Eric Tolbert, Oversaw North Carolina's response to the devastating flooding caused by Hurricane Floyd, 49
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LENOIR, N.C. (AP) -- Eric Tolbert, a former North Carolina emergency
management director who oversaw the state's response to the devastating
flooding caused by Hurricane Floyd in 1999, died Wednesday at 49.
Tolbert was a veteran of local, state and federal emergency management
work. He became director of the state Division of Emergency Management
in 1997, then was named to the same post at the Federal Emergency
Management Agency's Response Division in 2002.
"He was the kind of person that always cared deeply for people," said
Caldwell County Sheriff Gary Clark, who had been friends with Tolbert
since elementary school.
An autopsy has been scheduled though it appeared Tolbert died of
natural causes.
Tolbert, who began his career in Caldwell County, headed the state's
emergency management operations when eastern North Carolina was lashed
by storms four times in late 1999, including Hurricane Floyd's epic
20-inch rainfall.
Damage from the storms caused an estimated $6 billion in damage. Floyd
was blamed for at least 51 deaths and ranked among the country's
deadliest hurricanes at the time.