RALEIGH, NC — Gov. Pat McCrory said Tuesday that he wants a special session of the General Assembly next month to handle Hurricane Matthew’s impact on our state.
It’s part of a timeline laid out today in the first meeting of the “Hurricane Matthew Recovery Committee.”
The group is made up of leaders from areas impacted by Matthew, plus representatives from the state, FEMA and others.
The group will be looking at fundraising for housing and small business recovery and also developing long-term plans.
The special session could happen in early December. McCrory said lawmakers will look at modifying the school calendar laws and paying for disaster recovery.
That’s despite a record $1.6 billion in the “Rainy Day Fund,” according to the McCrory administration.
“I think the reason that I want to go ahead and do a special session is so that we can go and implement plans to spend additional money. We know we’re going to need additional money. You can’t wait until the money is in hand to begin the process of those expenditures,” McCrory said.
The governor also addressed some of the impacts from Matthew that are still being felt in the state.
There are 1,000 power outages, nearly 250 people remain in four shelters and 300 roads are still closed.
All school systems are open, but the governor said that in places like Lumberton, some kids are not returning to class and school leaders don’t know how to reach them.