North Carolina’s new uncle Mike Sprayberry is a calming presence in troubling times
We always know exactly how many days North Carolina has been dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, because Mike Sprayberry won’t let us forget.
At every one of the state’s press briefings — and North Carolina’s emergency management director appears at all of them, with or without the governor — starts with the same verbiage:
“Today is day (whatever) of the state emergency operations center’s COVID-19 response.”
Sprayberry says the number of days, of course, not “whatever.” The former Army National Guard and Marine officer would never make that joke. But there’s occasionally a twinkle in Sprayberry’s eye that suggests he’s at least thought about it.
“Honestly, I hope that I come across as being sincere and informative,” Sprayberry said in a telephone interview, “but I just don’t know.”
Of all these new characters who have taken outsized roles in our day-to-day lives in the time of the coronavirus pandemic, none are quite like Sprayberry, who somehow manages to combine folksy charm with military mannerisms and steadfast optimism. His avuncular bearing complements the crisp gravitas of Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, with whom he is almost always paired at afternoon briefings, and the professorial efficiency of Gov. Roy Cooper.
Emergency operations director isn’t a job title that typically lends itself to celebrity. Sprayberry, 65, fits a familiar trope, the uncle who knows where the good barbecue is on the way to the beach — and has very strong opinions about it — but also the one who answers the phone immediately and shows up first to help when your car gets stuck in the mud. He looks like the kind of person who might have three dogs running around the house. (He does: two Cairn Terriers and a scrappy rescue named “Hobo.”)
Since his promotion in 2013 into the top emergency-management job at the Department of Public Safety, where he had worked as a deputy director since 2005, the UNC-Charlotte graduate has been a frequent speaker at hurricane and other weather briefings. So even for those who haven’t been paying close attention, he’s a recognizable figure, always wearing a DPS uniform shirt in a wide variety of neutral shades, always with a white T-shirt showing through the open collar. Sometimes he’s still wearing his N.C. Emergency Managment lanyard around his neck on TV.
Finding his calling
The briefings affirm Sprayberry’s comfort level in a role that has become a calling, whether that’s helping disaster survivors or wrangling the separate disaster responses of 100 counties and the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians into coherence. It’s a role that only figures to get busier as we head into hurricane season — Tropical Storm Bertha arrived Wednesday — in the midst of a pandemic.
“I enjoyed my time in the military, no doubt,” Sprayberry said. “But I will tell you this: I find the mission of public safety and public service, where you get to use your skill sets to help people, very rewarding.”
As he reads his updates at daily press conferences, he leans forward with a furrowed brow and his voice often dips into a gravely Gary Busey-esque range, occasionally punctuated by unexpected asides like, “That’s great news!”
His tone always perks up at the end, as he arrives at the most familiar of his litany of daily sayings, one that speaks to a different kind of management and has been refined into a very specific message over the past two months.
“As always, don’t forget to look out for your family, friends and neighbors,” Sprayberry says. “And call your loved ones daily. I guarantee you they’ll appreciate it. With kindness and cooperation, we’ll all get through this together as one team, one mission and one family.”
It’s a variation on a speech he has given to a crowded operations center many times during hurricanes, and a cynic might wonder just how sincere that sentiment is, given the stage and the stakes.
‘A square shooter’
Mark Goodman worked closely with Sprayberry when Goodman was Onslow County’s director of emergency management, a job Sprayberry convinced him to take after Goodman retired from the Marines. He said what you get from Sprayberry isn’t any different when the cameras are off.
“He’s the same as he is when they’re on, and that’s the best part about him,” Goodman said in a telephone interview. “He’s a square shooter. He’s nonpolitical and doesn’t really give a damn whether Republicans or Democrats are in power. He does what is best for the people of North Carolina. That’s the key. It’s hard to find people like that.”
When Sprayberry shares the stage with Cohen, his interactions with her are often as compelling as the information they provide, thanks in part to Sprayberry’s precise chivalry. He always ensures Cohen is seated first and refers to her habitually as “Madame Secretary.”
His respect for Cohen dates back to Hurricane Florence, when Cohen moved a substantial DHHS team into the state’s Emergency Operations Center to help supervise shelters and medical care, which Sprayberry called “unprecedented.”
At one briefing in May, Sprayberry led off by ad-libbing a paean to his “battle buddy” Cohen, complimenting her on her leadership and family. Cohen responded that Sprayberry is an “not only an incredible leader and getting the job done, but doing it with kindness every day.”
A few days later, speaking after Cohen and Cooper, Sprayberry extended “a big, hearty hand salute” to North Carolina’s EMS workers. That might have been out of character for some other state’s emergency operations director. But hearty was exactly what North Carolina has come to expect from Sprayberry.
“He has a tremendous amount of energy and a tremendous amount of caring,” Goodman said. “And damned if people just don’t like him.”
This story was originally published May 28, 2020 at 5:45 AM with the headline "North Carolina’s new uncle Mike Sprayberry is a calming presence in troubling times."
