'Truamatic event' | Georiga Gov. Kemp updates public on damage caused by Helene from hardest hit are
all right well good afternoon everybody uh thank You' all for being here I just uh want to get started by announcing just a few folks that we have with us obviously our first lady Marty km and two of our daughters here today Congressman Austin Scott Public Service Commission chairman Jason Shaw obviously General Wilson with the Georgia National Guard our agriculture commissioner Tyler Harper our insurance commissioner John King uh head of gima director Chris hings we've got councilman Andy Gibbs from the city chairman Slaughter from the county sheriff Paul uh a lot of other local law enforcement local elected officials obviously the local legislative delegation from this area we appreciate them Kim Green from Georgia power and Danny Nichols from cawood EMC and I know president Carvajal here is here from Val AA State I know I'm probably missing some folks but we just appreciate all that these folks have been doing from a state and local local perspective as you know valasta has taken another heavy hit as has been so unfortunately frequent in recent memory and I would just tell you from a Statewide perspective this storm spared no one we've had 17 fatalities just in the state of Georgia alone and as Tim golden the do commissioner said to me yesterday these storms are taking the soul out of me and I know that's how people are feeling down here another L County native told me I never want to go through something like that hell again this storm has also taking one of our finest firefighter Leon Davis from Black Shear Georgia the Black Shear uh Department assistant chief when a tree fell on his vehicle while responding to a call in Thompson in Muffy County a 27-year-old mother and her 1-month-old twin boys were killed when a tree fell on their home in Washington County a 7-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl died when a tree fell on their home it was trapped inside a burning house a 58-year-old man in Dublin Georgia died when a tree crashed into his home and there's many others in Florida South Carolina and North Carolina over 40 fatalities total we've also had historic rain events across the state while you've seen firsthand the destruction from Fallen trees and down power lines and crumbled buildings in this part of the state Even in our capital city where the record rainfall in the past was 9 in and 48 Hours a combination of storms over the last few days dumped over 11 Ines of rain we're dealing with flash flooding and believe it or not mudslides and avalanches up in the northern part of our state wanted to give you a quick uh do update and a couple other State updates and you'll hear from General Wilson director stallins and Congressman Scott as well as ad commissioner Harper on the do side uh in this area if not right now but very shortly all roads on the State Route side should be at least have one lane passable I think that'll be uh achieved tomorrow there also be additional contractors coming in to start working on other roadways currently across the state we know we have 140 blockages on state routes commissioner McMurray is here be glad to answer any questions when we route uh but he tells me that this number will go up that's how devastating this storm was from a Statewide perspective I know the locals are experiencing a local traumatic event once again in val atin L County but truly this storm has affected dozens and dozens of communities the same way this one is and that's why that number will continue to grow uh commissioner McMurray has asked his Northeast Georgia cruise to head to the Augusta area which is really on the end of the path uh of this hurricane that moved through Georgia uh he's got his Northwest Georgia crw currently here and in this area trying to help clear roadways it's also going to take several days to continue to get traff traffic signals back working again there's literally thousands of those out across the state Georgia National Guard we've got 170 folks here on the ground 800 Statewide and that number will continue to grow tomorrow and throughout the next few days from the Power company's perspective in Kim green uh is here from Georgia Power they still have over a half a million people that are without power in our state Danny Nicholls CA with EMC is also here they have about the same amount a little over 500,000 people that are still without power I want to thank them both and the literally thousands thousands of men and women who are responding working as hard as they can to get power back on we're also currently dealing with water and waste water issues around the state we have 19 different locations we're dealing with Wastewater problems we have 25 boil water advisories we have 38 drinking water sites that we've stood up we've got dozens of shelters around the state as of yesterday we had about 1100 people in our shelters and we're also deploying kitchens to make sure we have adequate food supply in hard hit areas we have five of those so far in one of those in L is in louns currently Verizon has 32 non-operational Towers AT&T has about 7% of their towers that are out the Georgia Forestry commission director Sao is here they have 175 folks working Statewide 10 different chainsaw teams and they have folks here in this local area as well commissioner Harper is going to give you a quick update on on a but we know that we've had 107 poultry facilities damaged or totally destroyed 15 dairies that had been effective and dozens and dozens of other facilities uh really from here to valasta that have been effective as he told me earlier literally every commodity in this state has been damaged by this storm We Believe there'll be a higher monetary value of damage than hurricane Michael I did want to pass on behal on behalf of the locals that are with us today they're asking people as you clear debris in your yard or your business please do not put that on the right away that is hampering the ability of power companies and other First Responders to clear roads and get power back up and a last part of note we're currently servicing the same level that we have in L County with really hard- hit counties a lot of assets 32 counties which really tells you how wide this storm is when we looked at it from the air uh before landing here in valdasta it literally look at look like a 250 mile tornado hit and it was a hurricane so we're asking people to continue to be patient with us director stalins uh is going to give a update after General Wilson uh on on what our priorities are from a gima perspective but I'll let director Wilson uh come to you now then director Stalin then we'll hear from congressman and commissioner Harper and would be glad really anybody up here is glad to take any questions that you have mate uh whether it's local or state general okay sir thank you very much hey well good afternoon as uh as general km said or Governor km said we've got uh we've got over 800 folks we'll have over 800 uh soldiers Airmen and volunteers from our State Defense Force uh working across the state uh by the end of the day I expect that number num is going to grow as we continue to get additional Mission assignments and and we assess the damage obviously valasa this area was one of the first areas that we were able to respond to so we've got almost 200 folks that are down here today uh uh coordinating with uh the local and state agencies involved to try to provide the right kind of support for the community down here so some of the missions that we're currently doing is we've got route clearance and deis debris clearance teams uh working alongside the local folks and our contracted uh teams that are in here we're really trying to move everything out of the way so that we can get power crews in here to get the power turned back on as quickly as possible we've also got assets that are uh that are moving crit critical supplies all over the state so food water uh generators we've got lots of trucks and Manpower that are doing that mission Set uh as well we've embedded uh L teams liaison teams in each of the affected counties so that we can try to coordinate uh the support as best as we can and we're just going to continue over the next couple of days to assess uh the damaged area and we'll build whatever capability and capacity that's going to be required to make sure that we're uh that we're getting after it for the local communities uh just like the one just like the one down here I would ask this is hard work though I would ask that everybody just be patient uh if you look just over the last couple of days a lot of hard work has happened at the state at the local state and the federal level to try to just get things back to normal as quickly as possible but uh but again we're going to do all that we can uh for the citizens of Georgia so thank you very much sir and I look forward to any questions you may have afterwards good afternoon I'm Chris stalins the director of Georgia Emergency Management Homeland Security thank you Governor km want to highlight a couple of the state's responses and how it operates fortunately for our state under the leadership of Governor km a state of emergency was declared early by doing that early that allowed us to do a lot of things that uh prepped us for at least being able to respond as quickly as we have including calling up the National Guard as you know that's your citizen soldiers and it takes a little while to Rally those so we rallied those teams early we started prepositioning them along with other state assets all over the state but knowing the impact of the state we had to spread those equitably so we do have great teams here but as the governor mentioned we're in 32 counties across the state our priorities right now are roadway clearance to emergency locations we have to get our hospitals available we have to get our emergency rooms available we have to get those areas functioning first and a lot of times it's not just so that we can get resources to them or get individuals to them but to ensure they've got adequate power water so that they can serve those that are responding uh General Wilson informed us just earlier that yesterday one of his members on a cut team stepped on a live power line which rendered the uh Soldier unconscious and had to be transported as our folks are out there working we have to have these resources available it's so extremely important to know that yes we had 17 fatalities and that is terrible but that number will most likely climb as a result of cleanup we lose more individuals through the cleanup process due to dangerous situations so I'm asking you as a local please stay off the roads if you don't have necessary travel we're asking you keep those roads clear as you've heard earlier there's only one lane of travel so if there's only one lane of travel that's what our First Responders Our Heroes that are out there working have to use so that we can move those resources around and I understand that you want to see the damage maybe you've got a property somewhere you want to investigate I think that's extremely important but if we're blocking those that one lane so that we can't get fire and EMS to our workers that are out there supporting you or get power teams through there that's extremely important that you give us that lane our priority is to get that one lane once we get a one lane everywhere then we'll go back and begin that white line to white line clearance it's so important though that we get that availability to get those Commodities those things that you're going to need to to sustain and recover we got to get those to you once the state establishes that through all our state priorities then you'll begin to see us start getting into those surface streets you'll see us start reaching out into those County roads but our priority as mentioned is we've got to get our state routes open so that we can continue to truck in the resources that you need at the local level to ensure recovery and with that I'll turn it over to Congressman for some remarks but at the end I'm certainly available for any questions sir thank you first thing I want to say is thank you to all the volunteers that that are here uh just shaking hands and and speaking with people up here that are handing out ice and water to to our neighbors one of them has come all the way from North Carolina to uh to help and that's about as American as it gets so thank you to all of our volunteers that are here I also want to thank the linemen I know they were out working late last night they'll be working 78 hours a week to get the power back on as well our EMS and others so uh uh thank you to all of those people that are out there working and especially our Guard general thank you for what you've done uh you can expect that in a very bipartisan manner uh you will see your Georgia delegation that represents these areas out there together making sure that the American citizens know that when we get back to Washington there will be a bipartisan disaster relief package passed uh with regard to agriculture as uh most of you probably know I'm the vice chair of the ad committee I hope that our format will be very much similar to what we did in Hurricane Michael where we work with the land grant institutions to calculate the value of the crop losses and then uh get as much as we can back to the States for uh Tyler Harper and and Brian Kemp to work on an equitable distribution manner so would would that said for our Farmers make sure that you document as best you can the damage that you have and I'm going to turn it over now to Tyler Harper and we'll uh we'll be there for you sorry guys sorry uh first off I just want to say thank you uh especially here to the locals in in LS County and the surrounding communities the work that you've put in is has already been said just echoing those comments of of the Timeless uh the the tireless effort that that all of you do on the local level uh to ensure that uh we get back online as quickly as possible um it takes those efforts local state and federal to make this happen uh and it uh it certainly doesn't go unnoticed the leadership of the governor and and our entire team and Chris stalins and his team at gima and others in general your team uh that hit the ground running to ensure that we bounce back as quickly as possible uh as far as agriculture is concerned um you know this has been a really tough year in the agricultural industry already uh e economically agriculture is in a really tough spot uh and now we are dealing with the devastation the significant Devastation of Hurricane Helen uh from valasta all the way to a as the governor already mentioned across all agricultural Commodities uh we we know that we have significant damage in the poultry industry with uh poultry houses that are either uh significantly damaged or completely destroyed uh the majority of our cotton crop in that particular area is significantly damaged or 100% loss uh you know we have a lot of issues in our in our pean crop and other tree knots tree nuts um a lot of damage to facilities uh a lot of damage to our temp and I know our friends at the Georgia Forestry commission are starting their work to assess that damage our team at the Department of Agriculture is working to assess the damage as well I talked to the dean uh of the College of a yesterday and his team and their extension agents we talked last night I know there's going to be a lot of our ug extension agents that will be reaching out to our farm families and Farmers across the state in the impacted Zone to try to get information from them so we can best understand what the damage uh the totality of the damage so we have that information to take that to our friends on the federal level I want to say a huge thank you to Congressman Scott uh he and I have been talking daily uh since before this storm uh come into the state with his role especially on the a committee on what we what we can do to ensure that agriculture uh and the disaster relief that we're going to need and will need for our farm families across the state is is addressed as quickly as possible uh but it's going to take some help from our farm families to do that as has been said docu document document I I know we want to hurry up and clean up uh but the mo the more we can document the damage the better information we have uh to get the uh to get the needed resources and the help that we can from our our federal partners and others to be able to get you back on your feet as quickly as possible obviously calling your insurance agent notifying FSA and USDA and anything that we can do at the department we're here to help our team's going to be uh in on the ground and activated uh as through this storm and until until we're able to to get on the other side of it uh we're going to do everything we can to get our a industry back on its feet as quickly as possible last thing I would do is just tell you to pray for our farm families uh pray for our Farmers pray for all Georgians and especially those that have lost their lives uh we have a lot of folks that are hurting right now across our state uh and uh and it's uh it's going to be a tough time as we get through this but we're going to be here for you the Department's going to be here for you we have a lot of resources on our website under our hurricane Helen page uh please go to that you can find all of those resources available we're also working on on a on donation capability as well uh we've had a number of people reach out asking how they can help farmers and producers uh monetarily uh we are currently in the process of putting that together we hope to be getting that information out as quickly as possible so folks that want to uh participate in that particular way they will be able to do that thank you'all for being here thank you all to what you're doing we're in this together the department of Agriculture and our entire team across the state uh we're going to be here for you I'll turn it back over to governor kimp and I'll be happy to ask answer any questions after this is over as well thank you Governor all right thank you commissioner thank you everyone just a couple of quick reminders so insurance commissioner John King's with us he's his team is on the ground across the state dealing with potential insurance frosters and others so he's glad to answer questions for you attorney general Chris Carr is not with us today but citizens that are worried about consumer protection issues can reach out to the Attorney General's office and then lastly uh Kim green CEO of Georgia power and then Danny Nichols uh CEO president for CA with EMC are both with us uh so if you want more specific questions on power just ask those we'll get them to the mic with that we'll open it up for questions well just tell them that we're we're going to be here with them long as it takes we're going to throw every asset that we have at this storm we are very well pre-prepared the problem that we're having and what I would urge our citizens to just have patience with us because when somebody text me from you know Lou County I'll get a text from baring County from Richmond County from Washington County and they're all saying we got hammered and I'm telling them we literally have dozens and dozens and dozens of counties that got hammered just like you do and so like director stalling said we're having to prioritize our response to get one lane of Road open so we can get medical vehicles uh especially yesterday we were still in the process of doing this I mean in in Lou County alone we had I think over 115 or over 115 structures that we could not get to that people were telling us there is somebody in that structure so obviously that has been our Focus not only here but all across the state we're dealing with flooding issues uh in North Georgia and so it has been unlike any other storm I think we've ever faced because of the size the the Windfield that this storm brought through and how it literally is affecting 159 counties not just you know 20 or 30 counties in south Georgia uh so I would just urge people to be patient but what it looks like from the air I mean it looks like a tornado went off it looks like a bomb went off and it's not just here here it looks like this from here all the way to Augusta and everything on especially on the east side of this storm uh and we are having flooding issues and other other issues on the west side of the storm but we have a lot of assets we also have a lot of damage so we're going to stay here and continue to work hard uh thankfully the weather's pretty I think you'll continue to see things ramping up as we get roadways open up and start moving assets too uh we we had assets before the storm but the problem when you're dealing with a Statewide storm just like the dot teams that we had in Northwest Georgia and Northeast Georgia we needed to deploy them uh a day ago up there well they've got things in good order so now we're moving them South uh so we'll continue to have more and more assets coming to these areas in the days ahead but I would just tell people to be patient help your neighbor uh and thank these First Responders and it's like director Stalin said it is dangerous work out there you know power lines touching a guard rail that touches a guard troop uh Soldier uh that sends that individual to the hospital so we're having to be very careful when we go into these areas I know people want us to rush in there and and get to work we got to be very careful about what we're doing can we have a rough estimate yet for when power might be restored not only in B Augusta but in small Comm well I I'll let Danny and Kim both come address the power issues I mean look this is an uh you know something we haven't seen before the amount of damage how spread out out it is the transmission lines and other things that they're dealing with but they can also talk specifically to the assets and the people they're throwing at it thank you Governor um I'm Kim green with George power and as the governor has described this has been an unprecedented level of damage and compared with what many of you experienced here in valdasta and South Georgia last year with Adelia we are seeing more than twice the level of damage on our distribution system and much more damage on our transmission system which actually takes a little bit more time and it's more complex in some cases to address so this is certainly going to be multiple days of outage some we had at the peak about a over 130,000 customers out that's down to about 77,000 um but it will be um a few days if not a week before we're able to get everybody restor were you spec was that specifically for L County that's specifically yeah thank you that would be specifically for the L County area certainly there are other parts of Georgia that were not hit as hard and in fact we have restored uh over 400,000 customers across the entire State and as I mentioned about 50,000 customers here so far up Danny Nichols with coch EMC and just give a a echo to what Miss Kim said U this is probably twice the damage that we saw in idelia uh some markers that we look at we had about 500 poles that were broken with Adela and we're above a th000 poles now now that's included in all Seven Counties that we serve but I'd say about 2third of those are here in L County that's the bulk of our uh customers and the bulk of our damage um so it took about 7 and 1 half 8 days to get all the power restored from Adelia uh I would expect at least uh it's hard to make prognostication we hav there a lot of places we haven't been yet but uh a matter of a couple of weeks will not surprise me but we're going to work 16 hours a day you know with our cruise and we're going to give it all we got until we get them back on respect resources I said mention I apologize and I apologize you did ask me to talk about resources um we do have in the state almost up to 15,000 resources so we are bringing folks in from I know we're touching more than 11 states I know that's the same for the emc's so you will see a lot of people out a lot of line workers again this is very um dangerous work they're well trained and they're well prepared to handle it um but being sympathetic to the fact that they are going to need to access areas uh also again many of them have left their homes that suffered damage themselves they've left their families to take care of people here in Georgia um certainly we need to again respect the fact that they are doing uh incredibly difficult work and uh again are more committed than any of you could probably ever know to getting power restored safely and as quickly as possible I think just one other thing to note just to to keep in perspective uh besides the B Big Bend area of Florida where the storm hit and obviously power outage I mean just whole town like Sting and Hatchy was destroyed we had over uh and still close to a million outages in Georgia I know at one point yesterday there was 1.4 million uh outages in South Carolina and I know there's in North Carolina and other states so this isn't this just isn't one or two states dealing with huge power outages this is a multi-state uh event which also creates other challenges for our power company Partners Governor Kim you mentioned about how uh it really is an issue that a lot of states are dealing with have you talked with any of the governors uh or talked to President Biden about kind of what you guys can do and work together on this well I haven't talked to the president uh you know I talked to was tradeing messages with the FEMA administrator chriswell I talked to Governor McMaster yesterday Governor Lee text me uh I tried Governor danis but I hadn't reached him yet but I've had you know other you know Governor Sanders in Arkansas and other folks that have reached out offering assistance and of course director stalins and the Georgia Emergency Management agent see one of the good things about having the state operations center open in Atlanta which we were there have been there you know non-stop over the last two days it helps us coordinate not only state and local assets and also our federal partners are embedded there with us FEMA but we're also talking to other states about other assets uh I know there was a request from Florida for a helicopter from us so there's a lot of that that always goes on we have mutual Aid agreements and we'll do what we can to help each other uh but obviously you know my focus is on Georgia Governor desantis's focus is on Florida and you know government Masters focus is on South Carolina and that's what we'll do first and then we'll help people as we can give a just give a explanation about after the storm uh fatalities we've already had almost 20 you're expecting more what is it that citizens can do to keep themselves safe well I think the biggest thing is if you don't have to get out right now uh or if you do have to get out just try to stay away from these areas where roads are blocked and we have Crews working if you see down power lines don't get anywhere close to that I saw a down power line in Atlanta yesterday and people were standing right next to it you know just chatting uh those things are really dangerous and like what happened with our Guardsman they may be touching something else that you may touch so just try to stay clear and use common sense uh and just give us a few days to at least get these roads clear uh and get some organization to what's going on and you know literally over 30 counties that we're having the same kind of issues that we're having here in L County govern does the state plan on opening any Shel that may these commit and have yeah let me let director stalins talk about that we already have shelters open yes ma'am one of the things that we'll do not only along with our shelters we have what's called pods or points of distribution and so we'll bring in Services water food those needs and we'll set those up at communities that are specifically struggling to get in and out we'll bring those Commodities as close as we can and then we'll facilitate along with our Guardsmen and women they'll be out there delivering these if we have to by hand uh We've even got airs sets if we need to so we're focusing on those communities we're going to get those resources in there uh which is extremely important don't come looking for them we'll get them to you contact your local emergency management team uh you can find them easily Ashley Tai here is doing a great job here in loun County you can reach those teams at each uh county level and they'll they'll submit those resources and once we compile that list it it becomes a priority we know we got to get roads open but we got to get our folks uh the water and nutrition they need to to survive the Long Haul when it comes to when it comes to storm cleanup what are going to be the best ways to avoid any type of scams or anything like that that may harm the financially hello this uh my name is John King I'm Georgia's insurance commissioner and this is one of the biggest priorities for our department we have our law enforcement agents working very closely with the sheriffs and the police departments in getting out to those communities and give people warnings on how to protect themselves my biggest uh message today is don't do any major repairs only do the necessary repairs to make sure that you don't have any further damage to your property but don't get into don't sign any contracts make sure you know who you're dealing with preferably deal with somebody a local contractor but make sure you get your claim in and we're going to we already talked to all the insurance companies we're having to move into the areas we're right now waiting for a determination of where if we do a a claims village where to set those up to make sure the people can start their claims and we'll be watching that very carefully if there any questions people just need to go to Georgia o.gov and they can have all the contacts there file complaints we're standing by with our whole team ready to to respond thank you you mentioned that this is probably going to be more than for some perspective tell us how much around there C to then and how much you're anticipating you want speak yeah I can uh from from an agricultural perspective hurricane Michael was over $2 billion in in agricultural D damage uh two to 2 and a half billion plus um and so uh so when you when you put it in P in that perspective uh the best way I've explained when I've been asked about a damage is uh is uh is in explaining that is telling folks that east of I75 it's worse than hurricane Michael um and the Damage that we're already seeing and the Damage that we're already assessing you've heard from the power companies and others telling you that compared to other storms how much more damage this particular storm has caused uh a lot of that is because of the widespread nature of the storm and the fact that uh on that side those Farms those Farm families were on the dirty side of the storm so uh in comparison uh you know obviously we don't have numbers yet we we're Gathering that data we're assessing that damage uh with our with our friends at the forestry with Timber and our A Partners to assess the a damage ju but just in the a sector alone it was two2 to2 and5 billion dollars in Michael and so we're expecting that or greater uh just on on the agricultural side itself so significant damage uh a lot of work to do but uh but we've already started those conversations as Congressman Scott mentioned and we already started the process thanks to his help and others to go ahead and get those Federal disaster that Federal disaster like we did during Hurricane Michael to get that as quickly out to our farm families as quickly as possible we're going to be here for that we're going to work with our legislators and others to help make that happen now I would just add I know just with uh director stalins was just telling me just with one debris contractor just in Southwest Georgia for Hurricane Michael just moving debris hauling debris off getting debris out of the roadways was $250 million uh and we're dealing with a Statewide event so it's going to be a big number it's going to take us a long time to to deal with that you speak of fuel supply are you having any issues with that or or anticipating anything coming out right now we're not uh there's no need for a run on fuel stations we have a lot of responders out there that are going to need access to that fuel it's more about making sure that we've got power restored to our uh gas pumps but right now we have no reason for there to be any shortage so no reason to to fear that there's going to be any outages whatsoever and that's one of the good points in the emergency order uh the state of emergency lets us be able to have the ability to move those kind of uh Commodities around as needed and uh get get fuel where it's needed so we're in good shape as as uh as of right now Governor you mentioned uh just a few moments ago that yesterday you guys were aware of at least 115 structures where you were told hey we know there people inside we have an update if you've been able to get those people that are inside those locations or have that number shied at all we we have gotten to those structures they've been cleared unfortunately we did have one fatality there but I have no other details on that I know hospital they back up and rning yes they are back up and running and I I know Georgia Power was working on that as well as us with the generator all right thank y'all for being being here we appreciate it no sir it's not my phone [Music]
2024-10-02 13:57