Southern Governors to Create Compact to Respond to Crises

Southern governors voted Saturday to develop a regional compact to help each other deal with disasters such as Hurricane Andrew.

The initiative, offered by Florida Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles, said Southern states have a “special vulnerability to certain acts of nature” and noted that “the devastation often cripples the network of Southern infrastructure and commerce.”

Chiles said the regional compact would provide for each Southern state to share with its sister states its executive plan for dealing with natural disasters.

He said the states also would share through computer linkup their inventory of relief equipment, such as portable generators, mobile radar and debris-removal machinery that could be borrowed if disaster strikes.

“I think this is going to be a great asset for us,” said South Carolina Gov. Carroll A. Campbell Jr., outgoing chairman of the Southern governors’ group. Campbell’s state was hit by Hurricane Hugo in 1989.

Federal disaster relief recently was injected into the presidential campaign, with some officials complaining that the White House had been too slow last month in reacting to the emergency caused by Hurricane Andrew.

Florida’s chief liaison officer to Washington, Debby Kilmer, said South Carolina’s Republican governor had become a “backup adviser” to Chiles in dealing with the crisis because of his experience in dealing with Hugo.