Governor Beverly Perdue today signed a document declaring Roanoke Rapids and Halifax County a state disaster area after last week’s flooding.

This, the governor said at city hall, will get state resources rolling while the state waits word on federal aid to help the people in the city recover from a storm that inundated the storm water system with some 11 inches of water.

In introducing the governor, Mayor Emery Doughtie said he and others from her office had first visited areas hard hit by the flooding.

“I harken back to (Hurricane) Floyd,” the governor said, remembering the devastation the 1999 storm caused across the state and then praising city and county officials for the work they did during and after Saturday’s storm.

“It’s important we help the people,” Perdue said. “The fact of the matter is we have people who have lost everything.”

She said the state has already asked the federal government for assistance in Roanoke Rapids. “I’m very hopeful. I have every reason to be confident.”

While not the worst disaster in the history of the state, Perdue said, “The reality is for a city that had some lose everything it’s a major disaster.”

Doughtie told an audience of mainly county and city officials, “Now is not the time to point fingers. We were just overwhelmed Saturday morning. Some people got a lot of devastation. We want to work together to do what we can to help everybody.”