. >> reporter: unlike floyd matthew did not make land fall in north carolina but its heavy rain hit the state pushing already swollen rivers over their banks. >> people with little or throwing, could not get out. >> hurricane matthew also hit parts of the that, center of the storm stayed off shore, but pounding wind and dangerous storm surge battered homes and businesses along the beach, matthew wasn't the first hurricane to threaten the sunshine state in 2016 her kaine her mine came through in september becoming first hurricane to make land fall in florida since wilma in 2005. >> in tennessee, vicious winds , helped fuel two raging fires, near gatlinburg. >> when you couple that with the dry, the drought that we have been experiencing for the last two months, everything was almost like a perfect storm. >> reporter: chimney tops and the fires charred american 17,000 acres, and destroyed nearly 2500 buildings. at least 14 people were killed two juveniles are new charged with aggravated arson. i'm mary malone, reporting. >> power of mother nature, truly incredible. >> look at that. >> mot

reporter: unlike floyd, matthew didn't make landfall in north carolina. but the heavy the state pushing the swollen rivers over the banks. >> people with little to nothing, the flood took it all. >> hurricane matthew also left a mark on florida. the center of the storm stayed offshore. but the howling winds battered homes and businesses along the beach. hurricane joaqein roared ashore to become the first hurricane making landfall in florida since wilma in 2005. in tennessee, vicious winds helped fuel raging fires near gatlinburg. >> when you couple that with the drought we have experienced for two months everything was a perfect storm. >> chimney top charred more than 17,000 acres. and destroyed nearly 2,500 buildings. at least 14 people were killed. two juveniles are charged with aggravated arson. i'm mary milone reporting. michelle: when you reflect on the events you realize how many communities are still trying to piece things together because of enormous devastation. doug: sometimes, as hard as you try you can't get the full scope on a tv set. they do

communities -- we have one community that was washed away by hurricane floyd and was washed away again just about 17 years later with hurricane matthew. neighborhoods completely under water. i was in fayettville. there was a habitat for humanity neighborhood that had 90 homes. six are uninhabitable now. there were areas in flood plains. this was a thousand--year rain event, a 500-year flood event. in other words, this is not likely to happen again in our lifetimes, maybe not even in the pages' lifetimes. it's just an incredibly -- it's an incredible event that's going to take a lot of time and effort to recover from and resources. the human and economic toll we're still trying to tally. the disaster is going to take probably decades to fully recover as we're seeing with floyd. but we will recover because that's what north carolinians do, that's what americans do. to begin the long rebuilding process, though, we need federal assistance, and that's why governor pat mccrory requested a disaster assistance package and why we very quickly got a team together, my staff who led the effort working with congressman price, members of the deleg