Buncombe County leaders discuss recovery efforts after Helene devastation
Operations will be closed indefinitely so we can focus on
emergency response or until these water employees can come back
to buildings
We are seeing some restoration of power be back down
to about 90,000 people who are still without
It is with a very heavy heart that we announced
We have confirmed 40 storm related fatalities
And with that I'll turn it back over to you
Stacy
Thank you
And now we have uh representatives from the city of
Nashville here with us and we'll start with me man
Thank you
Um First I want to thank everyone in our community
who is volunteering in this relief effort
Um We can't do this without your help and assistance
and your partnership uh is is amazing and helping uh
all of the folks in our community including your neighbors
those who are checking on their neighbors
Um Thank you
I also um appreciate everyone adhering to the curfew that
still remains in place
That curfew begins at 7:30 p.m. and is lifted at
7:30 a.m. each day
Uh I want to thank all levels of government and
other private and nonprofit organizations for their tremendous uh support
We have we we have heard from uh our state
government our federal government um and uh organizations companies uh
religious faith based institutions everyone reaching out to us um
to help us from the federal level down the assistance
and uh interagency support has been remarkable
President Biden called me personally yesterday evening to let me
know he was providing uh whatever is needed for us
particularly
He mentioned um satellite support to help with our cellular
communication challenges
Governor Cooper is here today
Uh He um has been um in regular contact with
me and with our organizations facilitating the state support effort
and and relief effort
Um And we have leadership from multiple state agencies here
as well and have been uh in continuous contact with
us on behalf of the city
I also want to thank the agencies who provided emergency
response and public safety assistance
We have approximately 260 fire and emergency search and rescue
support personnel from agencies across the country
We have over 100 and 20 law enforcement officers from
across the state in Asheville helping with emergency response and
security needs
We have also received support from several local water utilities
Additional detail on utility support provided will um come later
in this briefing we've received public work support from other
agencies and contractors for critical needs ranging from debris management
to road clearance
Duke Energy has worked seamlessly with our public works crew
to work on road clearing and to assist with power
restoration efforts
We've had great uh support from it infrastructure partners from
the private and public sector helping with things like Wi
Fi and cellular hotspots and cybersecurity support support agencies include
fa search and rescue us fire administration North Carolina emergency
management North Carolina National Guard the Buncombe County emergency management
New York incident management team
That's New York State incident management team North Carolina incident
management team as well
And chief um fire chief Michael Case will provide more
tl on the role of these agencies and and the
role they're playing last but certainly not least we also
consider our residents businesses churches and nonprofits as key partners
in this emergency response
We appreciate um your support and concern this recovery effort
will take time
We want to we want continued cooper operation and concern
over the coming weeks as we collectively work to rebuild
our community
As I said before I encourage you to check on
your neighbors
Um I know that many of you are already doing
this
Uh I I can't say enough how amazing it is
to see everyone in our community jump into action and
to help one another
And I wanna personally say for our our first responders
as well as the city and county personnel that are
working around the clock
Uh You are doing an amazing job
Uh And I've seen it firsthand here at the county
We're at the county's esc there are rooms full of
people working tirelessly
Uh And uh today down in front of heck Square
city staff out there who obviously normally have other jobs
are out there helping distribute water
Um and and spending their time uh helping our community
So um doing an incredible job and and I know
folks are tired uh but it's gonna be a long
long road ahead of us
So thank you all so much for your work
Good afternoon
Um My name is Deborah Campbell and I serve as
the city manager in the city of Ashford
Um I want to also start my remarks by thanking
the community for the amazing effort that is being um
is given at this particular um catastrophe just about um
is the right terminology for it
Um I know the lagging supplies and communication has been
frustrating and please note that our team and our partner
agencies which you heard a lot about have been doing
everything we can to get you these resources potable water
food fuel other supplies
Um We appreciate and hope that you will be patient
with us
We are glad that these supplies though are coming in
on a much more uh steady and regular basis
So I wanna give you just an update on a
number of things that are occurring
I want to uh remind everyone to please continue to
call 911 in case of an emergency an emergency
We are currently distributing water as you have heard from
Peck Square uh 70 quart plaza until dark or when
the supply runs out
Each person is now being provided two gallons of water
with a maximum of five gallons per family
Each person must bring their own container for today
None will be provided
We are working to have containers available and we'll send
updated information as soon as we have more information
And as with the county to focus all of our
resources on recovery efforts and to maximize safety
City of Asheville offices and parks will also be closed
until further notice
Additionally there will be no trash or recycling service in
the city of Asheville until further notice bus service remains
suspended while buses are involved in relief efforts
Cellular service a temporary Verizon cellular satellite trailer is located
at the Family Justice Center at 35 W street
Additionally t-mobile has set up satellite cellular on trailers in
Asheville at Asheville middle school at 211 South Bridge Broad
Avenue and Doctor Wesley Burn Center at Southside community center
285 Livingston Street
And with that I will also echo echo the mayor's
comments about again our community partners thanking them the nonprofits
Uh Everyone who is has a hands on um all
hands on deck to address this issue
Thank you MS Campbell
Uh Good afternoon uh residents of Ashville and Buck County
My name is Ben Woody
I am one of the assistant city managers of the
city of Asheville
And I am gonna give the community an update on
our municipal water system
Uh want to it as I said yesterday the damage
to as water system is catastrophic
And I want to underscore that we have a severely
damaged water system as well
I'm gonna give some details on what that looks like
but I'm also gonna tell you a lot about what's
happening
And before I start I want to echo Miss Campbell
and Mayor Mannheimer and just say how proud I am
of our city employees and I wanna ensure the community
that our water department and our public works department are
working 24 7 every hour of daylight to restore water
for this community
And so just to give a little bit of detail
tropical storm Helene it washed out 24 inch and 36
inch water main lines transmission lines of the North Fork
Water treatment plant
Um following the 2004 storms that had that same impact
The city installed bypass lines to create redundancies
Those two were washed out
These are the lines that deliver the majority of water
to the city of asphalt and they have to be
replaced
Um I also want to note that we share water
to our partners organizations and municipalities
Um We had an eight an eight inch line excuse
me at North Fork that also delivers water to Black
Mountain that too was washed out
Um Our water personnel have very limited access to our
William de Bru water plant at Bee Tree that is
due to the road washing out for that facility
We have the National Guard en route to assist our
water staff with access to that facility
Um And and I wanna just take a minute to
discuss information that came out last night regarding our B
tree dam uh water staff and multiple outside agencies have
been able to inspect that dam dam excuse me by
ground and air
And I want to assure the community that dam is
functioning as it should and there is no evidence that
the structure has been compromised
And I also want to thank and show appreciation to
our county partners that helped us dispel this room rumor
in this morning's press briefing
So thank you uh miss tender in the county
Um But I want I wanna be clear that each
plant in our system
We have three plants and their production ability and distribution
infrastructure required extensive repairs
But also I want to share that we have made
great strides with our government and private sector partners
We have people helping us already on the scene that
are beginning those repairs they are underway
Uh I actually want to express deep gratitude to some
of our local contractors Tnk Utilities TP Howard and Tono
Utilities who are already helping us make repairs and we
appreciate their support and they are all in with us
on that
I also want to thank the city of Greensboro in
particular
Uh The city of Greensboro has sent us uh water
personnel crews and equipment begin making repairs to our distribution
infrastructure
And the good news is there is more help to
come including help from NC dot Another thing I wanna
note is we also have a dedicated water incident management
team in chief case you may be able to talk
a little bit about that but that is a team
that specializes uh in disaster recovery and they are dedicated
to our water department efforts to restore these plants and
distribution and infrastructure
Uh So they are functional again
Um We do have a plant that is operational
So there is some good news
The Mills River treatment plant is operating but it is
doing so at a very reduced capacity
Um We have an equipment on the way that will
assist in increasing that operation operational capacity and we expect
that equipment to arrive on Tuesday of this week
So we hope to begin to ramp up production capacity
of Mills River this week
I just want to remind everybody again that Helene was
a generational weather event
It cause historic destruction not only to our water infrastructure
but it's also created historic logistical challenges with the delivery
of materials that are absolutely necessary to make these repairs
But I will tell the community we already have materials
arriving they are coming already
We just need more and we'll continue to get that
Um I can't provide a precise timeline as much as
folks want me to do that
We are not able to do that
We are still um accessing uh infrastructure that is buried
under debris that is perhaps inaccessible because of water that
still remains
We are doing that every day as fast as we
can
But again I wanna know that restoring service to this
system could potentially take weeks as repairs progress
As we make progress we will begin to see service
return
But that's gonna happen slowly and it's gonna happen in
some areas before others
It's it's it's gonna be based solely on the level
of damage to the system and how we're able to
make repairs for those customers that do have water service
and some still do a bowl water advisory remains in
effect
And again that means you need to boil water rapidly
or vigorously for at least one minute before you consume
that water because potable water is limited and we do
have distribution sites up and running
You should not use potable water to flush toilets
Please only use potable water for consumption find other non
potable sources of water to flush your toilets
Again I just wanna express uh my appreciation for our
partners and our staff and I am grateful for your
patience while we dedicate every possible resource to reconstruct the
damaged portions of our water system
And with that alternative to Chief Case
Good afternoon everyone
My name is Michael Case
I uh serve as the fire chief for the city
of Asheville
And I like many of you live in the city
of Asheville in Buckman County and like many of you
I too have suffered from the effects of this devastating
storm
My purpose here today is to give you some idea
of some of the resources that we have brought into
the city and what they can do for us additional
uh details on these emergency services that have come in
and show you how much we are looking into and
how we are trying to speed up our recovery efforts
One of the largest assets we have coming in here
from the federal government is the urban search and rescue
teams
There are two assigned specifically to the city of Asheville
One is Arizona task force one out of Phoenix Arizona
the other is New Jersey task force one out of
mcguire Air Force Base New Jersey
These teams are multifunctional teams and they provide specialized skills
such as structural engineers specialized rescue aspects to the to
uh solve collapsed buildings landslides and water rescue work
They come with them with canine search capability
They have advanced medical treatment from er physicians and are
capable of doing minor surgery in the field
They also have hazardous materials response capabilities and they can
do swift water rescue in the most austere environments
Another aspect coming to us uh was given to us
through the North Carolina Metro Fire Chief Association and the
Office of State Fire Marshal last week we called them
and they were able to put together staffing for the
entire as fire department for six straight days to allow
our weary firefighters to go home and take care of
business at their home
Many of them are suffering from mental and physical strain
and the six days that they are given off is
going to help them tremendously
Another aspect of this helped tremendously in this in the
recovery efforts is from the North Carolina Army National Guard
They provided us with high profile vehicles for fording deep
water and evacuating survivors
The ability to get into these deeper areas uh speeds
up the rescue efforts and recovery efforts
It also allows us to force through uh high mud
at the same time they also have assisted us tremendously
in clearing of roads
Finally we are talking here about the incident management teams
These incident management teams are highly skilled individuals and the
responded with experiences in all types of disasters and emergencies
These skilled these skilled responders will help teach us the
methods for aiding in our reimbursement
They speed our recovery efforts and provide structure and deconflict
conflicting priorities that we may have
Our current projects that these incident management teams are working
on include developing pod distribution points for our water our
water deliveries and to our citizens and our residents they
are also used right now to organize our water distribution
system
One of our primary um efforts as uh assistant city
manager and what he said is to put our water
delivery system back in service and they will help us
organize that and speed those work efforts
I want to close out
However with the thank you for the partnership we have
with Buncombe County the fire services there the emergency management
services there and all the others that work both for
the county and for the city and how fast and
how efficient we are working together
Thank you
Good afternoon
My name is Jim mcallister
I'm the mayor of Wood be the first community adjacent
to Asheville on the north side
Before I start with my brief comments I wanna say
that since the storm since the first sunrise I have
been absolutely blown away by the thousands of acts of
kindness that our residents have shown each other in Woodfin
It's been a beautiful thing to watch
I'm also will be eternally grateful for the incredibly hard
work of we've been fire we've been police and we've
been public works who have been working without showers meals
or sleep since this storm
You have our sincere thanks
We've been experienced major devastation along the French Broad River
Both of our bridges are closed and are heavily damaged
We do not know if they will reopen silver and
plastics
Our largest employer has experienced devastating damage
The coffer dam being built for the wave construction is
underwater
We fear it may be gone
We will not know for some time
Both of our town parks are still underwater
We cannot assess the damage
I can tell you some good news
All persons in woodman now have access to a road
or street
We are not aware of anyone still blocked in by
trees
Bad news is we had one fatality in wood be
a woman who perished from a falling tree
We still have no power within our town limits
There will be no trash or recycling service until the
town has access to fuel for our garbage trucks
And the Kirby company experienced unbelievable devastation to their Woodfin
plant
I've been asked by Woodfin Water to give a report
on their service
This is from Gordon Mayberry the chair of the Whitin
Water Trustees at a 1 p.m. briefing he gave to
our town Whitin water is not functioning for two reasons
It cannot get its normal 25% supply from our partner
at Astral Water
It has also experienced a major break in its 12
mile source pipe from the reservoir
This pipe runs through heavy wooded areas and it has
been underground for decades
Duke and dot Though completed the process of clearing the
path so that the search for that break can begin
The most likely source of that break is where that
pipe crosses the many creeks and streams and if we
get lucky and find the break there or breaks there
that is something that the crews can fix themselves
The dam at the Woodfin Water reservoir has been inspected
and is in no danger of failing
Despite the many rumors that that failing is imminent there
is no eta for water resumption
I'd like to close by reminding everyone on this that's
listening or watching this that many many traffic signals in
the area and county are out of service
When you approach one of those remember driver's ed the
law says it is a four way stop
I saw so many close calls that today as I
drove in the area
If you do not stop at an out light and
you're involved in an accident the law considers you to
be at fault and your insurance company will not cover
you
So please everyone you see a red light and it's
out please stop
Thank you very much
Thank you
And before we get started with a mission HDA I
have an update from the town of Weaverville
They were unable to make it today
So they provided this information for this briefing
Um Residents of Weaverville can expect water distribution today at
North Windy Ridge
All water sources like lakes rivers and streams should be
treated as contaminated do not consume at risk of illness
Some water services will be restored this week
If and when uh it is restored
A below water advisory will be in effect until further
notice if self evacuation a self evacuation is encouraged
Um I 26 East is open I 26 West is
closed
I 40 in both directions is closed
Their closet at the Methodist church fellowship hall on Main
Street hands baby supplies
Their hours are posted on the door
Prescription pad on Main Street at Merriman is filling emergency
prescriptions at the driver
All available contingency plans have been enacted
All water conservation efforts are encouraged
Curfew is in place 7:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. If
you need a police officer call dispatch at 8282506670
Emergencies should uh continue to call 911 and walk ups
are welcome at the police department and with that we
will turn it over to Greg Lowe president of Mission
HC A North Carolina Division Greg
Thank you
I wanna first thank uh everyone with the efforts throughout
our entire Western North Carolina region
So thank you for those updates
I'd also like to thank the many team members and
caregivers who have been on site working in all of
our hospitals in challenging conditions since Wednesday
Their dedication to our patients is inspiring
Our hearts are with the community as we continue to
deal with the devastating effects of hurricane Helene through the
though the level of destruction is immense our mission health
colleagues have remained steadfast in support for our patients our
community and one another
Next
I want to provide an oper operational update
Mission hospital has been acting under what started as a
storm planning since last Wednesday
But as the situation around us has evolved we have
moved into crisis protocol
Our key priority is to keep all health services open
Mission hospital currently has more than 700 patients
More than 250 patients have been admitted to the hospital
We have delivered nearly 30 newborn babies
We have had 900 visits with more than 200 of
those individuals being admitted to our hospital
More than 80 patients needing admission into our hospital are
currently being held in the er right now we ask
staff to come in to shift before they're started on
Thursday evening and sleep on site in order to be
safe and available to care for our patients
This meant that in addition to the more than 700
patients we've had more than 1200 local staff who are
being paid to sleep here in the hospital between their
shifts
Currently our most significant priority is city water and sewer
HC A health care has supplied more than 20 tanker
trucks daily so that we can maintain clinical operations of
the hospital
However without pressurized water we are significantly challenged with running
many hospital functions such as hot food preparation toilet and
showers for those who are staying on site to say
that our teams are making the best of a rough
rough circumstances in order to keep caring for patients is
an understatement
I just met with Governor Roy Cooper Fema administrator Deanne
Criswell and the North Carolina D HHS Secretary Cody Kinsley
We expressed the critical need for these resources
We have leveraged the scale of HC A health care
who are providing increased assistance each day delivering resources such
as food water facility generators satellite data networks and critical
medical supplies
More than 60,000 mils hundreds of thousands of bottles of
water 28,000 gallons of fuel 55,000 gallons of generator diesel
and 65 pallets of additional supplies
In the coming days we will receive an additional 10
mobile units including kitchens bathrooms has hand washing stations and
mobile laundry facilities
We have HC A health care colleagues from around the
country continuing to arrive to provide support
This includes HC A health care's incident support team nurses
physicians clinical and security staff from sister HC A facility
hospitals
Yesterday two busloads of nurses arrived from Nashville South Carolina
and Texas and they've been on boarded to support our
patient care teams in the hospital today
HC A health care is also evaluating how to best
provide financial support to help address our region's near term
and long term challenges related to the storm
We will be making an announcement soon of details regarding
HCAS commitment of a hun of a million dollars to
local organizations
Thank you first to all of our colleagues medical staff
ems providers and the countless others who helped to continue
to care for Western North Carolina
Thank you
Thank you
And with that we will open it up to questions
from our media partners who are on the call
You can either unmute yourself or type your question into
the chat
Hi it's Laura Lee B pr on Blue Travel Radio
Um I'm wondering about on the water situation
We have these sites that opened up but the mobile
distribution piece we're hearing from a lot of people who
are not able to get to those sites
Where are we on that part of the process Sure
Um This is Deborah Campbell
Um We are working through that this evening
We will personally when I say personally staff will be
delivering to some communities and we're getting ready to open
up some additional distribution sites throughout the um city of
Asheville that will happen within the next 24 hours
Ok
Then I guess go ahead go ahead Laura I guess
a more um sort of big picture question you know
we see we keep hearing in the briefings about cooper
operation between um different levels of government
And then at the same time you know we're getting
inundated with people telling us about the delays that that
they see and um the lack of co ordination between
some of these organizations
Can you all speak to that I guess in simpler
terms as my dad would say like what is the
hitch in the giddy up here that if we have
all this cooper operation Like why is why are people
not getting the food and the water that they need
So Lauren I'll start and anyone else can respond
But we we've been consistently telling you that getting here
transportation was an issue
So it's not that the levels of the government are
not cooperating
It has been because of that corporation that we were
able to get to this point
I I do know that we we shared with you
that I 26 was closed and coming up on Old
Fort Road and 40 was closed is because of the
corporation with NT dot And state Highway Patrol that we've
gotten those open right now
NT The State High Air Patrol is still as 40
closed
It has one lane open and they're bringing people up
and escorting people up
So when we say co-operation that's what we're talking about
They have been working to help us to get resources
Now I I would freely admit that we were frustrated
because it has taken so long to get resources
We were expecting them to be flying them in because
the roads were closed
So that's the piece you're hand about the frustration and
the the the Gideon as you say but that's what
we were frustrated about because it has taken us so
long to get them to realize that we were isolated
and we need more than just road transportation
We need air support as well
So we had to prove that point
But once we've gotten there we are seeing as the
resource is starting to come and that's what we're saying
that we are grateful to our partners because of those
partners that we are where we are today
I don't ask anyone to jump in there
What you say I just asked the the follow up
and what kind of response were you getting from state
and federal You're saying that that there was a a
reticence to use air travel to bring that in
What are you saying that officials at the state level
or at the federal level said we want to come
in by road
No no
Um As you recall I think you would know that
Thursday it was rain and wind and then even Friday
we had lots of wind
So when we were pushing to get them to start
flying this they couldn't fly and we were pushing to
that you need to get here you need to get
here
And um we knew that our our residents needed it
but there was also that safety factor
So they would not fly again when we started seeing
flights coming into that Sunday
Really versus that's when it was really safe to come
But we were pushing where before then is there any
way you can get closer Is there any way you
can fly maybe to hickory or something else
And let's figure it out from there but it truly
was
You can't get here
The wind was too strong and you kept hearing that
back and we were pushing as hard as we can
to get resources here
Hey this is Will Hoffman with the Nashville Citizen Times
Um Avril this morning
Um I you know it sounded like you were going
to be um distributing food at the four distribution sites
Was this um you know this gap in transportation also
affecting your ability to get food for the distribution sites
or is it choice to just distribute water Today we
did have some MRE and that was the food we
were talking about
There are some MRE packages that were was also available
and was at some of the sites
I I cannot speak for all the sites here but
I will confirm
But yes there were MRE packages along with water that
was at some of the sites
I can't say all of them for sure but there's
no food in any of the sites
Yeah so we we do have Mres and we would
have those at the sites we we do need and
I'll make a plea
Now for anyone that has a box truck and a
driver we were asking for that
We have four box trucks and those four box truck
So I need to deliver that water first and we
would add Mres once we get that but if there's
anybody out there that is listening that has box trucks
that can take palletize water that can help us to
move that and add those Mres to that
That would be most helpful
If that's if you're interested in helping us to drive
please call our number at um uh I can get
that number for you but email um Helene Helene volunteer
can be more efficient in delivering that water as well
as delivering the Mres to our residents
Far again I have a question for the city
We understand that the water that was distributed today in
the city was privately purchased
I wondered if you could confirm that and um if
so why why it had to be privately purchased as
opposed to coming from a state or federal authority
Um we think that um we always have to have
a plan A and a plan B and as the
delay in the water uh delivery from another uh governmental
entity it it it again impacted um our comfort level
and I think obviously the impact on the community we
took a proactive action and um and purchased it
Um but it I'm I'm thinking again we were being
extremely uh proactive about um having a backup plan since
it was not delivered at the time that we thought
it was going to be delivered
We had to take action to support this community
And what was the other agency That didn't get it
there on time
State state state that I mentioned
because of all of the uh obstacles and issues that
uh Avril just explained to you
Hi this is Jeff came from the Charlotte Observer
Um I've been seeing the MC National Guard has been
tweeting about uh evacuating people by air from Avery County
in Hickory North Carolina
I know there was some talk this morning about potentially
looking into evacuation and finding places for people to go
Has there been any contact with NC National Guard about
that or any discussions about evacuating residents from Buncombe County
I can speak towards uh the we have been asked
as the Asheville Fire Department to provide landing zones for
various helicopters that have been evacuating patients from the hospital
that has occurred uh a couple different times and our
and our our companies have been available to do that
It is not happening on a widespread basis and it
is for patients that need more advanced level care
I I guess I'm wondering um is there any chance
that if the NC National Guard offered uh evacuating residents
from Buncombe County and taking them to wherever you might
be able to take them to Would that be something
that you're open to or are you reserving it for
specifically local emergency services I don't know if we understand
the question the people people are and can leave as
if they choose to do so
They they the the air state to the south is
open
Uh and they can leave if they if they choose
to do so
Uh so I don't know that they don't have transport
If they don't have transportation how would they evacuate We
have not organized buses or anything to your point to
to do evacuations
We would um we would need to reach out and
say if that's a need
Well we haven't heard that as a widespread need
So if you have some information that we're not aware
of please share that
And we would we would actually do some planning around
that
As never mentioned
We we we talk we're planning and if that is
a need we're not aware of that as a need
right now
I would echo that in the town of Whin
We've had no request from residents for evacuation assistance
Hi there
This is Tiffany from KSNF TV
And uh NEXTAR news um just wondered if there is
a Black Mountain update at all
Um as far as the situation there food and water
and also um any uh possibility of shelters there
And then also um I know that you all had
mentioned this morning that the shelters even um in Asheville
and the surrounding areas are full
So just didn't know if there was a plan
Uh now that with Fe Ma on the ground to
get a larger scale shelter open possibly at one of
the universities or such
And again Thank you all for having these updates
What we've heard from Black Mountain is that water system
still remains compromised I don't have any further update from
that
We are looking at a a full shelter in Nashville
and we're working on the logistics of that with the
F MA partners but mostly with their Red Cross partners
as well
Um Once that is up and running again without power
and without water we bring we need to bring those
facilities there first before we can wrap up a a
full show
The the A B tech conference center still has some
capacity and that is not full to that at this
point as far as I'm aware
So we still have some capacity if someone needs immediate
shelter
But we are working on that other side with with
our partners from Red Cross and F MA specifically with
F MA
Just one follow up question
I know uh I just saw within the last few
hours that the president has directed Fema's director to stay
in North Carolina until the situation is more stable
Um Big picture what are the first things that you
won't need for them to do as far as setting
up or or that you may have already communicated with
them as far as big picture things that need to
happen
Now the things that we would need that FEMA would
typically provide for us would be facilities as restrooms and
shower facilities and then those are the major twos and
large scale generators that can power those sites
So those facilities would be those are the things that
we would need to have in place before we can
open the shelter
And the next would be cots available
And those typically come from FEMA via a Red Cross
So those are the four things that we would need
from FA to get a site open
Another very important thing that F MA can do for
us is they will be on the ground
Uh You know I don't know exactly when but in
the next few weeks they they need to do their
own disaster assessments so they can find out the extent
of the damages and put in some financial uh uh
uh numbers and to see how much of the damage
has been done in the region so that they are
a major partner in that assessment process
They will do that with uh county and city officials
when they when they tour the area to see how
much of the impacts have been on us
Thank you very much
One final question
Do you all know Um And I know that this
is fluid because obviously there are areas that um people
do not have a way to contact or get any
word out
But um I know at some point yesterday the number
un encountered was still around 500
Have you all been able to get any um update
from the Red Cross
I know some of them were working on the list
and I also know Buncombe Buncombe County was working on
your own list as far as the number of people
still unaccounted for
Thank you
I do not have an update at this time on
on accounted numbers
And we don't we don't have an exact number on
city residents as of yet to to my knowledge but
we will hopefully have that information um in short order
Ok
Thank you
Thank you all again for the updates and those things
that you said from sorry sorry again are those things
that you said from fa that you needed the the
the large generators the showers the the toilets has have
fe ma officials given you an indication of um that
they would provide those
And if so what time frame have they have they
offered that at all I don't have a time frame
for the new shelter but they have provided those for
the existing shelter
So I have no no reason to believe that they
wouldn't do continue to do
So
There's a question in the chat
How much did the city of Asheville spend on the
water now available at Pack Square Is there a plan
or expectation to supplement that supply in the coming days
with further purchases Or is a supply from state and
federal partners expected to supplement that We are expecting federal
and state to supplement that again
This was almost like an emergency purchase and uh it
was in the hundreds of thousands
Are there any additional questions Yeah I have two more
Um given the the restriction the lack of water um
that hinders people's ability to you know wash their hands
cooking measures things like that
Are there growing public health concerns about the implications of
not having water for those purposes At this time our
public health nurses have not shared that
So I know that people have lots of sanitizers still
available from before the last time we were in this
A LC
So but no I haven't heard that from public health
at this point
And Laura we are working to bring public health um
subject matter experts um into these briefings moving forward in
particular environmental health as uh restaurants look to reopen um
how to do so safely
Um And also what to do when your food you
know is no longer you know cold
So we will be bringing those public health experts into
these briefings periodically and just one question sorry that I
saw on Facebook
Um as well
I know you guys had asked for box trucks and
such
Um I see some people asking where they should contact
if they do have a box truck um or something
like that
Who should they notify They should email donation
Hell excuse me Helene donations at Buncombe county.org and I
will put that into the chat as well
My last question was for Greg it was about um
HC A and given some of the tension that you've
had with um between management and nursing staff I know
you said you're bringing in some nurses from other places
you know do you have a sufficient level of nurses
Are you going is there an intention to bring more
nurses in um to alleviate the current stuff The the
current efforts of our caregivers are is absolutely heroic
Uh The conditions that they're working in and the care
is providing it's safe
The care that's been provided is is great
Uh We are handling the patients but as I mentioned
earlier we have an influx of of patients into the
emergency department that is putting stress on our system undue
stress when we don't have municipal water city water
And for quite some time we didn't have power
So we were running on generator power
So uh we we we are adding those nurses to
supplement to allow our nurses that have been on site
and not just nurses
It's all of our caregivers
Uh Everyone has been on site since Thursday
A number of our individuals uh our caregivers have no
idea about their families or their homes
Uh We we have not contacted a number of our
colleagues
We have had no contact because of communication disruption
And so what we've done is bring in hundreds of
individuals to assist in that provide relief for those caregivers
so that they can go home check on their families
and then return uh to care for Western North Carolina
Are there any additional questions Ok
Oh here's um is there a supply any supply of
ice on the way or is that a concern for
the upkeep of food and medications We are working with
a supply of um of ice
We're working with some providers on the east on the
eastern part of the state to bring us some ice
So we would work on that and we'll get some
updates on how quickly they can get here
I apologize if you guys covered this at the beginning
Um I know that you all said that the FEMA
supplies are kind of hitting the ground running today
Um and that you all mentioned that you guys purchased
the water for today
Obviously is there an idea of when their water will
be functional and have they brought in additional water Because
I know there was a concern this morning that maybe
it wasn't enough at least immediately
Thank you
We we don't have an ET I we we will
get more water
We don't have an ETA and when we'll get more
water we we have been told that it's on the
way
And so we are expecting that now that we've opened
our shelters our water distributions that there will be water
consistently coming
But we don't know exactly when that is to Devers
point
The plan B was to purchase water to make sure
we can supplement and get water to our residents
We we've done the same and we're working through making
sure that we have a plan A and Plan B
to make sure our residents have water
Ok
Yes
And o obviously I totally understand that
So am I to understand correctly that the loads that
fema brought in are not operational at this point They
are operational at the county sites
That's what the county has been given out and we
have water but whatever we receive it will be split
between city and county
This county the city is currently using a private provider
but when that's out they wouldn't be using some of
the female water that has been done as well
So there is water that we still have that is
coming in and what we've deployed at the county site
is the female water that was brought in
Ok
Thank you for the correction
I appreciate it
Ok
Are there any additional questions Ok great
Well thank you so much for uh attending the 4
p.m. briefing
We'll be back tomorrow at 10 a.m. on Facebook at
Bunkum gov
Thank you