Roy Cooper: “I thank all of my colleagues for their unanimous bipartisan support of this resolution honoring the people of the three…”

“I thank all of my colleagues for their unanimous bipartisan support of this resolution honoring the people of the three State areas that were affected. We suffered one of the great rainfalls of modern times, literally doubled the prior record--13 inches of rain in a 2-day period--and that led to a real disaster, particularly in the area of middle Tennessee that I represent. The mayor of Nashville, Karl Dean, who's done a magnificent job responding to this crisis, has estimated the damage already at at least $1.5 billion. But the response of the community has been magnificent. And the real message of our resolution today is Nashville is open for business. Tourists are welcome. Most all of the sites will be available and ready to welcome you. A few are down temporarily, but we are rebuilding, and we are rebuilding because of the magnificent volunteer spirit of our people. Wherever you went to help a homeowner clean up a mess or to help a business recover, you were greeted with dozens, sometimes hundreds of volunteers. There's a group called Hands On Nashville that did a wonderful job coordinating these efforts. Churches, other places of worship were magnificent delivering sandwiches to the hungry, sheltering the homeless, taking care of whatever needed to be taken care of in our community. So, the volunteer spirit was magnificent. Now it's time for the government to step up.…”