RALEIGH - Hundreds of state environmental technicians have fanned out across the eastern half of the state in the wake of Hurricane Floyd, mobilizing rescue efforts, inspecting the effects of overflowing swine lagoons, and helping local rescue agencies repair water lines and move fallen trees.
"This is the worst environmental disaster we’ve faced," said Bill Holman, Secretary of the NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). "We are pulling out all the stops to make resources and technical help available to the thousands who are suffering from the ravages of Hurricane Floyd."
Many of the problems facing flood victims deal with drinking water. Holman said the department’s Division of Environmental Health has employees in the flood areas testing public water supplies and helping local environmental health specialists test private wells.
Water quality staff has been sampling coastal waters and has found decreased oxygen levels, an early sign of possible fish kills. Air surveillance is underway across the flooded areas by water quality technicians, who are cataloging spills from swine waste lagoons and flooded wastewater treatment plants.
The agency’s Soil and Water Conservation Division is surveying damages done to swine waste lagoons, dozens of them still under water in several counties. According to agriculture officials, more than 100,000 hogs have been killed by rising waters at swine farms, and one million chickens and turkeys already have died from the flood in dozens of eastern North Carolina counties.
"We are ushering regional environmental health specialists to Jones, Nash, Greene, Edgecombe and Bertie counties to help test water supplies," according to DENR’s Jimmy Carter, director of the agency’s Flood Recovery Operations Center in Raleigh.
He said DENR has more than 200 forestry personnel in towns helping with downed trees, pumping water from public facilities and deploying four helicopters for rescue operations. Carter said some forestry workers are helping locate wood sources for use in burning of animal carcasses. The Division of Marine Fisheries staff is monitoring shell fishing areas along the coast.
Hydrologists and dam inspectors from the Division of Land Resources are in the field, Carter said, checking on the conditions of hundreds of private dams. Early indications, according to the division’s engineers, are that some dams have failed and others are weakened by flood waters.
Division staff report that it will increase air-monitoring stations to be sure that legally authorized open burning does not result in unhealthy levels of air pollution. The division also is working with two other state agencies to develop ways to burn trees and other vegetative matter with a minimum of smoke and other air pollutants.
Several of the department’s natural resources divisions are involved in flood recovery efforts. State park personnel are providing temporary housing and several parks and recreation law enforcement offices have been sent to help local police in Bethel and in rural Edgecombe County. Officers of the Wildlife Resources Commission are cataloging flood damages to wildlife habitats and organizing animal relief programs.
The department’s Coastal Management Division has surveyed the damages inflicted by Hurricane Floyd on coastal counties. Its staff are responding to requests for building permits in the aftermath of Hurricane Floyd, working with local governments to clear and re-open beach highways, and helping coastal landowners with insurance and rebuilding processes.
Staff of the Division of Waste Management have been busy lining up temporary storage sites for garbage and refuse awash in flood waters.
The Division of Water Resources in DENR is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to ensure that water releases from Kerr Lake and Falls of the Neuse Lake will not adversely affect downstream areas already flooded.
A more detailed list of flood relief operations within DENR will be posted Thursday on the department’s special Internet web page, floyd_disaster@mail.enr.state.nc.us.
Return to Press Release Page.