's a Tennessee Volunteer for you. We are seeing an outpour of help and volunteerism like we've never seen before, but we actually need resources and equipment. As I mentioned, debris removal equipment, things that the National Guard can provide that require certain expertise. Getting electricity back up and getting water management up, it's going to take some time, it's going to take resources, and thank you for giving me the chance to explain this to the people of America."

Hagerty on the best ways people can help the relief efforts: "The Red Cross and the Salvation Army are on site right now. They have networks in place that that are very good at working with this. The Tennessee Emergency Management Association on the ground here knows exactly where the critical points are. That is for people that want to actually come volunteer help and work, and we've got a tremendous amount of damage to work through. This is going to take not days, not weeks. It's going to take months to navigate through this in some cases with massive infrastructure that's been damaged, even longer than that. But I'll say this, our dam system has held up remarkably well. The Tennessee River is an incredible water system. We've put it in place over decades, and it has proven be extraordinary. I was at the Operation Center yesterday that the Tennessee Valley Authority uses to manage all the various water levels that they've got to do to get water moving from a higher lake to a lower lake to the next lower lake, and it's incredible what they've been able to do and accomplish. The damage would've been far worse had we not had this technology in place."

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