In a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Governor Bill Lee addressed the recovery efforts in Tennessee after Helene's tragic impact.
Lee said there are over 200 National Guardsmen helping with search and rescue, as well as TBI officials, THP officials and people from every state department and branch of government. They have already delivered over 50,000 cases of water and have continued water, hot food, and shelters being set up.
Roads and Bridges
Butch Eley, TDOT Commissioner, said after about 100 hours they have 25 sections of roadway reopened and around 300 bridges have been inspected. Five bridges were completely wiped away, and Eley said they will do hundreds of hours more of work to go.
Emergency declaration
We know there have been questions about the amount of time it took to declare an emergency in Tennessee — Governor Lee addressed this in the presser as well. He said because the storm first moved through Florida, then North Carolina and Georgia, then to Tennessee, there were hours before emergency could be called.
"You don't call for an emergency until you know there is one there. So the timing of that occurred with the timing of the emergency itself," he said. “Before the emergencies were declared, my first call about what was happening came from a local sheriff. Reached out to me, we began the process of helicopters. Local law enforcement, I can’t thank them enough for their immediate response across all the five, six, seven counties. Our local EMAs and local law enforcement have been incredibly coordinated," Lee said.
Senator Marsha Blackburn said there is a letter that was sent to senate leadership from Senator Hagerty, Tillis and Bud from North Carolina encouraging a reassembly to address the severity of the disaster.
Severity, How you can help
Both Governor Lee and Senator Bill Hagerty emphasized the severity of the storm, but also the extensity of the Volunteer State's servant attitude.
"It's hard to imagine preparation for something that's never happened, and certainly this has never happened here. what I'm most impressed by is the way this community has responded," Lee said.
"This is an event that is described in terms of odds. One in one hundred event, one in two hundred, we've even heard one in five hundred. This is an event beyond any of that, greater than an a thousand year event," Senator Hagerty shared. "The thing we have to be prepared for now, we're trying to move this water out as quickly as we can because there's another storm brewing in the Atlantic. We're doing everything we can to be prepared for whatever comes next."
If you want to volunteer or help with donations, TEMA has a websitewith ways you can coordinate or volunteer, as well as the senate's Helene recovery website.
