[0:00] The very, very well informed and well staffed public safety community, and they react to whatever conditions

[0:09] are presented to them by that particular storm at any given time. So last year, again, it was a very active event for us,

[0:15] about very active storm season for us. There were a lot of things that were presented that were new to us.

[0:20] You handled those, as far as we could at that time. We certainly learned a lot of information that every storm that comes up to our bodies.

[0:27] or media stuff and just after seeing this year,

[0:32] or just tomorrow.

[0:33] Now, there's actually a prediction out.

[0:36] I don't have it with me right now,

[0:37] but there is prediction out.

[0:38] It just came out.

[0:40] And it is forecasted to be at a above average season

[0:43] again, somewhere to be the last several years.

[0:45] So we are looking at the above average season.

[0:47] We're looking at some very aggressive storms coming

[0:51] our way from the east, east coast of the United States.

[0:55] So we'll be watching every storm that comes over.

[0:56] You know, and with her basically, you know, they, you know, over, you know, the storm

[1:04] surgeons, which is what we really need to be piloted for, you know, just to hide

[1:09] in, you know, it's been on for a while, so it's sometimes for our patients, so it's been

[1:13] a thing, but you know, really the storm service that I'm not saying, really, it's

[1:17] the biggest surprise.

[1:19] You know, everyone thinks that the predominant threat from our

[1:22] is the man is actually a source search. So we're always looking at what is our

[1:26] evacuation response need to look like in response to or in relation to the storm

[1:32] services as effective or effective effectiveness. So we're always looking at what the

[1:37] flooding potential is. Not only from the storm surge but also the rainfall.

[1:41] Rainfall is different than storm surge. So we're looking at what are the overall flooding

[1:46] impacts from not only rainfall but also the storm surge. What does that look like about

[1:50] our community and how does that affect our response sounds?

[1:54] In one of these phones, the slowbirds are very, very serious,

[1:57] right in the very important ones, it'll be my power to say that.

[2:00] There are a lot of people, people, people, or people like this.

[2:03] Seriously, there's a lot of slowbirds already.

[2:04] Yeah, again, we take aggressive effort throughout the year

[2:07] to ensure that everybody is educated on what the threats are in Shadow County.

[2:12] I'd start hurricane season, we're doing these public outreach events,

[2:16] throughout our communities, making sure that people have that awareness

[2:18] and we're showing graphics on what some search could be,

[2:22] not a little bit of category one,

[2:23] but all the way to the category bustle.

[2:25] And looking at what those index could be,

[2:27] for the voucher of accounting, we have visual maps

[2:29] that actually show that, and it paints a really good

[2:31] picture of what the threat could be associated

[2:34] with any particular property about there.

[2:37] Unfortunately, we're able to, for a opinion,

[2:39] the activation realm of what should people deal with.

[2:42] But in our relation with evacuation order,

[2:44] we expect people to be heard, we want people to be heard.

[2:46] It's those who live in the last minute, and they get stuck on that 16, and they get stuck in an evacuation route for long long periods of time.

[2:54] So we really encourage people to leave, I think, early on, instead of the evacuation route.

[2:59] There's the 16 quarter, the main artery, it is not a period of a little bit of a conflict.

[3:05] I 16 would be conflict, and it conflicts right here in the city of Poland.

[3:09] It takes all lanes of I 16 and moves them all less bound.

[3:12] so that we've got all lanes going westbound

[3:15] and all our evaluations.

[3:18] So, you hold people take from this event here today.

[3:22] You know, our effort is to always reach

[3:24] at least one person with every event that we do

[3:26] and we want to reach at least one person,

[3:28] and to take that one person,

[3:29] ensure that they are ready.

[3:31] We encourage everyone to have an emergency plan,

[3:33] know what their evacuation route is going to be,

[3:36] we can call for an evacuation,

[3:37] have an emergency kit.

[3:40] So, if we can just reach one person

[3:41] of every presentation that you did in the University of Texas.

[3:45] So, I'm going to share it on the open to the last minute.

[3:47] That's right, for a pair now, and not only for this far, but you're right, to fight the time and emergency plan for your family, put together the contents of the emergency shift of your family.

[3:57] That way, it's a vitality, you can grab it at the last minute if you need to.

[4:01] It's there for you to have to go back to it, who all people need to ask for their responsibility.

[4:05] We can make sure that everybody is prepared, who will be in much more of a safe.

[4:08] Are there online resources for those made you think that you're just can't go to a free piece that I know that you're going to hold a free

[4:15] Yeah, they look different on her financials though, but is it online resources that you can get a benefit of the internet is there's a time resource available for anyone who has specific needs

[4:25] You know, there are checklist that are tailored to that specific need so there's a variety of different resources. It doesn't matter to us, which resource you use you can use

[4:34] you can use a media outlet and you can use record or establish an army or a fine one from a private contractor.

[4:40] It doesn't matter to us which resource you use.

[4:43] We just encourage you to find a resource as we use for your family.

[4:46] It has a checklist, that's appropriate for you and your family.

[4:49] And then put together the contents of that checklist,

[4:51] but together the components of that plan and just make sure that you shouldn't.

[4:55] It doesn't work in any other way.

[4:57] Whether radios are always good, they're always a failsafe for us.

[5:00] I want to make sure that, you know, fell safety indication is always very, very important.

[5:05] The cell phones may have not been available if you have much power out of this,

[5:08] but you'll have a way to whether radio is battery operating,

[5:11] but still get information from the National Service or whatever.

[5:15] Is there anything else that's left that has that didn't pass?

[5:20] Okay, thank you so much.

[5:23] Hi.

[5:26] Is that much?

[5:27] I'll show you more.

[5:28] Oh, a great chance.

[5:29] I don't know what's going on.

[5:32] I don't know what's going on.

[5:34] I think we're going to look at it for sure.

[5:38] I said Rachel Jones, but that's my daughter's name.

[5:42] Thank you, ladies.

[5:45] Thank you.

[5:46] Thank you.

[5:47] That's right.

[5:49] Anybody on that?

[5:51] Yes.

[5:51] I see you.

[6:08] So you're going to write it in a new way.

[6:10] The staff are on the way of 95.

[6:12] just as I just came out to the exit plan to find my normal, I don't know if I could

[6:17] go to the court amount, and there was a transport truck, a transport carer, it's on the

[6:22] shoulders of the road but they had a little cooler or a major event of fire truck, right there

[6:28] blocking up one of the lanes of traffic that will back up all the way to the court amount.

[6:37] Well, we'll just go through, we'll talk about a few things.

[7:02] You're all made?

[7:14] Well, I don't know.

[7:15] I don't know.

[7:15] I don't know where you are.

[7:22] Yeah.

[7:24] Okay.

[7:28] Okay, just another.

[8:01] Good evening everyone. My name is Dennis Jones. I'm with

[8:04] the Emergency Management Agency for Chattam County, the director there. We do have a formal

[8:10] presentation, however, with traffic challenges, the presentations run on a little bit late,

[8:16] but we'll engage with that as soon as it arrives. But we'll go ahead and get started. So this year,

[8:22] we are expecting an above average hurricane season for all of Coastal Georgia and all of

[8:34] around the beginning of May, but Colorado State University comes out with their, there's in April.

[8:41] So we are expecting an above average hurricane season for this year. That's really

[8:46] becoming the norm now, you know, for the last several years we've had an above average

[8:51] hurricane season for the Continental United States. So while there are, they are saying that it is

[8:57] an above average, it's really becoming more than norm than anything else. We're also seeing a more

[9:02] inserted effort in classifying hurricanes earlier than June 1st. The normal hurricane season

[9:09] starts June 1st and runs until November 30th, but we are seeing periods where they're starting

[9:14] to classify hurricanes in May. We were actually watching what they call an investment, which is the

[9:22] start of a hurricane. We were actually watching one of those back around the first part of April.

[9:28] So, sea surface temperatures has a lot to do with the development of a hurricane.

[9:34] In addition to upper-level shear and the way the winds flow up and the jet stream has

[9:40] a lot to do with that.

[9:41] The sea surface temperatures certainly has quite a bit of influence over the development of

[9:47] a hurricane.

[9:48] So we are going to see increased sea surface temperatures.

[9:52] We've already started seeing those now in the Gulf as well as in the Atlantic.

[9:55] So we should start seeing quite a bit of activity come out of the National Hurricane Center and also the Storm Prediction Center within the next couple of weeks.

[10:04] We'll start seeing some activity come out, those investments that I mentioned, that's the early start of their investigation into what could develop into a hurricane.

[10:14] So I do anticipate that we're going to see some of those being at least tracked here within the next couple of weeks.

[10:20] So, C-Service Timfcher is a primary factor in ensuring that the storm prediction center is really tracking those low level developments out in the Atlantic and also in the Gulf.

[10:34] Early in the hurricane season, June 1st July, they really look at what the temperatures are in the Gulf.

[10:42] the Gulf is obviously a lot warmer right now than it is out in the Atlantic. So we typically

[10:47] sent Tennessee a lot more of those investments developing within the Gulf of Mexico or the Gulf

[10:53] of America, whichever solution you choose to abide by. But in the Gulf we typically see a lot of

[11:00] development or at least investigations in the months of June and July. And then as the Atlantic starts

[11:08] warming up even more. We start to see those investments identified out in the Atlantic in

[11:14] late July early August and continuing through a lot of October. And then it could actually

[11:20] start having some more developments back into the Gulf around October and November timeframe.

[11:26] So it does go from June 1st to November 30th as I mentioned. And there's quite a bit of activity

[11:32] that takes place year-round. As I mentioned, they're starting to identify storms prior to and even

[11:39] after November 30th. So we watch it year-round and making sure that we know as good tenants of

[11:46] a chatem county and also as good residents of the overall area. We want to make sure that we

[11:52] understand what the threats are for chatem county and at any given time ensure that we are as prepared

[11:58] as possible. So with that preparedness effort comes a lot of activities that we take

[12:03] throughout the community to ensure that we are educating the public as well as our partners

[12:10] to ensure they understand what the threat's are for channeling County, as well as make sure

[12:14] that they are as prepared as possible. Part of that is getting out into the community as we're doing

[12:20] today, making sure that we are sharing the latest and greatest information as much as we have

[12:25] available to us and ensure that we are answering questions and providing resources and just doing

[12:32] our part to ensure that we're being effective in that communication to our residents.

[12:37] So we take a concerted effort to plan year-round for hurricane threats for Chattam County.

[12:44] We look at what those impacts could be for us. We try and find mitigating factors for those.

[12:49] We try to incorporate the planning efforts,

[12:52] but incorporate those mitigating factors into our planning efforts

[12:55] to make sure that, again, we're as prepared as we can be

[12:59] for any potential threat for child and county.

[13:03] So last year we did have an above average season for child and county,

[13:07] even though overall for the entire United States,

[13:11] or the East Coast of the United States, we had a above average season

[13:13] for child and county. It was above average for us too.

[13:16] So, we had three storms that we were reacting to, two of those are very well known.

[13:21] We had impacts from Debbie, of course it caused a lot of flooding in Chattam County.

[13:27] We had Halene, which caused a lot of wind damage in Chattam County, and right after Halene,

[13:31] it was followed up by Milton, which we were reacting to, and making sure that we were as prepared

[13:37] as possible from Milton. A lot of people don't really remember Milton. It did skirt by us,

[13:42] but we were actively working that storm while we were responding to healing.

[13:47] So, very active season for us, and then following all of that comes all of the paperwork associated with ensuring that we are

[13:56] doting the eyes and crossing the teas so that we can ensure that we are meeting all of the female requirements to ensure that

[14:03] a disaster declaration is afforded to Chattam County and also the residents of Chattam County.

[14:08] With disaster declarations, there it is a public assistance part and there's an individual assistance part and a part of our responsibility is to ensure that we are managing the disaster effectively so that not only the government can recover but the individuals can recover and ensure that we are providing the services as well as under support elements from not only the state but the federal government to the citizens throughout China County making sure that they can recover as quickly as possible.

[14:38] So that's part of the responsibility of local government is to recover its own government as well as ensure that its citizens are also recovering.

[14:49] So we're still working through that process, we'll probably be working through it for several years.

[14:54] Many people still remember Matthew and Irma.

[14:57] We just closed out Hurricane Matthew.

[15:00] April of last year, so it's been a year since we closed that out and it happened in 2016. And with the federal government, we're still working on hurricane armor. So we've not closed out the response element for hurricane armor. So that occurred in 2017 and we're still working that response effort with the federal government. So you can see that it takes a long time. It takes a long time to dot those eyes to cross those T's and to make sure that we're doing our due diligence to ensure that everything is documented.

[15:30] And then we're reacting to requests for information from the federal government ensuring that we're processing things as quickly as we can on our end so that when it gets up to the federal government.

[15:41] And it works through all of the different phases of federal government that it can get through that process as streamlined as possible.

[15:48] Unfortunately, sometimes it takes a long time.

[15:51] So again, 2016, with Hurricane Matthew, we just closed that out a year ago, 2017, with

[15:56] our number, we're still working at.

[15:57] Hopefully we'll have that closed out that end of this year.

[16:00] So we are working Hurricane Debbie, Tropical Storm Debbie, we are working Hurricane

[16:04] Halene, and we'll probably be working those response efforts.

[16:08] They're going a little bit faster than Matthew and Armadit, so hopefully we'll be done

[16:13] with those within about, let's say, 12 to 18 months, hopefully.

[16:17] So, as part of our preparedness efforts, again, we want to educate people on what the threats are for Chad and

[16:23] County. You know, with a hurricane, a lot of people think that it's mostly the wind that's the biggest threat.

[16:30] It's actually the storm surge, or it's the flooding. It's the wet stuff. So, there's an old saying and emergency management.

[16:38] You run from the wind and you hide, or you hide from the wind and you run from the water.

[16:42] So, we practice that in our planning efforts and we also make sure that we are doing our part to evaluate and look at the dynamics of each storm with each advisory that comes our way and determine what those threats to Chad and county could be so that we're making informed decisions with each advisory.

[17:03] When a hurricane is identified and they start issuing advisories on that storm, those advisories

[17:09] come out every 12 hours, and once it gets closer to the coast, then they start issuing

[17:13] those advisories every six hours.

[17:16] So with every 12 or six hour advisory, we're taking a look at the dynamics of that storm.

[17:21] It's position, how fast it's moving, what the intensity is, we're evaluating that as far

[17:27] it's proximity to Chattam County and we're making determinations on what our recommendation

[17:33] would be on how our governments and our citizens should react to that particular storm at that particular

[17:39] time or that advisory. So we do that on a regular basis. We have in Chattam County we have a group

[17:46] called the Command Policy Group, which is made up of the Chairman of the Chattam County Commission,

[17:52] all of the mayors of the municipalities, the city managers, of the municipalities, the county manager,

[17:57] the Board of Education Superintendent, the Sheriff, and also the Chief Judge. So we pull all of those

[18:05] elected and appointed officials together. We give them what that scenario looks like for that event

[18:11] or that particular incident that that advisory and then I give them what my recommendation

[18:17] would be. Do we issue an evacuation order? Do we wait? Do we do this? Do we do that? How should governments

[18:23] react, caution citizens react, and then they take that recommendation and they discuss it

[18:29] and then they make a decision as to which direction we get. From there that information is

[18:33] in communicated out to the public as to what the decision is for any particular time. So there are

[18:40] times where a storm is coming our way and we just don't have enough information. There are times

[18:47] where a storm is forecast to be right on the top of us, but the National Hurricane Center,

[18:52] the National Weather Service are going to say that storm is going to be off.

[18:56] So, you know, there's no magic crystal ball.

[19:00] You take the information that is given to you at any given time and you make this

[19:03] best decision based on the information that's given to you at that time.

[19:08] So, every decision is going to change or every decision has to potential to change

[19:14] with every advisory. So, as we're looking at advisory, we can say, okay,

[19:18] we need to ensure that our citizens are doing this at this time.

[19:22] Well, six hours later, that storm could have a dynamic shift,

[19:26] which then could either increase our level of activity or could decrease our level of activity.

[19:31] So we're constantly looking at what those threats are with each advisory

[19:36] and trying to make the best decisions possible for our governments and also our citizens at that time.

[19:43] So, unfortunately, there are times where a storm just sits and spins off the coast.

[19:48] It doesn't have any forward movement at all.

[19:51] So, we're looking at a storm and we look at it every 12 hours, every 6 hours, and we're

[19:56] constantly looking at that storm.

[19:58] And it appears that we're watching this storm for like 5 days straight.

[20:03] It's because there's not a lot of forward movement associated with that storm.

[20:07] So it's always there and around the clock 24 hours a day we're watching that system.

[20:12] Making sure that we're doing that analysis with each advisory, making sure that we are communicating the best information that we can with each given event.

[20:22] So part of, again, our responsibility is to ensure that we're educating the public.

[20:27] So two things that we really encourage all of our citizens to have is an emergency plan and an emergency kit.

[20:35] For an emergency plan that talks about how are you going to communicate with your family members?

[20:40] You know, if we lose power, there's typically our cell phones typically die associated with that if they don't if they're not on a tower or the generator on that tower goes down.

[20:51] So you lose cell phone coverage.

[20:53] A lot of people don't know what the numbers are for their kids or their wives or their husbands or their partners.

[21:01] So we encourage you to have that in your mercy clan right down what those cell phone numbers are, that way you've got them available to you.

[21:07] A lot of times a landline, an old-fashioned landline will work when cell phones won't work,

[21:13] so you at least had the availability to find a landline.

[21:17] They're getting more and more scarce, but they are still out there, and you're able to at

[21:21] least have phone numbers.

[21:24] They may be in an area where there is connectivity, where they do have cell phone coverage,

[21:28] you just may be with out it, but you may still be able to get in touch with them.

[21:33] Also, we have found that during an evacuation, there's a lot of people that

[21:37] come through Cham County to evacuate, a lot of Floridians, people from other areas of the state,

[21:43] come up on 95 to 16, some people come down from South Carolina, so it really adds a congestion factor,

[21:51] not only to our roadmap works, but also to our phone infrastructure.

[21:57] So a lot of times when you try and make a call, you'll get a fast busy because the cell towers are just so full or so packed

[22:05] with transactions going across on the cellular platform.

[22:10] A lot of times data will work, so you can send text messages when you can't get through with a cell phone.

[22:15] So we encourage people to have that available to them as well.

[22:20] So also part of that emergency plan is ensuring that you have contact numbers for people who are out of the area.

[22:27] So not only your own family members, but if you are a vac...

[22:30] Waiting to know where you're going to go and have contact numbers for somebody in another part of the state or another part of the region, wherever you're evacuating to, if you've got family members in another state, ensure that you are, that you document what their phone members are so that you can communicate with them. Everything is better on paper during an emergency event than relying strictly on a digital platform. So they encourage you to have that in there, too. Also have a list of medications in your emergency plan.

[22:58] A lot of times when people are evacuating, they can't remember all of the medications that they take,

[23:04] or the dosage associated with the medications they would regularly remember.

[23:09] So, encourage you to identify what those medications are and put that in your emergency plan as well.

[23:15] Now, your evacuation room, there's many ways to get out of Chattam County.

[23:19] And then once you get out of Chattam County, it spires off into a variety of other different transportation networks.

[23:26] So we encourage you to go ahead and plan your route route out if we are issuing an evacuation order.

[23:31] Know how you're going to get out of here.

[23:33] Know where you're going to go, which routes you're going to take,

[23:36] and also which area you plan to evacuate to.

[23:41] I encourage you to go ahead and plan that out.

[23:44] I also mentioned having an emergency kit available.

[23:47] An emergency kit is essential, especially if you have children, or if you have animals.

[23:52] You need to take the contents of an emergency kit, go ahead and put those together now.

[23:57] An emergency kit is designed specifically for you, for your family members, to ensure that

[24:03] you have the necessary resources to have some comfort items available to you, to have

[24:10] some items of necessity that are available to you.

[24:14] We encourage you to have some canned items in there, have a can opener, make sure you

[24:18] can opener with that too. Some non-perishable foods. Just so if you're stuck in your home for a long

[24:25] period of time, there's no power, you still have at least something to ensure that you have some type

[24:31] of comfort or some type of substance available to you so that you can at least get through the next

[24:37] several hours. Have some water in there. And you got to make sure you have some of those comfort items

[24:43] to if you have small kids, but the favorite color and book in there, put some crayons and

[24:48] colored pencils, some other things that you can do with them, that's not technology-based.

[24:55] You know, again, technology may or may not be available during a hurricane landfall.

[25:01] So ensure that you've got some of those comfort items to keep the kiddos occupied.

[25:06] For animals, you know, your favorite pet, a lot of people consider those family members.

[25:11] So, ensure that they have the favorite toy or at least some toys to play with, ensure that

[25:17] any medication that you have for your pet is listed in your plan as well as make sure you grab

[25:23] those and put those as part of your kit and that way you get all of that stuff available to you

[25:28] you can just grab it and go.

[25:30] We also encourage you to have some kind of lighting.

[25:34] We don't encourage candles.

[25:35] We do encourage you to have light sticks, glow sticks, you can use the battery on your cell

[25:43] phone until or you can use the light on your cell phone until your battery does, but we encourage

[25:48] you to have a flashlight with some extra batteries, just again throw all that into your

[25:52] emergency kit and it's available to you.

[25:55] And then as I mentioned, every emergency kit is specific to the individual, it's specific

[25:59] to the family.

[26:00] So, you can tailor it, however you need to tailor it for yourself, put the things in there that you are comfortable with, things that you think you'll need, go ahead and buy extras of that now, again throw it in a kit and put it into your closet and you've got it for next time.

[26:19] When we do issue an evacuation order, we do have several services that are available to the overall community in order to get people out.

[26:27] Our effort is to ensure that everybody who wants to leave has an opportunity to leave.

[26:33] So we have a program called an evacuation program through the evacuation assembly area

[26:39] or EAA, and that is, for this next year, it'll be at the in-market arena where we open

[26:48] up the evacuation assembly area for people, again, who want to evacuate, who have no means

[26:53] to evacuate.

[26:54] So, a lot of the people who are dependent on transportation are co-located close to a cat bus route or a chattamary transit bus route.

[27:06] And we then work with cat to work through those bus stops picking up people who want to evacuate.

[27:13] They bring them to the end-market arena.

[27:15] We manifest them.

[27:16] We make sure that we're recording their names and locations.

[27:19] We get them on a bus and then we evacuate them to an inland county.

[27:23] We've been working for the last couple of years to adjust our inland county location, previously

[27:30] it's been Augusta Richmond County. We're now going to be going to make in BIP County.

[27:35] So we've been working really aggressively with making BIP to set up a host county sheltering

[27:40] relationship. It's been working out great. We just had a meeting last week up in making BIP to

[27:46] kind of exercise the plan. So we're pretty excited about that. But those who want to evacuate

[27:51] they can get on any cat bus and be taken to the in-market arena and be able to get safe transportation

[27:58] from Chattam County to make and build. And then we shelter those residents up in making

[28:03] and build until it's ready for everybody to come back home. So we ensure that we're tracking those

[28:09] people, our citizens, meeting their needs while they're in making build. Sometimes they have dialysis

[28:15] needs, sometimes they have pharmaceuticals, they have doctor office visits that they need to

[28:20] tend to now they're going to a different type or different doctor, but it should be the same type

[28:26] of doctor. So we're coordinating all of that as well. Just to make sure that we're not dropping

[28:31] any resources, you know, whatever they normally would get here, we want to try our best to ensure

[28:36] that they get the same services available to them, up in making them. On the reverse side of that,

[28:42] whenever we are ready to return citizens to the Chattam County, we bring them back.

[28:47] and we make sure that they have a safe place to go to,

[28:51] whether it's a shelter or whether we can release them to their homes.

[28:54] So before we do make a decision to bring people back to Chattam County,

[28:58] we have to make sure that we have resources in place

[29:01] in order to support the general population.

[29:03] We've got to have pharmacies available.

[29:06] We've got to have dialysis centers, at least one up and running.

[29:09] We've got to have grocery stores open running.

[29:11] We've got to make sure that we've got water and sewer services and electricity.

[29:14] So we really take a concert of effort to work with those utility partners to look at what

[29:20] the restoration times are for power, for water, for sewer, for cell phone and telephone

[29:28] connectivity.

[29:29] And then we can open the county back up and portions are in hold.

[29:33] So a lot of times with hurricane, the eastern side of the county takes a lot longer to get

[29:39] restoration before the western side of the county so we could open up the county in phases.

[29:45] or, again, if Georgia Powell is able to come in here and get large swaths of power back

[29:50] on, and we can get services to large areas.

[29:53] We can open up large portions of the county in order to be able to bring people back home.

[29:58] We do have another program.

[30:00] And in place called our functional access and medical needs, those are people who are homebound who have a special need, you know, they may be on oxygen or they may not have a caregiver and they have a different type of special need where they have no ability issues, so they can register through the chat and county health department to get on what's called the hurricane registry.

[30:23] And those individuals are then handled on a one-on-one basis to ensure that they are one ready to evacuate,

[30:31] to that they want to evacuate, and three, we get them to a safe inland location.

[30:37] Some of those require vertical transportation, some require horizontal transportation.

[30:42] So we're also marrying up the appropriate transportation resource with the individual need,

[30:48] making sure that they get to the right location.

[30:50] So we take a concerted effort to ensure that we're advertising that in tracking that as

[30:56] reasonable as possible.

[30:58] There is a time where during an evacuation order where we have to cut off that registry

[31:03] just because we need to make sure that we're addressing all of the people who are registered.

[31:09] There's always less than a call-ins.

[31:11] So we handle those again on a one-on-one basis to ensure that we are matching up the right

[31:17] resource with that individual.

[31:18] So, again, our focus is to ensure that everyone who wants to get out has the ability to get out.

[31:26] So during an evacuation process, we do have a program where George Department Transportation has a program,

[31:35] along I-16, to where they contraflow I-16.

[31:39] Controflow is where they take all of the lanes of I-16 and they turn on the westbound.

[31:44] So all that East-down lanes come in into Savannah, they reverse those, so that you've got all lanes of our 16 are headed out of town.

[31:52] There is one Contrafo lane, it's right here in the city of Pula, and they actually move people over and put them into that Contrafo lane.

[32:00] And again, starts reversing that process, and it goes all the way up to just on the other side of Dublin.

[32:06] So, that is one crossover lane, but they also have the exit ramps and on ramps of

[32:14] past 16, their headed eastbound, they reverse those, so that people can also get in the

[32:20] control lanes going out along those ramps as well as so.

[32:25] George Department Transportation has done a lot of effort in ensuring that they have mitigated

[32:31] any delays in getting those contracts done.

[32:35] I know there's a lot of construction.

[32:37] That's happening along I-16.

[32:40] However, that construction is,

[32:42] or the plans to minimize that construction

[32:46] are built into the overall design,

[32:49] and also the scope of work whenever those contractors

[32:51] are working.

[32:52] At any given time, when there's a hurricane threat,

[32:55] it just takes about a day for the contractors

[32:58] to actually reduce all of the work

[33:00] that they're doing there, clean up the area,

[33:02] and be able to ensure that we're reversing

[33:05] all those I-16 lanes going out.

[33:08] So there's a lot of effort that takes place at a local level,

[33:11] at a regional level, also at a state level,

[33:14] to ensure that we are preparing as much as possible

[33:17] in order to ensure we're getting the citizens

[33:20] of the chat and county out safely.

[33:23] When it comes to our public work facilities,

[33:26] there's a lot of different providers

[33:29] of public works related resources in Shadow County. You've got wastewater, you've got well

[33:35] water, you've got septic tanks, and that involves a lot of different people. So not only does

[33:42] it involve the governments, but there's private well providers, there's Department of Public Health

[33:49] who's associated with that as well. So there's a lot of effort that goes into ensuring from a public

[33:55] work standpoint that we are trying to meet the needs of the governments, of those private

[34:00] well providers of ensuring we're supporting public health in those septic tank issues.

[34:05] And again, ensuring that we're doing what we can to try and get those resources back

[34:10] available for the overall community.

[34:14] So overall, there is a variety of different resources that are available to decisions

[34:18] a chat of county, not only through chat of the Mercy Management, City of Poober has resources

[34:24] online, that's available to them. You can find really any preparedness activities associated

[34:30] with hurricane, you can find online. So we encourage you to have those emergency plans,

[34:35] emergency kits in place, and you know, use a resource that you're comfortable with. You can

[34:41] get an emergency kit, the contents of emergency kit from Seema's website. You can go to Salvation

[34:48] Army, you can get a red cross, you can go to, you know, a lot of different new stations

[34:52] have it as well. So there's a lot of different resources. Chances are, if you are using

[34:57] a provider for your weather information, chances are you'll be able to get to some type of

[35:01] information associated with a plan and also the kit from that provider. So find someone that's

[35:08] your comfortable using, look through their website to see if they have something that's

[35:12] available, that meets the needs of your family. And if they don't, you can come to

[35:16] Academy of Mercy.org, and we've got a ton of resources there for anyone who needs preparedness

[35:23] and planning efforts for their community and their family.

[35:28] So that's all I have right now.

[35:30] Again, Dennis Jones, the Emergency Management Agency with Chad McKellie, I'll be open for

[35:36] any questions either online or in the group.

[35:39] Yes.

[35:47] So with homeowners insurance, the insurance companies are always going to

[35:52] defer to what the local government order is.

[35:55] If we have a government issued evacuation order,

[35:59] whether it's a general evacuation order

[36:01] or mandatory evacuation order,

[36:03] the insurance companies typically tend to look at that

[36:07] as something that is a personal choice

[36:10] on the homeowner as to whether you stay or not.

[36:13] If you stay and there is a mandatory evacuation order in place,

[36:17] then the insurance company typically tends to see that

[36:20] I think homeowner is accepting their own risk.

[36:23] So when we issue a mandatory evacuation order and you choose to stay, a lot of times the

[36:28] insurance companies will not cover any damages associated with a storm at that particular

[36:32] time because there is a mandatory evacuation order in place, the government is telling you

[36:36] to leave.

[36:37] You choose to stay so the risk is on you.

[36:40] Same thing with renters insurance as well.

[36:43] So anytime there is that mandatory evacuation order, we encourage you to get out.

[36:47] We don't encourage you to stay at all.

[36:49] mandatory issue is in place for a reason.

[36:53] As I mentioned earlier, we look at those assessments every six hours with each advisory

[36:59] and we're making the best decision that we can make at that particular time.

[37:04] If we're issuing a mandatory evacuation order, we really encourage you to leave.

[37:10] Yes?

[37:12] You talked about returning to the county, what about the inverse, you said, you can turn on the county in phases.

[37:19] But what about the evacuation?

[37:21] Can you talk about the evacuation zones and approximately there?

[37:24] Yes.

[37:25] We have three evacuation zones in Chattam County.

[37:28] The first evacuation zone is...

[37:30] So, evacuations on A is actually from the coast all the way up to the Truman. So, it's from TABY up to the Truman.

[37:36] evacuations on B's from the Truman Parkway to I-95, and then evacuations on C's from I-95 to the West Coast, the chat and county.

[37:45] So, we have an ability to actually issue evacuation orders in phases. If there is an Atlantic broaching storm, we want to make sure that we're trying to get the islands out first.

[37:56] So that's the evacuation zone A. So there are times in the past where we have issued evacuations for zones A and B at the same time.

[38:05] So that's everything east of I-95. There were times in the past where we only issued evacuations on A and then we issued evacuations on B and then we never did one for Z or C.

[38:17] So there's a lot of different options available to us.

[38:21] So, a lot of times when there's a very, very large storm and it's moving very fast, we either

[38:26] will go with a mandatory for everything, east of by 95 and a voluntary for some sea, or

[38:33] mages to a mandatory for the entire county.

[38:36] So it really depends on the dynamics of that storm, but there are three different evacuation zones

[38:41] in Chattam County.

[38:42] Thank you for that.

[38:43] And I guess just add on to that there are others, like cooler, cooler straddles, both the

[38:50] ANC, there's also a point worth, and Savannah has the ANC, what would your advice be to those

[38:59] that are not sure where they are, if they just hero or exactly, Savannah, maybe they're in the islands,

[39:04] which is in C. Where do people go to find out what their zone is, if they're not in television?

[39:10] We actually have an interactive map on our website where people can go in and type in their address.

[39:15] It'll pull up their home and it can tell them exactly which is on their end.

[39:18] So we have that available to them.

[39:20] And also, we try to be very clear in the evacuation zone lines.

[39:25] So I'm 95 is very clear.

[39:28] You know, it biceps the county right from Brian County all the way up to South Carolina.

[39:34] So it's a clear dividing line.

[39:35] is almost clear. It's very clear from the river all the way down to

[39:42] Arracorn, and then it gets a little fuzzy on the very south end of the county,

[39:47] but we use the treatment as a general dividing line. It's very clear until you get

[39:51] a little bit further south, but we feel those are two very clearly identified areas

[39:58] throughout the county. So we use when we advertising and evacuation, we're not talking

[40:04] about municipalities will actually identify and recognize those roadways, everything east of

[40:11] I-95, everything east of the Truman. And then we'll reference the evacuation

[40:15] design after that. Yes, you may not be able to comment on this,

[40:25] but

[40:25] some other specific things, you know, you're not playing, you know, and so people

[40:33] seem to be kind of overwhelmed, or they felt like they

[40:42] were the tellers of the

[40:46] art.

[40:46] Did FEMA, no kind of relocate some things they, you know, and are better prepared this

[40:52] hurricane season,

[40:56] it's likely with, you know,

[41:19] well, I can't tell you that during

[41:22] Debbie, during healing, there were a ton of federal resources that came into the state of

[41:27] Georgia.

[41:28] A lot of those resources came to Chattam County.

[41:31] So we actually had a disaster field office, a FEMA disaster field office, in Chattam County,

[41:36] that had close to 200 people in it.

[41:39] So there were a lot of resources within the boundaries

[41:41] of Chattam County.

[41:43] We opened up a disaster recovery center.

[41:45] We operated that for three full months,

[41:48] every day, Monday through Sunday,

[41:51] and insured that all of the resources

[41:53] that were available to the general public,

[41:56] were available at that disaster recovery center.

[41:58] So our citizens could come there,

[42:00] they could register for resources,

[42:03] and get information on their claims,

[42:05] get information on their property, get guidance on next steps.

[42:10] So not only through FEMA, but also the small business administration was here as well.

[42:16] So there were a ton of state and federal resources that were available.

[42:20] But things take time, things always take time.

[42:24] So there are still people who right now are still displaced from their homes.

[42:28] We're still working with those individuals.

[42:30] there are people who are still living in homes with with tarps over their roofs. We're still

[42:36] working with those. There are municipalities that still have debris. We're still working with those

[42:41] jurisdictions in order to ensure that debris is mitigated as quickly as we could. But again,

[42:48] unfortunately, things take time. I referenced back to Matthew and Irma how we just closed up Matthew

[42:53] last year and we're still working Irma. So from a government standpoint, it's been years since

[42:59] we've been working with Matthew. It took us nine years to close that out. We're still

[43:03] working with Irma, so it just takes a long, long time. Now, as far as what services

[43:09] and resources will be available during the next fiscal year or next calendar year, I'm

[43:14] not sure. You know, there is a concerted effort right now to right size FEMA. So there is

[43:21] a lot of effort to look at how FEMA responds to emergencies and disasters and what that

[43:28] going to look like. I'm just not sure. You know, I mentioned earlier we don't have a crystal ball.

[43:34] We can only look at things that come out and things that are available to us on an as needed basis

[43:42] basically. I did see a memo here recently that was recommending that FEMA increase their threshold

[43:50] for disaster declarations, which means the states and the local counties will have to burden

[43:56] that monetary value will a little bit higher than what we have previously, and there's also talks

[44:03] of adjusting that individual assistance threshold as well. So, there's just all talk right now,

[44:10] there's been no decisions made. So, what does it look like for this hurricane season? Right now,

[44:16] we haven't been told of any changes yet. They have made some changes in grants. They would do some

[44:22] grants and they pull back some money in grants, but that comes after the fact. So as far

[44:28] as the response goes, we aren't aware of any changes right now. There's just a lot of discussion

[44:33] about what that needs to look like moving forward.

[45:01] Or, if and when, these, the terrorist take effect as far as the price is at the same, as far as I can, whether it is this obvious, which is right from the heart of our agency.

[45:12] But an old friend of mine once told me the best time to plan a note tree was 20 years ago, and the next last time is right now. So we encourage people to develop those kits now. Don't wait for there to be a threat of hurricane.

[45:23] So those emergency kits can be available for any type of emergency.

[45:28] If you have a significant power atage due to a severe thunderstorm,

[45:32] that the power atage is going to last for several hours or a day or more,

[45:36] you've got that emergency kit available to you.

[45:39] So that emergency kit is all hazards.

[45:41] It's for any disaster.

[45:42] It's for any need that you may have for your family.

[45:45] So we encourage you to go ahead and put that together now

[45:48] and ensure that it's available to you.

[45:50] for hurricane, for tornado, for severe thunderstorm,

[45:53] power outage, whatever it may be.

[45:55] Just have that kit, though it ain't a closet

[45:57] and it's available to you for whenever you need it.

[46:03] Yes, ma

[46:18] 'am.

[46:18] No, ma'am.

[46:19] No, ma'am, because your house can't leave, obviously.

[46:21] But if you have any personal damage,

[46:23] if you fall down the stairs, you break a leg,

[46:26] you're insurance typically won't handle that.

[46:28] Yeah, because you chose to stay in a threatened environment.

[46:34] Any other questions?

[46:35] Any questions online?

[46:39] Yes, sir.

[46:49] Good.

[46:49] Where's your nice start at?

[46:50] I'm over well, but I don't know where to begin, where do I get it?

[46:53] Yeah. Well, you could start with the same website as you just referenced.

[46:57] There's also a really good information through the American Red Cross.

[47:03] They have a lot of good disaster information.

[47:05] Matter of fact, a lot of the things that we get, we get from the Red Cross.

[47:09] So they've got some really good information to disaster-related information to help citizens and individuals.

[47:15] There's a lot of different resources through the National Weather Service.

[47:18] There is information through ready.ge.gov, so through the state, through the Georgia Mercy

[47:24] Management Agency, ready.gov is typically nationwide for those who may be listening and

[47:32] not in Georgia at all, you can go to ready.gov and that is a good resource.

[47:38] It's a consolidation of a lot of disaster information for individuals.

[47:42] Okay, so one final question I'm following up. So the storm's here. I'm not sure there's a lot of rumors

[47:50] behind our online. Where do I go as a citizen of the China County to find the most accurate up to

[47:56] the information? Aside from our local news sources, where should I get a web-based right now?

[48:02] Right. We always encourage you to ensure that you're following official government sources.

[48:07] So if you live within the city of pool or you can go to city of poolers website

[48:10] You can go to chatem counties website not only seem of the chatem county government

[48:14] Always ensure that you are using official government sources

[48:18] There's a lot of different meteorologists

[48:21] People who play meteorologists online. They have a lot of different opinions about the weather

[48:26] A lot of different opinions about what you should do as an individual

[48:29] We encourage it to use official government sources for information

[48:34] When we are issuing information out through chat in the Mercy Management, we're making sure that

[48:39] we're sending that out through a variety of different social media platforms, we're sending

[48:45] that out via email, through text messages, we're also putting it on our website, we're putting

[48:50] scrolls on the bottom of the TV, we're communicating that to our municipalities, they're doing a lot

[48:56] of the similar activities as we are and we're also communicating that information up to the

[49:01] So they can put it out through a peach state public radio. So we're maximizing all of our distribution methods to ensure that we're getting information out as quickly as we can.

[49:13] Any other questions?

[49:18] All right.

[49:19] So chattingmercy.org is our website.

[49:21] You can go there and sign up for our text alerts as well.

[49:24] It's right and scroll to the bottom of that website.

[49:26] You can see where you can sign up for CML alerts.

[49:28] that gets you text, text, based messaging from chat

[49:32] in the Immersion Management.

[49:34] You can sign up for email alerts as well.

[49:37] So we are available for anyone who has any questions,

[49:40] if you need assistance in developing an emergency kit

[49:44] or a mercy plan, we can help you with that as well.

[49:46] And we're just glad to be able to get out

[49:49] and host these types of events for our community.

[49:52] So thank you very much.

[49:52] No,

[50:00] perfect.

Workshop - CEMA Hurricane Preparedness

Transcript