Buncombe County officials give update on Helene recovery efforts

Who did amazing work

Please check drive nc.gov for real time road conditions when

you're driving

Our four distribution sites are open again today at W

SDS Elementary School 275 Overlook Road in Nashville Sand Hill

Elementary 154 Sand Hill School Road in Nashville

Please enter from the Acton Circle Drive North Windy Ridge

Elementary School 20 Dawn Road in Weaverville Fairview Elementary School

1355 Charlotte Highway in Fairview

As we get these four sites stable we will expand

our footprint beyond those four

Our goal is to cover our county broadly but we

know that as supplies come in we can then grow

that

But right now our focus is on stabilizing those four

sites

We are beginning to distribute water at these four locations

as it becomes available to start

They are all I apologize

We are beginning to distribute food at these four locations

as it becomes available to start

These are mostly meals ready to eat or Mres

So there will be food available as it becomes available

We will distribute food and they'll be in the form

of Mres

We only have potable water from tankers

So if you are going to these sites

Please bring containers that you can fill

The city of Asheville is also distributing water at F

Square Park spring containers

We're also starting to mobilize staff to send supplies out

to isolated areas and hard to reach areas

We are grateful to have rural central kitchen here providing

meals to the community

There are just one of the many community organize organizations

who are helping to do everything they can to help

connect our people to resources

We've al we've also been here and how our breweries

are providing water and those are the types of actions

that make Buncombe County so special one rumor that we're

hearing is there a food trailer at the center That

is not true

There's not a food trailer at the Alexander

We are still very much an active search and rescue

We're reaching out and trying to find those individuals who

have still trapped in their homes and we are also

doing active recovery

And right now I cannot provide an update beyond the

40 communities that the 40 members of our community that

we lost that I gave you last night

So as of right now it's still I'm still only

confirming that there are 40 loss of lives in Buncombe

County

We know that it's important for our community to know

the names of the of these loved ones who we

have lost

And we're working to get that to you

And hopefully we can give you that update soon yesterday

Our volunteers with the registered these knocked on more than

300 doors to do wellness checks on community members whose

loved ones have reported that they haven't heard from them

or ask us to check on

And now I'd like to introduce Savannah Parish of Montreat

the town manager of Mon Street for an update about

that community

Savannah

Good morning

Thank you Avril

I'll be brief

I do have an update from Montreat

We were devastated by this storm

Our infrastructure um is slowly being repaired by our public

works department

We do have three bridges now that were damaged in

the storm

Um That are now possible Shenandoah bridge

Um Look out road bridge um are both passable

Montreat College has been evacuated

No students remain on campus and if members of the

community are able to leave safely if they have gas

um in their vehicles and somewhere to go we are

encouraging them to to leave the community if they're able

to do so safely

One rumor I want to address um that we are

hearing in the community is that lake Susan dam was

breached

Lake Susan dam was not breached water was coming over

the spillway but it did um it did operate as

engineered and it remains structurally sound to the best of

our knowledge at this time

Um I have no update on when we will have

water restored to the community

Uh We had hundreds of feet of water line that

is damaged and we are currently making our way up

Gray Beer Road Gray Beard Road which was completely washed

out

So that's just slow going

Um we hope to have water restored as soon as

possible but no solid update on that right now

We do have bottled water and we are distributing that

at the Montreat gate from 10 this morning until two

this afternoon

Uh and we have bottles and gallons available there

Um Parts of Black Mountain the power has been restored

We're so grateful for that

That will certainly make our efforts easily easier as we

continue to clean up Montreat and um appreciate all of

the help from emergency management and the county so far

and that's all I have

Thank you for that update Savannah

Um Next we have um uh Chancellor Kimberly Van Noort

here to provide updates from Un C Nashville

Thank you so much

I'm Kimberly Van nor the chancellor at Un C Asheville

Um and I appreciate the opportunity to be here this

morning

I want to first say that we at Un C

Asheville and the entire UN C system um uh school

stand with the people out here of Western North Carolina

This is an enormous challenge and I am heartened that

we see the pulling together that we have seen since

Friday morning

Un C Asheville has been without electricity running water or

internet

However we do have minimal structural damage to the campus

many many trees down and many access points blocked

But that infrastructure is improving

Daily cellular communications have been very limited and are slowly

returning

The student safety and well being is always our primary

concern

Prior to the storm we had over 1600 residential students

on campus

There were approximately 1300 of them at the time that

the storm hit some of them were able to leave

These students remained housed in their residence halls and we

provided them daily with water free meals and support services

There has been a tremendous undertaking by our staff but

we weren't alone

We've had tremendous support from many of our UN C

colleagues who have finally been able to reach us as

um access to the region has improved

We've also been very careful to uh be accountable for

each and every student who's on campus knowing where they

are and what their needs are because of conditions on

campus and in the Western North Carolina region in general

we have assisted all students residing on campus to find

options for relocation to safe locations off campus

These efforts included helping students to find to identify safe

routes creating and connecting carpools providing students with gasoline for

their cars and relocating a very small number of students

to another UN C system institution

Within 72 hours all Un C Asheville students were relocated

away from campus

These students have also received information about the availability of

clinical and mental health services at any UN C institution

near their current location

We really want to thank very much the UN C

system the system office and our sister institutions who have

provided many many services North Carolina A and T State

University Winston Salem North Carolina Central NC State UN C

Charlotte uh UN C Wilmington

The list goes on and on

Our status is currently uh status of closed and we

have suspended all traditional university operations

We are prioritizing campus services for essential university personnel for

damage assistant and recovery and also support for first responders

and state and federal officials

Nonmandatory employees are asked not to report to the campus

at this time and more information will be forthcoming

We have sent all of our employees information about support

resources and ways that we can be of help

However please understand that closed means closed

We still have un un uh safe conditions on campus

and a need to dedicate all of our resources to

our recovery efforts

Un C Asheville's academic operations will be closed for the

immediate future but we are not done for the semester

We are beginning academic planning uh this morning

Um in order to ascertain when we will be able

to resume instruction and that learning environment our students need

very much more information very very soon as our assessments

continue we look forward to welcoming our bulldogs home and

to helping the community at large recover from this horrendous

disaster

Thank you

Thank you for those updates

At this time we will open the briefing up to

questions from our partners from the media who are on

the Zoom call

You can unmute or type your questions into the chat

Uh I've got a question for you Charles Pros from

WL OS News 13

My question is about water not the distribution of drinking

water

I'm talking about the water that comes out of the

North Fork reservoir

We've been told water will be uh returned to normal

as soon as possible

But what does that mean Mayor Mannheimer said I believe

two days ago that water will be interrupted or you

shouldn't expect to get it back for quote several weeks

Now 20 months ago this city suffered a catastrophic water

failure that was followed by a study focused on assessing

repairing and replacing pipes that needed to be replaced

So what happened Why are we in this situation And

can we get an honest assessment of what's happening right

now and a timetable for when water should flow again

Charles thank you for that question

I will also advise you to contact the city of

Asheville for water related questions as it it is the

city's water system county manager Pender

Would you like to add to that before you add

the pardon me Part of that study was to make

sure that the city and the county would act in

concert in the future and that there wouldn't be these

communication disconnects

Go ahead

Charles

The mayor was with us yesterday and her water team

and they have fully addressed the extent of the damage

that we had at Norfolk

And they will be with us again tomorrow and you

we would let them hear this question and hopefully they

will bring an answer for you but they were clear

and we have been working together

So I don't I want to dispel any rumors that

there's there's any gaps in communication here

We have been clear that because of the volume of

water and the stump the water from Helene it did

wash out sections of the pipe since 2004

It happened and there have been some redundancy lines that

also put in to make sure that it won't happen

again

And those lines are also washed out

So please remember that this was a once in a

generational storm that happened here in the Western North Carolina

And I I cannot say enough about the folks at

the city they have been working nonstop

They have their EOC was stood up the same time

ours was stood up and they have been working on

that water issue

So I don't want anyone to leave here thinking that

the city has not been at the table

They have not been fully invested in trying to bring

water back to our community

But these things take time and that's good to know

But for folks out there parents out there who need

to make sure that their kids are living in hygienic

situations that water is going to flow again

Is there any kind of a timetable or um any

suggestions that some other group's gonna come in The Army

Corps of Engineers Something to make sure this situation is

amended as soon as possible

They have been talking to the Army Corps of Engineers

and they also mentioned that like last night on the

four o'clock briefing they mentioned that they have been working

with the local water water people that fix engineers and

water repair companies and they named three or four of

those companies last night and they have been working with

those companies as well

So yes all resources have come to bear to make

sure that we can address the system for the long

term

Ok

We'll look forward to uh more on a timetable from

you and the city as well

Thank you

Uh Miss Pender

This is John Boyle with actual watchdog uh while you're

there

Uh I had an email from the state wanting clarification

on water deliveries

Uh They are insistent that water was shipped on the

27th and the 28th

They did not say when it arrived when we talked

yesterday

Uh from what you had said in the city it

said these were the first delivery we were getting was

three days left

That is correct

That is correct

Go ahead John

Do address that please

You broke up on me a little bit there John

Can you ask the bottom I heard you say the

state the state said yeah is there there seems to

be a miscommunication here

Um Yeah I'm not having great connectivity

Uh the I'm sorry the uh the state

So let me repeat what I think I heard you

say

I'll repeat what I think I heard you said John

And then if I I got it wrong you said

you got an email from the state

Water was delivered on the 27th and the 20 water

was shipped on the 27th and the 28th

And what what what I reported to you along with

the city that the first shipment of water to Buncombe

County was received on Sunday

And that is correct or at 230 in the morning

um Sunday or Monday

But it was about two or three days before that

water did get to Buncombe County

Water was for we did get water we delivered to

Asheville Airport

And when we went to we thought that because it

was at Asheville airport it was water for Buncombe County

but we were told that we were a distribution hub

and that water did not actually belong to Bunkum County

So the first water that we received from Buncombe County

we got it at 2:30 a.m. I believe that was

Monday morning So we were saying Sunday night but it

was 230

So Sunday night Monday morning and we redeploy that water

to our community

You also heard a city manager mentioned yesterday that they

bought private water to make sure that our community had

water for distribution

The county also adjoined in that and we also bought

water privately for distribution

So we have been trying to make sure that distribution

was covered but we now have received water from the

state and we have deployed that water as well

We've talked with the state and they're telling us that

water will come on a more consistent basis and we

can continue to keep our our sites open

And that's why you have a smaller footprint because we

wanna make sure if we open up many many sites

and our resident shows up at many sites we wanna

make sure there's water there

So there are four sites open up in the county

and one in the city we know we have a

stream of water for that and as the state water

continues to show up then we can open up and

expand that footprint

Thank you

That's very helpful

Uh My understanding there was some kind of uh a

beer cra snafu so to speak

Uh on the state end can you speak to that

Um bureaucratic snafu On the state end John we're having

a really hard time hearing your questions

Ok let me let me put it in the chat

please just type them in the chat

John we'll move on to the next question

Hello

This is Andy Rose with CNN and uh I was

wanting to know a little bit more about the uh

the current situation with the unaccounted for residents

Uh the last we heard the number could be as

high as 600 unaccounted for

Is that an accurate estimate of where things stand Now

I don't have that estimate

I'm not sure where that number is coming from

What you heard from our registered D is we open

up and told any and everyone that lives out of

the county

And you wanted to make sure that since we had

no cell service if you wanted to make sure you

can let us know

And that's where that large number coming from because people

could not connect with loved ones in our community

We have taken that list and we have prioritized we

got that list and we told you last time it

was about 100 and 50 people that had high needs

and we were going to check on those

We checked on those and we went and we even

checked on more than that

We've been going door to door making sure that we

can put eyes on people and see if they're safe

and that's what we've been doing

So I couldn't tell you what the number is that

is unaccounted for but we've just told anyone that he

lives outside of Bunkum County send us a name or

phone number or email or address and we would go

check on those people

And so far we've been doing that but I don't

have a number to tell you how much is unaccounted

for

Have you been able to uh see all the people

that you've gone out to do well checks on Is

there anyone who you weren't able to find Not at

this point we were able to put eyes or knock

on doors and people responded and answers so far as

we've gone out

Thank you

And one more quick question uh when you speak of

doing active recovery does that mean that you have locations

where you know there are deceased victims but you have

not been able to reach the remains yet

Now what that means is we know that there are

places that are still hard to access there's still trees

down our lines power lines down our water is still

moving rather rapidly

So we we have we've been strategic in trying to

get out to those neighbors

Now we have helicopter support and we've been trying to

fly into areas that we cannot go by foot or

by boat or by car

So that's what that means that we're still in active

recovery because we're now getting to places that we haven't

gotten to before

Hi it's Laura Lee at Blue Ridge Public Radio

Um I wanted to drop back into get some clarification

on the food distribution

So you said there will be Mres at all of

all four of the county sites starting today Yes ma'am

And what is the allocation Um is it is it

the same as the water on a per person basis

for the household Yes ma'am

And um one other question that we had was about

medication um where can people who need to access medications

or need to access ice for medication Um locate those

things

Um we have been working with different pharmacies in town

to see what their supplies look like but we don't

have an answer where how they can access medication as

far as ice

We do have a supplier that is bringing ice to

the community

Um they're coming from the east coast of North Carolina

We have lots of volunteers that are coming but he

told us that he can get some ice to us

So that will be the first supply of ice that

we'll be we'll be receiving coming into Western North Carolina

As soon as that ice gets here we'll also deploy

it to our sites and people that need it especially

folks with diabetic or stuff that need to put medicine

on ice

You would have that available to them

This is Zabu silla with CNN

Um we've been in touch with a woman in Asheville

who described how she clung to her roof and lost

her family members in the floodwaters before she was rescued

Uh is there anyone from the sheriff's office that can

share with us any information about uh her rescue or

um any search efforts for her missing family members This

we would ask the sheriff if he can join us

this afternoon

He he he and his team has been out in

our community this morning

So we will see if he can be available this

afternoon to answer some of those questions

And uh I guess what time or or where should

we possibly expect the sheriff's office to join you guys

Our cadence has been 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. So

if the sheriff or anyone on his team is available

it will be at the 4 p.m. briefing

Thank you

Any other questions It's Laura Lee again at B pr

um understand there's no specific timetable for restoration of water

but we have some questions about um the implications of

that for schools and for restaurants

Is it possible that um without full restoration of water

you know schools would be able to go back with

you know supplemented water and and the same question for

restaurants we would have the school systems

We'll ask that question and see if they're available as

well to join us

When when they were here last they mentioned that they

were closed

They didn't have a they didn't have a plan yet

for when they can reopen but I'll we'll ask that

specific question

About supplemental water

Ok great

And in terms of the yesterday I believe you said

that it was a mobile distribution um opportunity for people

who are not able to get to the floor sites

of the city site

Can you give us an update on where that stands

We were we were actually starting to plan on that

yesterday

Um And once we get our four sites I know

that our community paramedics have been going out and delivering

water

Uh I would get an update and see how far

they've received

If you've gotten any more responses we are setting up

a water between um Swana Noa and Black Mountain that

will be supported because I know that river is cut

off on the other side of Swana Noa

That will be the one of the other sites that

we're working on

But I will get you more details on how far

our team has gotten in into our community

And if there are people who need that mobile distribution

how do they access that without cell phone coverage That's

been really hard

So we've been actually going out to them to see

if we can find any pockets in our community that

we can help assist with water

As I mentioned we have some air support

So if we can't get to you via the roadway

we're having some air support where we can bring water

in or bring some food into those those communities

So I guess short answer to that question is we've

been going on actively looking for these people because I

know they don't have cell cell service to call in

or get our message to us

If they do have cell services

Pardon Where are they to call They do have cell

service

Where how are they to is there You know a

place to request I have cell service but I'm not

able to get water

Got it

That number that they can call is 8282506650

You have a new number

211 or they can also one for emergency

If it I guess my team is in the room

telling you if there's an emergency they can call 911

That is always the first response but we also have

the other number to 2506650

Um Let me get back to you

There are people in the room shaking their head at

me

Maybe that phone has been

Oh sorry

Is that phone number Not good

I wanna make sure we're putting out the best information

that phone line is overwhelmed right now

So if it's an emergency situation please call 911

We are trying to staff that phone line um and

take as many calls as possible

But if it's an emergency please call 911

Thank you

I'll I'll put this out there too

We've been reaching out to staff and trying to get

staff in that can help o help offload the staff

that has been working that has stayed here since Wednesday

We are trying to get more staff in

So if they're telling me that that phone number now

has been overwhelmed

So admin support is huge and we're trying to get

staff and that can help support those numbers

We we fully staff on 911 and we have the

technology now that 911 can actually be answered in other

counties

So that service is being up and very very stable

at this point in time the admins piece for us

and staff coming in to relieve admin trying to get

them here has been a challenge as you all know

So we're working to get more staff in and more

staff across circuit state has been coming to trying to

get those that come in to help us as well

And thank you for that one last question

Um Is there any coordinate efforts in terms of getting

people gassed their vehicles We have suggestions about um what

people should or should not do in respect to that

Not at this time

I know that I see some gas stations are coming

back online because they have power but we don't have

gas stations for the for the for the general public

We do have gas that we're trying to make sure

our ambulances are staying on the road to help with

that recovery

And so you see our ambulance and our first responders

we do have gas tanks or trucks that we have

We have as a part of our response our protocol

as we have

And so we've been using those gas tanks to keep

our first responders full but we don't have a way

for the general public to get gas

Not without the not without the infrastructure of our gas

stations

Any others

Is anything good in the chat Are there any questions

in the chat Yeah

First question from studio B any word on efforts to

open additional shelters Yes we are working to open up

1/5

I guess it would be shelter

And we at the four o'clock briefing we will let

you know that as I mentioned on the call yesterday

the biggest thing that we need is to make sure

we have shower facilities and toilet facilities outdoor shelters with

some generator power for lights

Those assets did arrive in our community

So we're working to get them all hooked up in

an operation

As soon as that is done we would announce where

and when that shelter would be available

from Patricia

Uh She has a question about efforts to make communication

accessible for the non-english speaking population

Community members mentioned they are still awaiting resource information

I'm aware of Rocio Quintero's efforts but I'd like to

know what other initiatives the city and county have to

provide in Spanish especially in formats that don't require internet

or soul service

And just Fy I Rocio is on the back end

of this call interpreting this live in Spanish right now

So she can't be in this room to answer or

she can unmute herself perhaps and answer that

no

So uh this is Lillian Goves uh um answering that

uh we have been working to uh with one of

our uh subgroups in our Emergency Operations Center to reach

those hard to reach communities

Um And certainly language access is one of those barriers

that makes it hard to reach

Um Rocio and a team of individuals have been going

out for the storm and distributing information about uh what

was coming and how to prepare

And now after the storm they are working with specific

community partners who target and work with um Spanish speaking

populations regularly um to help make those connections yesterday I

know she was out in some communities distributing food and

water to them um To get that information to them

about the status of where we are in Buncombe County

Uh how to connect and what to expect

Yeah there's a question from Evan with Citizen Times

Some residents have expressed that they didn't receive evacuation notices

in time

Does the county believe that they provided adequate updates If

not how do you think the county should address this

problem Uh This is Lillian Goves again Director of Communications

and public engagement leading up to this storm's arrival

We were sharing information about ways to prepare

Um And in fact um we ahead of the storm's

arrival declared the state of emergency that the local state

of emergency in Buncombe County um which would offer us

greater access to resources on the storm's arrival

Um And we're calling uh we had a press conference

the day before uh asking for self evacuations at that

time particularly around those low lying communities

We utilized all of our communication tactics from text messaging

to traditional media to social media and then layered on

our ipad messaging

Um And our ipad messaging was for those mandatory evacuations

that occurred

Um And so those are good because they reach everyone

regardless of whether you've subscribed to our um regular updates

Um And then we were also partnering with community partners

who have and faith leaders who have that direct contact

with individual communities and that trust to try to help

get that information to people ahead of the storm um

before it hit of course once it hit and um

communication towers were knocked out that became uh additionally difficult

in a place where we really have leaned on our

community partners especially our radio partners to help get information

to people um who didn't have service to phone or

TV or internet

Looking for any other questions at this time

I have a quick uh follow up on my earlier

question about the uh the missing and the 600 figure

I wanted to go back and check my uh my

notes to make sure I I hadn't misunderstood something but

the 600 figure came from the Sunday afternoon briefing

And at the time uh uh M Pender said that

it went from 1000 to under 600

So I'm just trying to see now that a day

and a half has passed since then if we have

a more more specific number at this point

And and that reference was around the people calling in

to give us the number

So when we have we got the 1st 1000 what

we did is we we kind of cross referenced that

to what we're coming in from 911 and there were

some duplicates so that large number was cut almost down

to what was fresh and new that we had not

already checked on

And those are the folks that we've been going out

and knocking on their doors and we've we've made contact

with the majority of those

So I don't have another number to say what's what's

come in that is new that hadn't been reported over

and over again

Um LA again at B pr I have one more

question yesterday

We had some people um contact us and say that

at at least one of the sites um they had

run out of water and then you also there's there's

more coming

So I'm just wondering should should we instruct people that

um if they're in line and the water is running

out to stay there until another batch arrives that day

or once it runs out that's it for the day

until it replenished for that day

As we mentioned yesterday we did put out a call

for some box trucks

We got some folks

So we have more box trucks that can get that

water from our deployment site to the actual distribution sites

so they can stay in line unless it's dark at

night and we can't see anymore but we have been

replenishing those sites throughout the day

Great

Thank you

Um We got a request from studio B

When will we hear from public health officials about health

concerns linked to the ongoing water shortage storm debris and

environmental health concerns

They are keyed up for this afternoon at four o'clock

Is that our last question I'll turn about j um

hearing hearing any more questions

Um We'll go ahead and wrap this briefing up for

now and we'll be back at 4 p.m. Thanks to

everyone on the call today and thanks for your um

partnership um out in the media community

You are a lifeline to our community and we really

truly appreciate your partnership

Thank you