Will array, the head, direct the director of North Carolina Emergency department Emergency Management. Think you, governor. Good afternoon, everyone. Of the governor said, were here with Fema Today to retake an opportunity to survey the damage not just here in Buncombe County but in the western counties that have been so significantly impacted by this event. We currently have 15 county eeocs that remain open with 31 states of emergency in place. Of the 92 Search And Rescue assets thAt The governor mentioned, three of those are federal teams, 22 are from other states, and 54 organic North Carolina. And really cannot overstate the importance of partnership both here in North Carolina as well as the support that we have had from our colleagues in other states as well as the federal government. Today, we are continuing to wrap up grandpa pushes our commodities particularly water and employees as well as fuel and other resources into the impact communities. We are increasing the number of assets we have On The Road and in the air to be able to make those moves as well as working with fema to be able to sustain those levels over the next couple of weeks. As we look over the horizon, at whAt The duration of this event and the recovery can be earmarked we currently have three Feeding Sites open, those are in buncombe, mcdowell and whAt Target. We did visit one of them earlier today is the governor mentioned in my currently over 7000 North Carolina onions have already taken an opportunity to register for fema individual assistance and there is already money flowing into peoples pockets are marked again to start getting them off on the right foot and assist them in the recovery. We have a state medical support sheltered is also open to assist both with decompression of our Health Care facilities but also longterm pairs that may have had damage and may need to move patients into a safer and secure location and we are also standing up a second location that can be scaled up significantly should we be needed. Unfortunately, our confirmed fatalities for this event have increased to 33 over the day and into the evening yesterday. As the governor said, we are seeing an increase in Capacity And Capability in the Communication Sector across western North Carolina. We still have always to go but we have 16911 centers are still currently degraded with Fallback Plans in place. Thats an improvement from what we have seen over the last couple of Days End lastly, we have 121 systems are currently have boiled water i buy a series. And of those, 33 likely as we have discussed before are in need of their testing to clear of those advisories and we have 36 systems literally have no power. We are working with our federal partners as well as our partners here in the state on getting the right resources into be able to bring these critical Water Systems back online. Lastly, i would just say thank you again to the county, the city, mission, other partners here in this jurisdiction that are doing such incredible work to care for the needs of this community and of western North Carolina. Thank you, governor, P Mack. Weve been grateful to have the Fema A Ministry with us all day and shes going to be here for a while. Shes gotten to see firsthand whats happening here in North Carolina and has gotten to hear some needs directly from people. Sophia minnaert administrative dan grosswall, administrator. Thank you, governor. And afternoon, everyone. First i just want to start by seeing on her behalf of the Bidenharris Demonstration our deepest sympathies go out to those who have lost Loved Ones, does have incurred damages as a result of the storm, and At The president s direction, we are going to be here along as it takes to finish this response and continue through the recovery. As you heard, this from the governor, this is a historic storm with catastrophic impact across many communities. What were the people of North Orlando to know that we have the resources here in North Carolina to help with this response to begin the recovery, we will continue to send additional resources in. So far, we have over 1200 personnel from across the federal families, supporting the Response Efforts that includes things like our searchandrescue teams, or medical teams from Health And Human Services, the Army Corps of engineers that are doing assessments of Water Systems and power infrastructure. And we have our incidents responsible as well as in the county or the local communities so we can have seamless communication with those on the ground and the impacted areas as well as with the state so we can move those resources as quickly as possible. I was able to see some of the Devastation Today while i was with the governor and we are starting to think ahead about the resources that might be needed as recovery is going to continue or even to provide some Rest And Relief for the responders that have been working so hard, day in and day out since the storm passed. We will be bringing in additional dod medical teams to help support some of the longterm sustainable needs to run some of the medical facilities, we will continue to bring in additional Search And Rescue resources as needed. Will continue to also bring in the Army Corps of engineers to start planning, theyve already started planning but more resources for the Debris Removal and this is going to have a significant Debris Removal mission. I think the biggest thing that i can say right now is that again At The direction of the president , he had asked madetomeasure that we have every federal resource available to support the people of North Carolina and thinking about those resources and perhaps a way that we wouldnt traditionally use them. And he has directed me to stay as long as it takes to ensure that a federal family are here, supporting North Carolina and we are being meeting the needs the governor has identified. Thank you. Thank you, administrator. North carolina national guard has such a significant role in the Search And Rescue and thAt The thank you, governor, and first of all, i want to thank the national guard for the Dedication And Service from the state of North Carolina. I would also like to thank the astral airport for being our partner and helping distribute commodities to earlier that you see any. Right now in the national guard we have almost 800 people on duty for this specific event. We have our primary responsibility and our primary focus right now is still Search And Rescue and recovery. And then relocation followed by commodities. This morning we brought in 100,000 pounds of water and commodities on a c17. Weve also done 100,000 pounds through our Helicopter Lifts know we have. We continue to service the area, weve hit im sorry, eight counties within the region already with commodities, and we will continue to push soldiers into the region to help the citizens of the western North Carolina. Thank you, governor, P Mack one of the major issues we have is Ingress And Egress and making sure that we clear roads. We still have some communities that are cut off, there North Carolina department of transportation has been working hard to clear roads and get roads back open. Im going to call on our secretary of transportation, joey hopkins. Thank you, governor, P Mack good afternoon, everyone. First of all our hearts go on we have an m we do not want you here, if you dont live here and youre not coping with the storm. Of the will continue to be our message pushing forward if the coming days. If you been on the map apps, there are also sending that same message out we will continue saying that. This is an Allhandsondeck Type of event. We have over 1600 employees working now. We have over 73 Contract Crews helping us also. And that number is growing every day. We have crews coming from other states, Tomorrow Florida is sending crews appear to help us and theyre also bringing some assets like temporary bridges to help us make temporary repairs. So we are doing there. And i do want to see again that many of our recruits are working, they have not been home there may they do not know whAt Their own damages and do the Communication Issue is, to be not been able to find out from their own families how theyre doing. So im very thankful and grateful for the litigation as public servants in the state of North Carolina and my hearts and thoughts and prayers go out to them too mack in an effort to help, weve also secured a location for housing for our employees because some of the hotels either dont have Power Or Water or the ones that do dont have rooms earmarked so that will be set up in the next day or so for about 250 people and we are working on that. And i also want to echo whAt The governors and others have said, i want to thank our many partners along with our staff that help to alert people, them helps to respond, to storms and downed trees. That goes from the North Carolina national guard to the state highway patrol. Local law enforcement, first responders, and even private citizens are helping clear trees. We learned today that Mission Hospital is also helped to clear trees from road so their employees can get to the hospital to help serve the critical care needs of our people in western North Carolina. And lastly, i want to thank our federal partners at Fema And H fhwa, you can see female boots undergone here, we are thankful for that and grateful for this assistance. We and also the acting Fhwa Administrator to and im grateful for their help. This is one of the most catastrophic events weve ever seen in North Carolina and i just ask for your patience as we continue to try to solve the transportation issues here in North Carolina. Thank you. Were also concerned about Health Care facilities, our hospitals, our Horse Nursing homes. We have with us Today Secretary of department of Health And Human Services kenzie. Thank you, governor, as Governor Cooper said, we have been were focused At The department of Health And Human Services on ensuring the stability of our Health Care system here in the region. We have 22 acutecare hospitals in western North Carolina. As a last night, all have had her their power restored back onto the grid. All of them had generated power during the storms and were able to continue operations and supporting the communities and weve been in direct near hourly contact with those facilities to support a number of resource requests. And with support from the North Carolina national Air Guard and Emergency Management, weve been able to get food, fuel, water and other supplies to those Health Care facilities to make sure thAt They say they operating. Today, we went to Mission Hospital to see firsthand the heroic efforts of the individuals At That hospital over 1000 staff that have been sleeping there every day to ensure thAt They can continue operations and supporting their community. We continued to walk work to bring them resources to have the power back on saturday night, and they were all focused, working very hard to reach Restore Water Resources in the community but meanwhile bringing in temporary solutions to support water there. Were also very focused on our longterm Care Community and facilities, filled nursing homes, Adult Care Homes and were proactively working with our insurers to identify individuals that are at home on oxygen and other medical supplies to make sure we can proactively reach out to them they might support Emergency Management to bring resources to them. Weve activated our patient Transfer System so that hospitals all across the states are stepping up to bring individuals in need of critical care of hospitals in western North Carolina if they cant get the care immediately. Our entire department has rallied every resource to make the difference. Resort with four for the work of fema who immediately brought forth a disaster medical Assistance Team on the ground at Mission Hospital and we are in this for the long haul and into recovery. Thank you. We also have without the signatory of of Public Safety eddie buffalo, our head of the highway patrol, freddie johnson, and Congressman Chuck edwards is here as well. Well be glad to take your [inaudible question by the media] first, we knew thAt This was going to be a significant event There Mack and local officials told people to get out of lowlying areas. We also know there was going to be a significant number of fedeli we also know there are going to be like Magna Devastation was beyond belief. And even when we prepare for something like this, this is something thats never happened before in western North Carolina. Searchandrescue teams are continuing to work. We even talk with the member people who are so hoping to get and talk with their people in the fullservice comes back up, when will know a little more. I will ask will reduce respond specifically if he knows that number, and you know the number of people . Okay we dont know the number that has been requested. But we asked people to call 211 if theyre trying to get a hold of somebody, dont call 911. Right now on that kind of issue. Roy cooper it, you mentioned progress being made on selfservice [inaudible] so we are getting reports from At T and verizon, their initial problems were significant in that landslides cut main Fibre Lines for them. Weve asked them and push them to bring in their deployable assets so more of them are getting into the area and we are getting reports that more and more have selfservice. Will, will you want to answer that . I would say progress is the key. We know we still have a lot of work to do. Again. But i think we are pushing our commercial providers as well as other partners across the commercial space to bring in mobile assets of a variety of types to be able to provide the critical sites, the local vocs, to some of our public Safety Answering Point for other critical facilities. Again, they are very integral to what we do, their huge piece of it. We know communication is important for everybody and so we are going to to continue to push and encourage there. What do you say to th