Gov. Timothy M. Kaine toured storm-ravaged neighborhoods in Norfolk and Hampton on Saturday, offering a shoulder to cry on and promises to seek federal disaster aid. Three congressmen - Bobby Scott, Glenn Nye and Rob Wittman - joined the tour with an entourage of state and federal emergency management officials. They assessed the damages and said they would seek Federal Emergency Management Agency aid.
Jackie Lee, a resident of Norfolk's Willoughby Spit, grabbed the governor's hand and pleaded for help.
"I want you to know a lot of people who live down here are low-income. What can you do for them?" she asked.
Kaine again said he would push for FEMA money and also will look at the state's contingency budget.
"I'd like to see the FEMA paperwork by Monday," Lee said.
Other residents walked out in bare feet and pajamas to meet Kaine and have their pictures taken with him.
Kaine said just showing up seemed to lift some spirits.
"There's no substitute for seeing it personally," Kaine said. "It's heartbreaking to see people suffering like this."
Applications to FEMA for aid have already been submitted and more will follow as damage assessments roll in. Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim, who joined the governor on the Norfolk leg of the tour, said he did not yet have damage estimates.
In the city's Ocean View section, Kaine saw the main thoroughfare, Ocean View Avenue, still under water and blocked in one section. He went deep into the neighborhood, stopping on Pretty Lake Avenue where a tree blocked the road and power remained out.
Bonnie Candrilli, who is disabled, cried as the governor approached her outside her home. She's been without power since Thursday. Her small rented home and the car that she had just bought Wednesday were destroyed.
"It was like a river. I lost everything," Candrilli said.
Then, pointing at the downed tree blocking her street, she asked, "Where are they?" referring to the cleanup crew and power company.
Kaine finished the tour at a shelter set up at the Norfolk Fitness and Wellness Center, where 50 to 60 people remained Saturday night.
Over and over, he heard the same words: "I lost everything."
Earlier, in Hampton, Kaine toured three neighborhoods, including Riverdale and Bay-fronted Grandview.
Residents reported tens of thousands of dollars in damage each, and some said they had no insurance to make repairs.
Joseph Nguyen on Gilbert Street showed the governor how high the water rose in his living room. He estimated the damage at $60,000 and said he has no flood insurance. After Hurricane Isabel, when he sustained similar damages, he could no longer afford the premiums.
"I don't know how to get $60,000," he said.
Hampton officials estimated the structure damage in Nguyen's neighborhood at $2.6 million, in Riverdale at $3 million, and millions more in Grandview and the surrounding area.
"It just makes you feel so bad to see people struggling to clean up," the governor said. "There's a cost to it, but there is also the sheer physical effort to do the work. You lose a lot of stuff you don't get back. It makes you feel bad to see it, but then you see everybody helping each other out."
At the end of the day, Kaine could only shake his head.
"It's intense," he said. "It's very intense."
Tim McGlone, (757) 446-2343, tim.mcglone@pilotonline.com
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Bunch of Idiots
I bet fewer than half of you live in the effected area's. What does Bush, Clinton, or Rumsfield(? got to be an idiot) have to do with Mother Nature's force or government response here?
I applaud Kaine for visiting and trying to get federal help for all the cities in this cash strapped environment we are all living in. If you posters actually lived in Ocean View, or had a relative here you would be offering assistance rather than criticism. Get a life!
Karate Chop
The person standing behind Kaine in the photo looks like he or she is getting ready to give our non-Virginian native governor a karate chop to the neck.
I know what he was thinking....
That look on his face tells me he was more worried about someone lighting a cigarette near him-we have millions of dollars in flood damage, people are homeless, business's underwater and power is out all over, but we have to find another way to stop those evil smokers from exposing people to deadly second-hand smoke.
As he climbed back aboard the State's airplane, I'll bet he thought, "ahh, what do I care? I'm out of here and on to bigger and better things in another couple of months, but I hope I get just one more chance to stick it to smokers again before I leave office and raise another tax!"
Hello fellow Virginians
I was born and raised there, and now live further south.
My daughter, who lives in Newport News, told me of this storm last night.
It was the first I heard of it!!
I'm amused by a lot of the anti-Obama comments.
and the alternative is what?
VP - Broken Links for the comments pages
Hey everyone, if you try to review the other comments you'll find that it's a broken link (if the VP tryin to tell us something?).. Anyway, you can acceess the other pages via
http://hamptonroads.com/2009/11/gov-kaine-tours-storm-damage-it%E2%80%99s-very-intense?page=1#comments
Just replace the page=1 to page=2 or 3 etc... you get the picture.
The Ant and the Grasshopper - very abbreviated!
OLD VER:The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold. MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!
NEW VER: Same as above, then at onset of winter the grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving. CBS, NBC , and ABC show video of the shivering grasshopper next to the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned. Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration at the ant's house and prays. Pelosi & John Kerry call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to
make him pay his fair share. The EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-
Grasshopper Act retroactively. The ant is fined for failing to hire enough green bugs;later his home is confiscated. The ant disappears, the grasshopper is found dead from drugs, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders. MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote in 2010
Part time Timmy
The man child is away playing president of the world and he dispatched Lil’ Timmy for a DNC photo op. Buh bye.
Smoke from the swamp fires
Too bad Gov. Kaine couldn't visit the swamp fires last year that plagued Virginia Beach! It might have given firefighters a boost in morale. Guess he didn't think it warranted a photo opportunity like the current Nor'easter!
If this had been Chicago you
If this had been Chicago you can bet Obama would have declared this a Federal disaster area and allocated every asset the federal government has to ease the burden. This region is a republican strong hold so he could care less. The thing that concerns me the most is that we have many military families that this likely overburdened and the Federal government especially the Obama Administration do not seem to care. I think it is unreasonable to think Obama would show up, but I do think he could at least commit the Federal Authorities to help out South Eastern Virginia. The burden should not fall solely on the State. Let's see if Obama wakes up.
What have the Republicans or Bush done for the military?
You seem to forget that Bush sent our sons, daughters, wives, husbands, fathers and mothers to fight a war for no reason without proper equipment and provided no care when they came home. President Obama has the utmost respect for our military and will assist them in any way possible.
YOU FORGET TOO
You seem to forget that Democrats Kennedy and Johnson sent our sons,daughters,husbands,and wives to fight a war for no reason.
since when?
"President Obama has the utmost respect for our military and will assist them in any way possible"
Yeah, that is why he doesn't know what to do now about Afghanistan. He needs to make a decision - but he can't because he doesn't have the experience to do so.
Vabeach757
Is this what you call experience,neglecting the war in Afghanistan to wage an illegal one in Iraq? If Bush had done what President Obama is doing now, we wouldn't be in this mess.
Experience
Nowhere near same experience as GWBush, Cheney and Ashcroft, who collectively took us down the tubes? I certainly hope not.
Further
and Rummy
The Ant and the Grasshopper - very abbreviated...
OLD VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold. MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!
MODERN VERSION: Same as above, but at the onset of winter the grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving. CBS, NBC , and ABC show video of the shivering grasshopper next to the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned. Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house and prays. Pelosi & John Kerry call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to
make him pay his fair share. The EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-
Grasshopper Act retroactively. The ant is fined for failing to hire enough green bugs and later his home is confiscated. The ant disappears, the grasshopper is found dead from drugs, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders. MORAL OF THE STOR
I guess Suffolk is being ignored?
I noticed that one of the two houses in the middle of the Nansemond River had been torn from it's pilands and is gone. Both the houses were rebuilt after Isabel destroyed them and now the one nearest the bridge is gone again. Great media coverage.
Governor Kaine
Stop the bickering and focus on those things which are truly important. I think everyone is forgetting that in a democracy "we" are the key to how government works. Despite which party is in office and given the fact that they both have their negatives and positives, "the people" must be actively and intelligently engaged. Here is an important issue which Governor Kaine and other public officials have not addressed. The midtown tunnel is now closed whenever it rains more than 3 or 4 inches, which is the amount of rain "prior to a hurricane". The problem is that this severely impedes evacuation plans. With the tunnel closed people in Norfolk will be trapped. The tunnel has been in place for 40+ years and until the past 5 years has not had this problem. It is obvious that the City of Norfolk's development has caused this problem and they and the state need to address it now!!
Democracy?
We are NOT a democracy, we are a democratic republic. That means we have a republican form of government, elected through a democratic process.
The City of Norfolk and VDOT, need to get together and get the tunnel situation straightened out.
BTW, it is NOT necessary to use the tunnel to evacuate, you can jump on 264 to 64 east and get out of dodge, or go west, BEFORE the storm hits, and get out of dodge.
newsflash
there is no evacuation out of here in a hurricane or nor'easter like we had unless you leave at least a week ahead of time.....wait till the bad weather gets here and you might as well stay here ..... because you won't be able to get out in any direction.....