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Trump Arrives in North Carolina to See Hurricane Florence’s Devastation Touring Storm Damage in the Carolinas, Trump Follows His Own Script
(about 5 hours later)
HAVELOCK, N.C. — President Trump traveled to the storm-tossed Carolinas on Wednesday, swooping in to inspect a landscape transformed by howling winds, torrential rains and swollen rivers. NEW BERN, N.C. — In this gracious riverfront town, where the waters rose with frightening swiftness last week to submerge entire neighborhoods, President Trump gazed in wonder on Wednesday at an elegant yacht that had been washed ashore during Hurricane Florence and now lay shipwrecked against the back deck of a red brick house.
Mr. Trump arrived in time to see the soggy aftermath of Hurricane Florence, whose water has proved more devastating than the wind itself. Sixteen rivers in North Carolina are in major flood stage, according to the state’s governor, Roy Cooper, with major highways impassable and the city of Wilmington still largely cut off from the outside world by floodwaters. “Is this your boat?” Mr. Trump asked the homeowner.
Later in the day, the president is scheduled to visit South Carolina. When the man shook his head and said “No,” the president turned with a grin and replied, “At least you got a nice boat out of the deal.”
“He wanted to see the areas hit the hardest, most impacted by the flooding,” the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said. “He also wanted to meet with the people from those areas.” It was an offhand, if telling, moment on the first leg of Mr. Trump’s trip to the storm-tossed Carolinas — a day in which he found a young apprentice to help hand out box lunches, commiserated with storm victims about their insurance claims, and inspected a landscape rudely transformed by howling winds, historic rains and swollen rivers.
Ms. Sanders said Mr. Trump would “get a full overview from state and local officials in both states.” Where other presidents have treated natural disaster tours as dignified, even grave affairs, Mr. Trump has deployed sardonic humor, a candidate’s pep-rally enthusiasm and a real estate developer’s talent for always finding a silver lining. Occasionally, as when he tossed rolls of paper towels to storm victims in Puerto Rico last October, he has gone badly off-key.
Mr. Trump landed at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, on the Neuse River, and took a briefing on the storm’s damage from state and local officials. The Neuse swamped the nearby city of New Bern and is now threatening inland cities like Fayetteville and Kinston. In New Bern, a picturesque town of gracious houses with river views, rescuers plucked more than 200 people from the rising waters. Arriving in the soggy aftermath of Hurricane Florence, which has proved more devastating than the storm itself, he followed much of that script.
The president walked along River Drive, a low-lying neighborhood of brick and clapboard houses damaged by flooding. Behind one small brick house, a yacht had washed ashore and was shipwrecked against the wooden deck. Mr. Trump spoke to the home’s owner and then with reporters. Sixteen rivers in North Carolina are in major flood stage, according to the state’s governor, Roy Cooper, with critical highways impassable and the city of Wilmington still largely cut off from the outside world by floodwaters.
“I think it’s incredible what we’re seeing,” the president said. “This boat just came here.” “We’re going to come back stronger than ever,” Mr. Cooper, a Democrat, said to Mr. Trump during a briefing with state and local officials at the Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, near the Atlantic Coast. “But we need your help.”
“They don’t know whose boat that is,” he added. “What’s the law? Maybe it becomes theirs.” “Thank you, Roy,” he replied. “We will be there 100 percent.”
Traveling with Mr. Trump from Washington were Republican senators: Richard Burr and Thom Tillis from North Carolina, and Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott from South Carolina. The secretary of homeland security, Kirstjen Nielsen; the budget director, Mick Mulvaney; and the White House chief of staff, John Kelly, were also on Air Force One. For a president who revels in being the first responder in chief, this trip had all the elements: a helicopter tour of the battered Carolina coastline, walkabouts with mostly friendly local residents, and fulsome expressions of gratitude for Washington’s help from local and state officials in North and South Carolina.
The president clearly relishes visits to storm-ravaged places. There are urgent briefings by state and local officials, usually accompanied by charts and abundant gratitude for the strong support from Washington. There are dramatic helicopter tours over waterlogged landscapes, and photo-ready visits to battered neighborhoods, where Mr. Trump often banters with the residents as if he were still on the campaign trail. Behind the president in a cavernous airplane hangar were charts promoting the coordinated rescue and recovery effort, as well as the record-shattering rainfall and flooding that North Carolina suffered.
But these visits have also produced some memorably off-key moments. Last summer, the first lady, Melania Trump, raised eyebrows when she emerged from the White House in needle-thin heels for a visit to Texas after Hurricane Harvey (she later changed into sneakers). Mrs. Trump did not accompany her husband on Wednesday. As he has after prior natural disasters, Mr. Trump dwelt on the successes that followed the storm rather than the misery still afflicting those without power or shelter. But he acknowledged that hard work still remained to be done, despite the incongruously sunny skies.
In October, Mr. Trump tossed rolls of paper towels to victims of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. His performance seemed even more discordant in retrospect, after his unfounded claim last week that the death toll on the island had been inflated as part of a Democratic plot to discredit him — a claim defended by the administrator of FEMA, Brock Long. “We’ve seen all the pictures,” said Mr. Trump, who wore a windbreaker, khakis and an open-neck shirt. “Hurricane Florence was one of the most powerful and devastating storms to ever hit our country.”
At Temple Baptist Church, he joined volunteers in handing out boxes of hot dogs, peas and applesauce to people in a long line of cars and trucks. Church officials said they had distributed 1,200 lunches the day before. Mr. Trump quickly found an assistant in an 11-year-old boy, K. C. Peters, putting his arm around him and saying, “You can help us.”
“Hi everybody, how’s your house?” he asked the occupants of one vehicle.
At first, people greeted Mr. Trump shyly. But then a man in a pickup truck gave him an enthusiastic, pumping handshake. As the president balanced plastic foam boxes under his chin, passing them through the windows, he met more supporters, who told him they had voted for him.
“He wanted to see the areas hit the hardest, most impacted by the flooding,” said the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders. “He also wanted to meet with the people from those areas.”
On his tour of New Bern, where the waters have receded, Mr. Trump saw the detritus of a major disaster: uprooted trees, furniture and insulation lying in sodden piles on the curb, a sailboat deposited in an open field, a motorboat wedged against the side of a Courtyard Marriott Hotel.
“Do you want to see my house? It’s over there,” a woman in a blue T-shirt said to Mr. Trump, pointing to a badly damaged yellow house on the riverfront. “We’re going to move.”
Next door, an older man told him, “I named my dog after you.” (It was not clear whether the animal’s name was Donald, or Trump, or both). “That’s nice,” the president replied.
Across the street, where Mr. Trump came across the beached yacht, he told reporters that the homeowner had complained that his insurance company was balking at covering the cost of the damage.
“We’re going to find out the name of the insurance company,” Mr. Trump declared. “They don’t know whose boat that is,” he added. “What’s the law? Maybe it becomes theirs.”
Later, after a helicopter ride down the scarred coast, Mr. Trump visited the South Carolina town of Conway for a taste of the disaster still to come. Large pools of water were only just forming there, but officials said the town would be under several feet of water in a few days, as the rain-swollen rivers in North Carolina cascade down toward the sea.
Residents here have received evacuation orders, and U-haul trucks are parked in driveways. Mr. Trump gazed at a road that disappeared into a lake; in the distance, three young men sloshed through two feet of water.
“We’ve got everything laid out,” Mr. Trump promised a group of residents, “A lot of money coming from Washington.”
To underscore his point, he brought along a hefty delegation, including a quartet of Republican senators: Richard Burr and Thom Tillis from North Carolina, and Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott from South Carolina.
As much as Mr. Trump savors these trips, some moments have backfired. Last summer, the first lady, Melania Trump, raised eyebrows when she emerged from the White House in needle-thin heels for a visit to Texas after Hurricane Harvey. (She later changed into sneakers.) Mrs. Trump did not accompany her husband on Wednesday.
Mr. Trump’s paper towel-tossing episode in Puerto Rico seems even more discordant in retrospect, after his unfounded claim last week that the death toll there from Hurricane Maria had been inflated as part of a Democratic plot to discredit him.
On Wednesday, Mr. Trump avoided such missteps — perhaps skirting the line only once, during his morning briefing in North Carolina, when he asked a state official, “How is Lake Norman doing?”
Assured that it was doing fine, he replied, “I love that area. I can’t tell you why, but I love that area.”
On the shores of Lake Norman, near Charlotte, N.C., there is a Trump National Golf Club.