mmaroney@sungazette.com
Just as vaccines are getting into arms, so is the expected stimulus money in the American Rescue Plan, part of the $1.9 trillion stimulus signed by President Joe Biden to assist communities recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mayor Derek Slaughter said this week the city is slated to receive up to $25.8 million in stimulus.
He said he was unclear on the exact terms and obligations but said it may arrive in two separate installments, the first of which could arrive by mid-May.
A city consulting firm representative also previewed the upbeat update recently for council’s finance committee.
steven, you know, i know that a lot of things have been prepositioned that are ready. we know that fema has some 1100 emergency personnel in place right now prepared to search and rescue after the storm pushes through. we know that there are some 300 ambulances that are already in plates, a place. according to the army corps of engineers, 100 generaters are here, 15 more on the way. how important is that, that prepositioning of these assets in a storm like this? it s extremely important, especially during our post-storm recovery. we will need those assets to help us recover and help our citizens in carter county recover from the storm. steven, again, i think about the people watching who maybe have the generator, they re watching on their televisions, people in their homes, people who left also who may be far
away from their homes concerned about their property. what would you tell them given what you re seeing, experiencing right now? for the people that stayed that have their generators, we want them to be safe and stay inside until they get the word from emergency management and continue to follow our facebook pages for the latest updates. and the ones that have evacuated and are waiting to come back home, they need to be patient. it s may it may be a few days before they can make it back home and they just need to be patient and let everything be safe before they come home. all right, steven. one other thing. we re feeling the effects here outside. the wind gusts, they come and go. the rain feels sustained. it continues on. compare this storm as it is right now to other storms that you ve seen come through this region. well, the most recent one was matthew that came through our region and it caused severe
inland flooding. this storm has caused more coastal flooding and i m sure there s going to be a lot of inland flooding off of this storm. but that s the only one we can compare it to at this time. steven wray with carter could you spell at this. thank you for your time. we wish you safety as well. let s get a sense of the metrics. you know, the particulars around this storm with our karen mcennis. karen live in atlanta at the cnn weather center. karen, you know, we re feeling it out here. it ain t pretty you can but it certainly could have been much worse had it been a stronger storm. it is still very strong, a lot of risks involved. if you could tell us the particulars of what we are feeling and experiencing right now. yes, the national hurricane center just sent out an intermediate advisory. not a lot has changed. one thing has, though. instead of moving to the northwest, it is moving towards
let s now bring in steven wray. steven wray is the director of emergency services for carter county in north carolina. you know, from what you re seeing right now, steven from what you re hearing from your contacts throughout the region, what are your thoughts about this storm pushing in? this is an historic storm. we ve had a lot of rain, a lot of flooding and a lot of wind during this storm. and we re expected to see a lot of damage once the daylight comes. you know this region best. what are the things to watch out for look, as the storm is here and as the storm pushes on? is it the flooding, the water coming down from inland? what are your thoughts, what do people need to watch out for? our biggest concern is the storm surge that comes from this storm. we ll get a lot of flooding from that storm surge itself.