Buncombe County leaders provide update on Helene relief efforts
The donations there as well
You can pick up donations or you can drop off
donations at beloved
That address is 32 old Charlotte Highway in Nashville
There are Spanish speaking volunteers helping at this site Man
Food Bank
In response to the catastrophic damage caused by hurricane Helene
Mana Food Bank is launching a critical donation and distribution
effort to support those affected across Western North Carolina food
and water distribution will start tomorrow October 2nd from noon
to 4 p.m. Um That will be located at 570
Bovard Road in Asheville or you can visit Mana Food
bank.org to make donations
We thank all of the nonprofits and operations for for
providing support to the community
During this time 911 call center our call center are
receiving support from New Hanover County Fayetteville Police Department Stanley
County and Raleigh Lake
These centers are in an overflow rotation for 911 calls
and I do want to offer a heartfelt
Thank you to all the county state and nonprofit partners
who has been helping us throughout this endeavor
Um It has been a long journey so far and
I know it's gonna be even longer
So this is definitely guys not a sprint
It will be in marathon as we try to recover
from this disaster
So heartfelt thank you to both nationally and local nonprofits
for helping us out
Thank you
And with that I'll turn it back over to William
Thank you
Next we're gonna hear from Scott Dean Bean with the
National Urban Search and Rescue Team that is here helping
us
uh Good afternoon everybody um to be transparent
Uh this this county and the state and three other
states with Florida
Uh Tennessee and South Carolina have major devastation in this
county alone
I could tell you it's it's miles and miles of
complete devastation
So we do ask that the locals be patient
Uh With our first priority is always gonna be first
and uh search and rescue
Currently we have local fire local police going out and
doing service as much as they can to the areas
that they can get into that are not devastated through
road closures because of water uh removing the roads or
removing the bridges
Uh We have several amazing local and state emac and
search and rescue teams on site operating
And then we have 19 Federal Urban Search and Rescue
Teams within the state of North Carolina operating to really
get to where we can and uh help as many
of those that we can get to
Uh we are working on getting to those that are
that are impacted that they can't get out so that
we can get in and get supplies to them until
we can get the roads clear so that they can
get out for assistance and media assistance
We encourage you to email uh disaster assistance.gov
You can also go to the F MA mobile app
or you can call the F MA helpline at 806
213362
I will tell you it's a complete devastation out there
and we are working really hard to get to everybody
so that we can get them some closure and get
to their families so that they can make the phone
calls to let them know that they are safe
Uh We're dealing with a lot of major issues from
bridge closures to no power no water uh just complete
infrastructural failure
And I will tell you the local governments the state
government uh the national government are working really hard to
get to everybody that they can to help
This is the time when neighbors need to help their
neighbors
If you can go out and help your neighbor please
do so this is where as a country we come
united and we help one another and we help our
brothers and sisters down the street because we cannot do
this alone
Don't rely just on first responders to help you
Everybody needs to work together for a better outcome on
this one
So we truly appreciate everything that everybody is doing all
the volunteers that are out there
Uh keep doing it and keep providing assistance to your
loved ones and your families and your friends and your
neighbors are out there because they're gonna need it during
this time
Thank you
Mm
Next we'll hear from Doctor Jennifer Molino Buncombe County Medical
Director
Good afternoon
I'm gonna talk today about medications and then also food
and water safety
So we know that many of you have reached out
offering to donate medications to the effort
ABC CM Medical Clinic at 155 Living Livingston Street in
Asheville is accepting donations of medications from 9 a.m. to
noon
Monday through Thursday
This week there are requirements about what medications can be
donated
Only sealed manufacturer bottles that are not expired do not
require refrigeration and are not an amber orange prescription bottles
They don't accept controlled substances or cancer medications
So if you have those types of medications that you
wish to donate so sealed manufacturer bottles not expired not
requiring refrigeration not controlled substances or cancer medications you can
take them to the ABC CM Medical Clinic at 155
Livingston Street between 9 a.m. and noon
Monday through Thursday
This week the ABC CM Medical Clinic at 155 Livingston
is also providing primary health care to all adults
Typically this is a free clinic for uninsured individuals but
at this time they are serving all adults
if you have medications that need to be refilled
The North Carolina Board of Pharmacy is maintaining an online
list of pharmacies in Western North Carolina that are open
This list is updated by the Board of Pharmacy every
30 minutes
I will say that we are aware of some pharmacies
in the area that are open but not on the
list
So for example mission hospitals outpatient Pharmacy at 509 Biltmore
Avenue entrance number four is open 24 7 to fill
prescriptions
They do close from lunch to noon or not
They do close for lunch from noon to 1 p.m.
daily
They are not filling prescriptions for controlled substances
If you are a pharmacy that is open and providing
services we do encourage you to notify the Board of
Pharmacy via email at emergency at ncbop.org if possible or
via the online form on their website again because I
know that some people don't have access to the internet
at home like myself I'm gonna read a list of
the pharmacies that are currently listed as opening
So bear with me the CV S pharmacy at 505
Smoky Park Highway the CV S at 324 Long Shoals
Road in Arden Pinnacle Apothecary and Candler
They're open Monday through Friday 10 to 4 until they
resume power and then they'll go back to normal operation
hours
PS A pharmacy at 2294 US highway 70 in Swana
Noa Public Pharmacy at 1830 Hendersonville Road in Asheville Public
Pharmacy at 165 Weaver Boulevard Walgreens at 2 25 01
Hendersonville Road in Arden Walgreens at 1835 Hendersonville Road in
Asheville the Walmart Super Center Pharmacy at 60 Airport Road
in Arden the Walmart Supercenter Pharmacy at 25 Northridge Commons
Parkway in Weaverville and the Walmart Super Center Pharmacy at
1636 Hendersonville Road in Asheville
You can visit Bunkum ready.org for more information and because
we are in a state of emergency there are there
are different rules for filling prescriptions
So these emergency rules allow people to go to any
open pharmacy with their prescription bottles to get a 30
or 90 day refill on their medications
You do not have to go to your typical pharmacy
And these rules also allow the pharmacy to refill the
prescription even if you have no refills remaining on that
bottle
These types of emergency refill procedures cannot be used to
fill prescriptions for schedule two controlled substances
These include things like pain medications containing HYDROcodone or oxyCODONE
and A DH D medications like Adderall or Ritalin
Additionally all health insurance plans that are licensed to operate
in the state are legally responsible to allow and cover
prescriptions that are otherwise being filled too soon by people
who reside in an area that is subject to an
emergency declaration
Additionally it is ok for someone other than the patient
to pick up the prescription while some medications may require
the person picking them up to have a valid copy
of the patient's ID
This is not the case for most medications
in terms of those who are sheltered at uh the
Western North Carolina Ag Center and a B tech campus
I do want to call out some great partnerships that
have been helping get those people medications when they can't
leave the shelter
So May hack has been um writing and prescribing medications
at shelters And the Charles George Va Medical Center has
sent pharmacy teams to our shelters to help serve displaced
vets
So I really want to thank them for that
Now I'm gonna go over some information about food and
water safety
So water only potable water should be used for drinking
food preparation washing dishes and hands brushing teeth bathing and
showering
Potable water includes bottled water or other water like in
the tanker trucks that's labeled potable if you are on
a municipal water supply and under a boil water advisory
and you're getting water from your tap
You should boil your water for one minute
If you are unable to boil your water you can
add eight drops of bleach to a gallon of water
Water should not be taken from creeks or streams to
be used for as potable water
So that water should not be used for drinking or
washing hands or brushing teeth or bathing and showering that
water
That non potable water can be used to flush your
toilet sparingly
we don't want you to use non potable water to
wash your hands or cook or bathe because that could
make you sick
You can also use body wi wipes or baby wipes
to wipe your hands
Um You can use hand sanitizer
Um and we're trying to make these these resources available
for food
So prepared food lunch meat milk products soft cheeses that
were unrefrigerated for more than six hours or left out
of coolers needs to be discarded
Raw meat products that are cold to the touch and
unspoiled can be consumed if they are thoroughly cooked
Seafood raw seafood needs to be thrown out consumers with
food safety related questions can reach out to safe plates
at 9195159842 for additional guidance all food service operations that
are experiencing a loss of water power or sewer may
not operate at this time unless they are operating under
an emergency operations plan that has been improved by Bunkum
County Environmental Health or the North Carolina Department of Health
and Human Services Environmental health section
If you are a permitted or licensed facility regulated by
Buncombe County Environmental Health and you have specific questions or
concerns you can reach out to the North Carolina Department
of Health and Human Services Environmental Health Section at 9197075999
or by email at eh preparedness questions at D hhs.nc.gov
and we appreciate their assistance
Thank you
next
We'll hear from Sheriff Quentin Miller
Before we do I just got a message from Biltmore
Forest that they are distributing water at Carolina Day School
today until five
That's at 1345 Hendersonville Road
They will be there again tomorrow from 10 to 5
to distribute water
Also got a request from Duke Energy to remind people
as power is coming back online
Please
We know there are a number of down power lines
across the county
If there are down power lines do not drive over
those down power lines um consider all of those lines
to be active
Uh We also got an update from MS D the
waste treatment uh facility and they wanted us to know
that the plant has been operating treat and treating the
whole time
They had to go on backup power but are now
on utility power
All major lines are working and 37 out of 40
pump stations are working mostly on backup power with staff
frying fuels to fuel to the generators
Three remaining smaller pump stations are still underwater
They are still without internet and potable water from Woodfin
at the MS D campus
They have a few crews plus their contractor helping Woodfin
Water to try to rebuild the road to their plant
and to find the major leaks and breakages in their
transmission line in the coming days
They expect many problems throughout the system
Next
We'll hear from Sheriff Quinn Miller
Ok so good afternoon
I have the unfortunate task to confirm now that we
have a total of 57 confirmed death
Next I just want to thank our partners both state
local and federal partners for assisting with our wellness checks
and our jail operations to support your support is crucial
in us being able to maintain our functions that we
must do despite the challenges
Buncombe County Sheriff's Office continues to answer calls and keeping
our community safe
Our teams are dedicated to protecting every resident both in
the community and in the jails with our partners
We're stronger and able to main a high standard of
public safety
We're committed to transparency and ensuring public safety remains a
top priority
We're here for you and we keep working around the
clock to serve and protect our community
Thank you
We've also received um an update from Woodfin
Uh They want to let folks know that water distribution
is happening at North Windy Ridge School near I 26
at exit 17
Bring your own container food is available Wednesday October 2nd
at the Methodist and Baptist Churches on main street
Those times are unknown pantry items and bottled water will
be distributed at the community center above Lake Louise on
Wednesday October 2nd from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Water
and pantry donations are accepted Wednesday October 2nd from 3
to 4 p.m. Their curfew remains in effect from 7:30
p.m. to 7:30 a.m. at that time
At this time we'll open it up to questions
I do want to let folks know that Ben Woody
assistant city manager for the city of Asheville is available
here
If there are any questions that pertain to the city
of Asheville
Um Lucas Tomei with Carolina Public Press I have a
public health rel question
Um Are there any concerns uh public health wise with
standing water I know for example uh some of the
coastal counties on our state have been dealing with increased
mosquito population
Are you still there Um So uh Doctor Molino medical
Director for Bunkum County I'm not the environmental health specialist
but yes I mean we do know we have mosquitoes
in our area and standing water is a a source
of you know breeding for mosquitoes
So yes I mean we would encourage people to use
uh the appropriate precautions um repellent and uh you know
long sleeves long pants
If if you're able now we can't do much with
puddles and things like that
But if you do have like standing water in buckets
or potted plants or anything you know that you can
tip and toss we ask that you please do that
Um But I can certainly reach out to our environmental
health colleagues and get additional information for you
Hi Jeff Chamber at the Charlotte Observer
Um I'm looking for clarity on the delay of water
delivery
Um I reached out to the or a colleague reached
out to MC Emergency management and they said that supplies
are delivered between September 27th and 29th
Um I'm wondering when did the county make the request
for supplies What days And is there a chance that
maybe the supplies were taken by mistake by another city
like if they were delivered to Asheville or or something
like that A any idea how that what might have
happened there Absolutely
Uh give me one moment and I can pull up
that time for you of when the request was made
Of course the request being made versus the supplies arriving
are are two different things right And both of them
can be true
Um the request was made for water ahead of the
storm
Um the first request was made uh through the state
emergency management system at 4:49 p.m. on September 26
Now remember not all water requests are for public consumption
They also go to our partners who are taking care
of Children our school districts and schools
Uh so those supplies uh were requested on September 26th
at 4:49 p.m. September 27th in the early morning hours
is when our catastrophic flooding began all interstates became impassable
At that time air traffic was grounded at that time
Um And on September 28th supplies began to arrive by
air late in the day
Uh and then they arrived by trucks late in the
night
Again those supplies were not just for Buncombe County but
for other uh communities in the region that were impacted
by this
And they were also for the other agencies that support
Buncombe County had a storage supply of water uh that
was in Swana Noa
And unfortunately due to the cata catastrophic flooding we could
not access that water supply after the flooding began that
morning
This is Laura Lee at Blue Ridge Public Radio
Um I wanted to ask about uh trash pickup or
disposal of trash
This is something that a lot of people are facing
right now
What can we tell them Absolutely
Uh When we had Woodfin on our call earlier this
week or over the weekend um They shared that the
Kirby Facility had uh received massive impacts from the storm
Uh and wasn't operational
We know that our Hominy Creek transfer station is not
operational and we have no eta on a restoration of
that
Um And so the only option is the landfill
Our community service providers have no eta on when they'll
be able to resume trash service in the community
And then there's the added layer of debris removal from
the storm
Uh Those are all pieces that we're working through
Uh And we'll share that out as soon as we
have answers but at this time unfortunately we have none
So just to be clear the landfill is not an
option at this moment for people to take the landfill
is an option for people to take their trash Great
My other question was about um the boiling of water
for people who have the few people who have water
services
Um am I correct to understand that they need to
boil that for things like bathing um washing dishes Any
use of the water it needs to be boiled
Is that right That's correct
Brushing your teeth
Any any interaction that you have with that water you
need to make sure that it has been boiled
And one other question we've posed this to the postal
service but wanted to know if you have any updates
locally on mail service
We're hearing reports that some individuals are receiving mail
Um It is very dependent on roads uh where you
live
Uh you know in town uh in Asheville looks much
different than other parts of the community like we heard
from our a representative
And so mail service is going to not be uh
a a sudden switch on uh after it became a
sudden switch off but will gradually increase uh in the
coming days as roads are cleared
Um And power lines are removed
There are some roads that are still too dangerous to
pass
Uh This is John Boyle with as watchdog
I know we have gone back and forth on this
water issue
Um I still remain confused because MS Pender is said
twice and the county did not receive water until Monday
morning which conflicts with what the state says
So either there was water distributed at six sites or
there was not
Can you clarify that I'm looking to Avril is grabbing
a a document real fax
I'm gonna pass it to her
I wanna be clear though John
In in our last media opportunity
You referenced a bureaucratic snafu
There is no bureaucratic snafu
Thanks Lian
Hi John
Hello again
We did receive water Sunday Monday morning at 230
So what I'm referencing Sunday night the 29th of the
30th it did land here for Buncombe County at 2:30
a.m. Monday morning the 30th
So that if you so when I'm saying it received
Sunday night into Monday morning that's when we got the
water that was specific for use by Buncombe County
Ok
So you're not aware of the state bringing in water
and distributing it at six sites throughout the county on
the 27th and 28th
Not for mass distribution for Buncombe County residents
If it came in for six sites they were specific
for that site maybe different locations but not that we
requested for mass distribution to Buncombe County residents
That water came at 2:30 a.m. on Sunday morning which
would be referenced in a Sunday night into Monday morning
Thank you
Uh I have a follow up question
A different question for Ben Woody
Not for you
I'll let you off the hook uh trying to get
Ben Woody
here
Here I am
John
Hey Ben
Hey I know
Uh you guys have been crazy busy and working around
the clock
We we've had a couple of people uh asking more
out of curiosity than anything why there has been a
lower presence of city officials at these briefings than the
county
And I think it has to do with this structure
that's set up but I'm hoping you can explain that
a little bit
Well John I'm here today to talk about the water
system
So I'm happy to answer a question on that
If you have one when's the water gonna be back
on It's gonna take us weeks
We've uh covered that in our briefing yesterday
Thank you
Ok
And I do want to speak to that
These are county briefings that we've been bringing in multiple
partners as you've seen since we started these briefings uh
last week
And so there are a multitude of different uh information
specialists who we want to make sure that our community
is hearing from
Um And that we represent all of our municipalities and
agencies in this process
Next question
Yeah I have a question for quent or for the
sheriff Miller
Sorry for using your first name
Um My question is there was an incident on Sunday
before water was delivered in which some residents found a
semi truck with cases of water and began distributing the
people nearby
And a law enforcement officer walked up and said that
they were stealing and made them leave
I'm wondering if you agree with that or do you
feel that that was them surviving Considering water wasn't delivered
until the very next day What is your opinion on
that assessment by that officer Well I'm not sure which
officer I'm not gonna get into opinions
I like to state the facts and again I'm not
for sure but I will follow up and investigate that
incident and then get back to you
Well in terms of facts then is that do you
consider that stealing or or no stealing is stealing I
mean it meets the elements
It is it's so it is stealing or v I
mean and people didn't have water and they were if
people didn't have water and they for I think we're
now getting into schematics right I will tell you that
we're gonna enforce the statues that are on the books
Sheriff Miller while you're at the podium
Could we ask you about um conditions in the jail
We have some reports of um degrading conditions
There are some reports of uh potential self-harm
Is there any update you can give us from that
Yes I was just simply telling you that a jail
operations are normal for us
Uh we have not received
I've heard some of the information that's out there which
I will tell you is false and I will tell
you that we continue to conduct ourselves at the detention
center as if it's normal
Do we have any questions in the chat We do
from the chat We're hearing uh a lot of questions
about medical supplies specifically oxygen and how um we are
coordinating efforts for medical supplies and distribution
So I'm gonna ask Doctor Mole to come forward
I know insulin is also a question that we've been
getting from community members through our social media questions
We don't have all the answers but we may be
able to provide just a little bit of guidance
Um So we have been getting requests for medical supplies
from the community in the emergency operations center
We're sending those requests through our you know to our
logistics staff uh and trying to make connections between uh
resources
We have had people reach out and offer um things
like uh insulin
Uh And we're just asking people to go through the
channel of pale donations at Bunkum county.org if they have
something and we are you know managing those requests and
insulin has to be refrigerated
Um So that is uh a concern with that
Um I can't really specifically answer your question
Just know when we get these requests we're put um
pushing them through the process in the EOC and um
I'm trying to fulfill them the best we can
We've also had questions about rainwater collection as safe for
drinking and whether well water needs to be boiled
Rainwater is not safe for drinking under any circumstances
Is that correct Doctor Moor it should be treated as
a non potable water source and is appropriate for flushing
toilets
Um but not for human consumption
For uh the second part of the question was well
water
Uh well water should be uh uh an acceptable drinking
water source
Uh If if you were drinking it previously what is
the status of Swan Noa and Black Mountain and Biltmore
Village in the River Arts District
County manager Avril Pender is gonna answer that
I actually drove drove through the Black Mountain today and
visited with the town manager there and they do have
their A OC up and running there
There's lots of work to be done in all parts
of our county
Went to Bmore Forest as well and there's lots of
work to be done in Bmore Forest
As far as Biltmore Village is concerned
The road there's no more standing water on the roads
but it is still blocked off because there's a lot
of devastation in that area
There was massive flooding in Biltmore Village
But um we're working through that
We have our partners there
You cannot drive through Biltmore Village all the way from
Hendersonville road all the way through
But there is lots of work to be done and
it's gonna take us a while to get that done
But the the people are strong
We we talked to both managers in those areas and
they're doing ok health wise but there's lots of work
to be done and they cannot say it at enough
So please you be patient
I've said that as many times as well
We will come back we will come back stronger but
it's gonna take us time to get there more in
the draft
The next one from the chat is asking about um
how the deceased are being um handled
And if their discussion about mobile morgues or how is
that effort being uh coordinate Yes yes there is discussion
about mobile morgues
And we do have if you recall back in four
years ago and I guess four or five years ago
this was COVID time and we did get some assets
where there are mobile marks in our inventory and we
have that at our disposal
We've been working with our state partners with state emergency
management as well around mobile marks and a and a
regional conversation has been happening around
How do we treat our our loved ones that has
lost life in this in this tragedy
Um So the short answer to that question is yes
we are talking about mobile morgues and we are also
utilizing any funeral homes
We have the morgue at mission that we've also been
utilizing
That will be the short answer
Long answer to that question
Can you give us an idea about the percentage of
areas search crews have reached I do not have that
information
Do you have that date Scott So we'll have our
national user person
Um I could tell you that we're getting to as
many areas as possible
It is unified
We have state resources with the local fire and the
federal resources on the ground all over the county but
all over the state as well trying to access these
areas
You really gotta understand this is widespread devastation and the
magnitude to get in is extremely difficult because not only
did you have wind damage with trees falling down with
lines of power lines installed with it
Now we can't cut trees down because we make sure
that the lines are not uh charged because for every
action there's a reaction
If we cut the lines then the people in those
communities are not gonna get power for that much longer
So we're working with every municipality that's involved to get
to every area as quickly as possible
So we have several teams on the ground working nonstop
to get to those uh loved ones
Uh I can't give you a definitive number where we're
at but I will tell you we are all over
this county right now trying to get to every place
that we can uh using from uh on the ground
with boots on the ground to uh side by side
vehicles to four by four trucks to air operations
So we're using every resource available to us to get
to those loved ones that we can
Scott before you go
Uh John Boyle again
With Ville watchdog can you say uh just from driving
around a little bit in social media it appears uh
obviously just wanna know particularly hard hit and possibly Fairview
in some areas less so you know like downtown can
you speak to uh where most of the fatalities have
occurred Geographically The fatalities I cannot that would be local
I got here uh two days ago and went straight
into operations
Um But I've had an opportunity to work with the
local sme s of this area
Um And everywhere we've gone it's complete devastation
Uh There's no one place we've been that there hasn't
been a severe flood
Um So you know the the big go back here
is really um when local officials tell you early on
before something happens to you know really listen to the
directions that they're trying to give you so that we're
we're not in these kind of little predict predicaments of
trying to find a lot of people
We just don't know that were that didn't leave
Uh So we are working very hard to try to
find everybody that is missing and working very hard to
get those people that are um uh not missing but
just not available to get to because of the road
closures due to either being washed out or the bridges
being washed out
So we are working really hard
Uh And and one thing I gotta really stress is
um it's one thing to come into a community and
not have really uh an emotional involvement like specifically where
uh my particular home but your local authorities have their
own impacts that they're dealing with at home that they've
left to really help others
So you really gotta understand the emotional uh part of
this
For those first responders in your communities they have the
same issues at home but they're not dealing with that
so they can help their neighbors
So it really it is critical now that everybody in
the community is helping one another and not really pointing
fingers but trying to help one another
Thank you Scott
Just used the acronym SME State medical examiners
No subject matter experts
or Yeah other questions from the chat
We have additional questions about Wi Fi Service in Bum
County specifically in West Asheville and Candler
Are there any libraries or other civic buildings standing up
wi fi open to the public Yeah we don't have
any information on that at this time
As we start to regain power there will be more
opportunity for us to use those libraries as Wi Fi
hubs
Uh like we did during uh the time period of
COVID when folks were asked to stay at home
Can I ask a quick follow up to that Uh
Do do you have any additional information from um the
network providers that brought in um satellite options in a
couple of places Is there any are there plans to
expand that
Have you been in communication with those companies We do
have the portable cellular unit that is in the uh
parking lot at 35 Woodfin
Um And so we also are hearing of Starlink operations
that are being brought in
I see
Um Yeah
Ok we have I I'm getting confirmation that we have
multiple teams coming in to uh help provide that connection
Yes next question questions about veterinary services
We don't have any additional information about veterinary services at
this time
Um And we will look to get some information about
that to share out
And so go to Bunkum ready.org uh where we can
place that update and we'll include it uh in future
information
If we gather it we have a question to chat
about the water reserve supplies and why they weren't relocated
ahead of the storm from that warehouse That warehouse has
long been our uh connection for water supply during emergencies
We couldn't get to that warehouse because of the flooding
with the Swan Noa River
And so with that the expectation was that we would
be able to access that in a timely way
Um Not what ended up being true for all of
us um In our own experiences during this natural disaster
there is a report in the community of a possible
propane link near the Oakley community
Um Have we had any confirmation of that Is there
any danger to the public or confirmation of a propane
issue at Olsson gasses Ryan Cole Assistant Emergency services director
is here to respond to that
Uh We did we did receive a report of a
propane uh the odor of propane uh during the incident
during the height of the incident at which time Asheville
Fire Department or right after the incident was over um
Ville Fire Department did investigate that and ha had people
in the area
However if you still are smelling or start smelling propane
uh please call in to to the 911 center so
that we can send additional units out there
So anytime that you have have that odor be sure
to report that so that we can go investigate it
But we have investigated that uh whenever it did come
into the night or to the stadio suit
coming up close to the one hour mark do we
have additional questions Uh New portable toilets were brought downtown
was that a county effort and are more portable toilets
expected elsewhere in the county new portable toilets were brought
downtown to support emergency operations staff who are working 24
7 on this response
Um like Scott Dean who was here just a little
bit ago uh Assistant emergency services director Ryan Cole
Um and so those portable bathrooms and showers that are
downtown uh outside of the health department building those are
for emergency personnel use and are not public toilets
We are looking to bring in more
Um But we've got to make sure that our emergency
responders can keep going out on those calls
Uh Many service workers are out of work possibly for
weeks
How is the county providing support for these workers What
aid or assistance is available to them I'm gonna turn
this over to Avril Pinder to discuss that
Thank you
Thank you for the question
We have set up a donation site that is the
the Helene donations at Bunkum county.org
We are gathering whether that is stuff or money so
we can help out similar to what we did in
COVID with the one Bunkum Fund
We don't have a fancy name for this fund but
it really is just Helene donations at Bunkum county.org and
we are working together that so we can get it
back out to our community
We have a team put together United Ways in the
room helping us out so we can come up with
a plan of how we can get that funds out
to workers that are not working at this time
That is your last question
Thank you
And I'll let Lian close this out
Thank you
As a reminder we are uh less than one week
into this uh significant catastrophe
And so there will be some questions that are asked
that we don't have all of the answers to but
know that we've got a full staff of folks in
our emergency operations center who are working to get these
answers because we know that the crises are natural they're
environmental they're emotional
Um And there are a number of different uh organizations
that are all at the table to work for our
Buncombe County community to get these solutions
So that's why you'll see a number of folks coming
towards us
And if you have suggestions for people you'd like to
see drop those in our Facebook comments and we'll be
sure to try to get those folks on the call
moving forward
Thank you for being here
We'll be back at 10 a.m. tomorrow Wednesday October 2nd