TULSA, Okla. — Governor Kevin Stitt visited Tulsa on Friday morning, six days after strong winds hit the city leaving hundreds of thousands without power.
He visited the Tulsa City Hall to talk to leaders and toured storm damage in east Tulsa. The visit comes after confusion about who was acting governor while Stitt was in Paris for an air show.
2 News' Cori Duke caught up with Gov. Kevin Stitt Friday morning on his way out of City Hall. She asked him why the delay in declaring a state of emergency, why he didn’t leave France sooner after learning of the devastating storm, and why the lack of communication with city and state leaders.
Gov. Stitt told 2 News he tried to change his flights to come home sooner. He said there was no delay in declaring a state of emergency, "we went ahead and declared that emergency and... you know, we did it as quickly as possible."
In April tornadoes killed three and caused damage in five Oklahoma counties on April 19.
Stitt issued a state of emergency for those five counties on April 20: READ IT HERE.
He also said he had communication with Mayor Bynum, although Bynum said in a news conference he had reached out to the Governor several times and not heard back.
2 News asked Bynum about Stitt's comments. He said the first conversation he had with Stitt about the storm was Friday when Stitt got to City Hall. He also said the city is getting what is needed from the state.
Lt. Governor Matt Pinnell also spoke with 2 News Friday, while he was at River Spirit Casino attending an ice handout for those in need.
He told us he's been in town for the last 24 hours, meeting with PSO and surveying damage. Pinnell said he was here on the day of the storm and knew midtown Tulsa got hit hard.
"I was driving around midtown on Father's Day," Pinnell said. "We could barely get around a number of streets. Pretty amazing to see. It looks like a tornado rolled through. I mean, that's what it looks like. That's essentially what it was I mean, 100 mile an hour winds, gusts."
2 News then asked Pinnell about the confusion surrounding the acting governor earlier in the week.
"There was no void. When the governor and Lt. governor are out of state, that's happened many times over the last five years. The process by which again making sure Greg Treat or Charles McCall or the Secretary of State know that they are acting governor. There was no delay on an emergency declaration. We were ready on Tuesday to declare that emergency declaration. This was different than a lot of other storms. You know, when a tornado rolls through, it could be five or six blocks, this was 11 counties. So, I give our Oklahoma Emergency Management team some credit here because they got that assessment done. Tuesday, we were ready, and Tuesday we rolled it out."
Pinnell said the governor and the executive branch will look at the policies that require the transfer of power because they feel it's antiquated.
Here is the full transcript of the interview with Gov. Stitt:
2 News' Cori Duke: It’s been six days. A lot of folks haven’t seen you up until now here in Oklahoma. We wanted to see what the delay was.
Governor Kevin Stitt: Yeah, I was in Paris. We were doing a recruiting trip, uh, Tinker and, uh, the aviation defense industry is such a huge part of our state and so uh we were monitoring the whole situation the whole time. Last Thursday, we waived some requirements to make sure we could stage all of the equipment and then on Monday, we worked to waive some requirements for Magellan to get gas and generators back on. Then Tuesday, we declared an emergency as we – I’ve got Mark Gower here who’s our emergency management director and so he’s been monitoring and keeping me updated on the whole situation.
Cori: A lot of folks here have been without food, water, electricity – really struggling. When you heard news of the disaster, why didn’t you come home quicker?
Stitt: Yeah, well, uh, number one, we were monitoring everything and been talking to Leigh Anne, the president of uh or the CEO of PSO and we want to get power on as quickly as possible. We’ve done everything we can from the state perspective to make sure they have the generators and the wastewater and all the equipment. There’s actually 2,700 people on the ground and so monitoring everything. We tried to move our flights up a little bit, but we’re here today and just so thankful. I just stopped through Broken Arrow and I’m going to go visit with the responders at PSO and we wanted to stop by the command center here in Tulsa.
Cori: A lot city leaders have said there has been a lack of communication. The mayor just yesterday come out and said he had tried to reach out to you several times but he was unsuccessful. What happened there?
Stitt: You know, don’t, I’m not going to put words in his mouth, but we were in a text chain together and we’ve done everything from a state perspective that we could. So not sure exactly what more can be done. It’s so frustrating when people are out of power, and we get that. That’s why we wanted to waive all the requirements and do everything we can from the state to make sure the private sector, PSO, all the folks who come in from out of state to get power restored as quickly as possible. We’ve been communicating with the different cooling centers, etc. to make sure that people are safe. Again, we are doing everything we can from the state perspective. Our emergency management director Mark Gower has been in constant contact with the local emergency management folks but it just takes a while sometimes when you have a storm with 100+ mile-an-hour winds and the amount of tree damage and there was about 500 poles that were down. It just takes them a while to get those back up. I know that people are super frustrated, and we are trying to get that up as quickly as possible.
Cori: The Attorney General said there was a lack of communication when it came to who was acting governor that, um, he didn’t realize that both you and the Lt. Governor would both be out of state at the same time. That was the delay, he said, in the three days that went by without a declaration of emergency. Can you explain that?
Stitt: Absolutely not true. I am the governor when I am away. I am governor right now and in constant communication with our team. We were waiting on all of the assessments from the different counties. There was a potential of 55 counties to be declared an emergency, but we have to go through some protocol to know exactly what the damage is and we ended up declaring an emergency on 10 different counties on Tuesday. It's an old law like 1907 when we became a state. When the governor was traveling via horse and buggy to Washington D.C. and was out of state for months at a time. That's when those laws in place, saying, hey we need to have someone in state. But with technology, I was on the phone constantly with Gower, my Chief, the PSO CEO to make sure that they have everything they need to get power restored as quickly as possible.
Cori: Pro Tem Greg Treat said that there didn’t need to be an assessment made in order to declare a declaration of emergency. What is your response to that?
Stitt: Yeah, you know I’m glad that Greg Treat issued that order. We called him, we said, we drafted it, we said, 'hey if you can’t get this done today, then Pinnell was going to fly back early.' But we got it done on Tuesday. Mark Gower, you know, once we got the 10 counties approved, we went ahead and declared that emergency and um, you know, we did it as quickly as possible.
Cori: Is there a process that, um you guys think about when –
Stitt: Last question because I’ve got to get. They’re waiting on me.
Cori: Sure, the Lt. Governor left Monday after the storm knowing that there was a storm here, you both left, and Pro Tem said that there was no communication knowing that he was acting governor.
Stitt: Yeah, you know there’s no real requirement to let Pro Tem Treat know. Again, I’m governor in state, out of state. It’s just a technicality if we have to declare an emergency or we have to do some kind of paperwork. That’s when I asked Greg Treat to sign that sheet of paper. If he’s trying to make an issue out of it, I don’t know I haven’t talked to him about that or why he’s making these type of comments but we got the declaration declared on Tuesday as soon as Gower gave me the green light there was 10 counties that could it. We called his office. We got it done. If he wasn’t willing to do it, Pinnell the Lt. Governor was going to fly back. I couldn’t get my flights changed in time to get back here so got in late last night and the first thing I wanted to do was get here and see the damage myself because I’ve been on the phone with everybody.
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