President Obama commended the governors of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina for their handling of Hurricane Matthew, but warned that the worst may not be over for southern states.
“I think the bigger concern at this point is not just hurricane-force winds, but storm surge,” he said in brief remarks Friday after meeting with Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Craig Fugate and Homeland Security Director Jeh Johnson at the White House.
“Many of you will remember Hurricane Sandy where initially people thought, ‘this doesn’t look as bad as we thought,’ and then suddenly you get massive storm surge and a lot of people were severely affected,” Obama said. “And so I just want to emphasize to everybody that this is still a really dangerous hurricane; that the potential for storm surge, flooding, loss of life and severe property damage continues.”
“State and local officials have been on top of this. They are the ones who are tracking most closely what is happening in your particular community, your particular area,” Obama said. “You need to pay attention to them. Do what they say. Do not be a holdout here because we can always replace property but we can’t replace lives.”
“[P]ay attention to what your local officials are telling you,” he said. “If they tell you to evacuate, you need to get out of there and move to higher ground because storm surge can move very quickly.”
