Page 32 - Steven Benjamin News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

That we do law enforcement in the country. our police department is leading this. the african-american mayor association, and the conference of chiefs are leading in the peaceful training, and conflict resolution training, and including transparency and accountable, people don't expect the officers to be be perfect, because they are human beings like the rest of us, but they do expect us to be professional, and expect, obvious ly, when people make mistake, and grave mistakes for people to with be held accountable, and the hope and prayers is that the sheriff's deputy is fair hearing in court, ...

So, we're trying our best to make sure we keep people off the roads, protect them from themselves until we have a better chance to assess the challenges before us. >> are you getting enough aid from the federal government? >> wolf, we've had incredible support at every level of government, from the federal government, state government, the governor's been helping us and leading along with our general with the national guard, and great local participation. our police department along with our fire department and our sheriff's department yesterday searched 1,800 homes, evacuated 350 people, usin...

Alisyn. >> oh, my gosh, chad, thanks so much for laying that out. steven benjamin, the mayor of columbia, south carolina, the state's capital. thanks so much for being with us on "new day." tell us what the situation is in columbia at this hour. >> alisyn, it's dire. we continue to work together, i will tell you, we couldn't have had greater support from our federal government, our u.s. army base here, ft. jackson, our governor is leading on this issue. all the local law enforcement, national guard folks are working together. the primary mission of preserving human life. we're working, of cour...

South carolina, of course. the weather there has claimed nine lives across the state. several cities completely under water due to historic unrelenting rains. right now, boil water advisories are still in effect for some people in columbia. we are told about 40,000 people across the state are without water altogether. officials at the university of south carolina are bringing in bottled water and portable restrooms to try to help take care of the students there and the last hour i spoke with columbia mayor steve benjamin about the situation in his city. >> we have a press conference announcing...

I have lived here most of my life. the dam broke twice when i was living here and never flooded but this took everything away. >> steven benjamin is the mayor of columbia, south carolina and is joining us now. mr. mayor, we appreciate your time. thank you. >> thank you, peter. >> want to get a sense of the situation right now in columbia. we know nine people have lost their lives across the state. are there any reports of missing persons where you are or do you feel satisfied that everybody that needs help is being attended to right now? >> absolutely. we are seeing incredible collaboration an...