NASHVILLE, TN—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) today joined Cavuto Live on Fox News to discuss the deadly storms that went through Tennessee and the mid-south region overnight Friday.
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Partial Transcript
Hagerty on the overnight storms in Tennessee and the mid-south region: “You were just talking with the [County] Judge there in Arkansas, come across the Mississippi river, I think we’ve been hit harder. As you mentioned, we’ve already had three lives that we’ve recorded down. We’ve got thousands of people that are out of electricity right now, Neil. I was just talking with a good friend of mine this morning out in west Tennessee. A barn was completely smashed on his property. Thank goodness he was in his home, in the basement and safe. But enough people had early warning. I got a call at 3:00 in the morning. It’s something that I think everybody is sort of coming to the fore right now, trying to make certain that their neighbors are in good shape, and I’m praying that we don’t find any more casualties. The people in Kentucky obviously have been hurt far worse, and our hearts and prayers go out to them.”
Hagerty on the success of Tennessee’s emergency response management: “Well, the warning system work very well here in Tennessee. Our Tennessee emergency response management team is great. My mother is also a great emergency response person because she’s the one that called me at 3:00 in the morning to make certain that we were all safe. But those systems do work well here. We’ve exercised them a good deal here in Tennessee. You know, we’ve had tornado damage in the past that’s been significant. Nothing though, like what I saw transpire in Mayfield, Kentucky, that is true devastation. And again, our prayers are with the folks there.”
Hagerty on working to get federal resources for those impacted: “Well, I know that leadership in each of the states are communicating with the White House, with their federal counterparts, and I’m certain that they’ll do everything they can to bring federal resources to bear. You can be certain that Senator [Marsha] Blackburn and I are going to do everything we can to make certain that Tennessee gets what it needs.”