Gov. Josh Stein declares state of emergency, outlines winter storm preps with NCDOT

Good afternoon

Uh I'm here at a Brian facility for the North

Carolina Department of Transportation

Uh these guys have been working for about a week

and a half almost nonstop

I just talked to a couple of the crew 91

hours 101 hours in the last week uh and they

are ready to go again because we're going to have

weather this weekend

We'll have a fuller briefing tomorrow on the weather

But it looks like it's going to be snow not

ice this time

That's a good thing but it's still going to have

real impacts on our lives

So if you can stay home Friday night and bundle

up we recommend you doing it

These guys need to be on the roads plowing preparing

before the storm with Brian then applying salt and sand

To deal with it and if you can stay off

the roads you're gonna make their jobs a whole lot

easier a whole lot safer uh and you will be

safe as well

So we really encourage folks to stay home starting Friday

night

Happy to take any questions

What did you hear from the crews that you spoke

to today that surprised you most Not that it surprised

me because I know how dedicated state employees are but

these guys are dedicated

They are working their tails off

90 hours last week 100 hours last week and they're

ready to saddle up and do it again because they

know that the state needs our road system and they're

the ones who are going to keep those roads safe

and keep people

We don't believe

Had any traffic fatalities last week because of the storm

in a state of 11 million people that is remarkable

and it's a testament to their hard work to clear

the roads

It's a testament to the highway patrol making sure that

the roads were clear of abandoned vehicles and being on

the roads testament of the National Guard

There was I saw a great video of them getting

trucks out of the median

These folks care deeply about their work and making sure

that people are safe and then finally it's a testament

to people staying home and we're lucky that this is

going to hit us on the weekend so there will

be less traffic

If you can stay home on Friday night do it

What's different about preparing for this compared to last week

as far as I guess roads in particular and just

we're not expecting long term power outages like we were

a week ago

Yes uh the main difference is we were expecting sleet

and freezing rain last week

This week we're expecting snow

That means that we think that there will be fewer

power outages or the risk of power outages are less

That doesn't mean that there will not be power outages

There's certainly certainly almost surely will be power outages but

it won't be in the entirety of a region

It'll be in more specific locations

These guys are going to have to still work hard

to clear the roads

It's going to be coming it's going to be windy

They're going to be out there plowing and for them

it's going to be very much the same

For us we're hoping that power outages are a smaller

part of the story

Is supply impacted at all as far as road treatments

because this is coming right after another storm No that

was a question I just asked them

Do they feel like they have enough salt Do they

have enough sand And they feel very confident in the

amount of supplies that they have

Obviously the had a couple of virtual days and I

know they're happy but their parents aren't necessarily as excited

Are you guys anticipating that the districts will probably have

some snow days and will the parents have to do

any makeup days later Yeah I I can't speak for

the details of each school system's calendar but I can

tell you that we're very likely gonna get hit by

a lot of snow

It's going to be very cold next week which means

that it's going to stick around

I fully anticipate for families to be impacted for a

few days

Uh one good thing is we hope that this is

snow and not ice

It's not sleet it's not freezing rain

Uh so use this as an opportunity to remind yourself

how to sled

Colder temperatures obviously if it gets any colder it could

maybe nullify the effects of the brine that we always

hear about the impacts

I mean what strategies are you hoping to hear from

the folks here today about how they're going to combat

the continuous cold weather Well there are Applying Brian today

They like to do it within 48 hours of the

expected storm which we think is going to be hitting

Friday night

So they're going to be working really hard tomorrow

So to the extent folks don't need to drive tomorrow

don't drive tomorrow so these guys can do the prep

work that they need to do

They're going to be immediately ready to bring their plows

out come Friday night into Saturday

A partial shutdown operations of the state

Yeah uh in terms of the federal government yeah um

Look the federal government needs to operate

They need to have a budget

We need the support of FEMA to help recover in

Western North Carolina

The public assistance reimbursements need to come through

The hazard mitigation programs that help us build resilience into

our infrastructure for the next storm that needs to come

through

There's absolutely no reason why you cannot have basic accountability

for ICE not

For Immigration and Customs Enforcement Border Patrol they can wear

body cams

They can have their name on their uniform

They do not have to wear masks

They can have relationships with state and local where they're

informing them of what their actions are

These things are basic measures of accountability and good law

enforcement

They can do those things and keep the government open

They need to keep the government open

Governor where are you guys more concerned about the effects

of this storm Yes it is on the east side

The last storm came in from the west

This storm is coming in from the east

We expect to have greater concentrations of snow east rather

than the mountains

It's kind of backwards from what most people expect

There is also concern about overwash from tides on the

Outer Banks and so people on the Outer Banks need

to be aware and be careful

So these guys are spread out around the state

They know how to handle these kind of storms and

they're ready to help the people of North Carolina get

through this

Yes in fact right now I've just declared a state

of emergency for this storm

Separate from the one that we had last week it

helps us to mobilize our state emergency management team

It also helps prepare us in case we need federal

assistance from FEMA down the road to have declared an

emergency for this storm

White House last week's storm Last week the White House

and the administration was very responsive

I heard from the Coast Guard

I heard from the White House

They wanted to make sure that we had what we

needed

I asked the president for a declaration of a storm

declaration and they granted it within a day very responsive

So I was pleased with that and we hope that

whatever needs we have of the federal government with this

storm they're equally as responsive

One of the questions you were asking down there in

front of The capability for the state to allocate resources

As well that was some of the concerns we heard

People out and about over the weekend

Just a lot of the major highways NCDOT did a

great job but a lot of the local side roads

that people in front of their homes they were still

covered Sunday going into Monday

What message do you have to North Carolinians that they

can safely get out and about after the storm on

their local roads in their towns and cities across the

state Well these guys have to prioritize the interstates first

and then the major state roads second and then they

can get into the secondary roads later

And we wish after a big storm that it could

be within 24 hours

That's just not the way the world works

So we ask people to be patient to understand that

it's better to not be on the roads if you

possibly cannot be

If you have to be on the roads give a

lot of distance to the car in front of you

go slower

We want people to be safe

We want them to get through and we want them

to get back to their normal life as quickly as

they possibly can but we have to be reasonable as

well

We would have to request a separate federal emergency declaration

for this storm

We don't know yet if we're going to need to

do that

Did you use it for this at this point we're

considering whether we need to expand it to cover more

expenses that were incurred so we got the declaration that

does not mean that we're going to get the funding

request that we need

We will be looking at that in the coming days

What are the gaps And what what in what sense

So you said you need to expand it to look

at some other expenses

Yeah well why don't you come forward and explain what

you were telling me earlier

So the declaration that we received last week for that

event was in the federal terms it was not a

major disaster declaration

It was an emergency declaration and what that did based

on the governor's request was give us access to federal

resources if we would need them for that event

What the governor um mentioned is we are going to

look at um like some of the other states that

were impacted by that significant ice event have done recently

Do we need to take a look at an expansion

of that request to potentially be able to support state

and local governments that expended a significant amount of costs

In the response phase I think we're going to take

a look at that over the next couple of days

and again may have some some movement there

I think we're going to continue to evaluate what may

be needed for this particular event and certainly make make

the appropriate recommendations up on any steps that could be

taken

Final question what role does the National Guard play in

supporting the efforts of all these local entities They deploy

all across the state to be responsive to whatever the

needs are

For instance there were some trucks that ran off the

highway last week and They brought their huge military trucks

out to help pull them out

General Hunt why don't you come forward and talk about

the role of the National Guard Yes sir thank you

for the question

First I want to thank the National Guardsmen who are

out there who left their homes of warmth and safety

to support the citizens of North Carolina

But my main focus and our main mission is the

protection of life and

And property of the citizens of North Carolina and we

do that with working with Department of Transportation and the

North Carolina Highway Patrol as a team and we'll go

as a group and like the governor said we pulled

out multiple vehicles last week in the mountains that have

Very difficult terrain

We pull vehicles out trucks out commercial vehicles with our

equipment so that's that's our major role is partnering with

our other two agencies here

Thank you

I had a question as well

I'm sorry are you prepared for anything else Oh yes

sir we um it's a statewide event last week so

we'll just be shuffling some resources around to the middle

part of the state and the eastern part of the

state right now as we talk

I have a question for DOT

Once the storm actually gets here I mean how do

the plows how are the plows deployed out there Will

they be out while the snow is falling or do

you wait until the event is over for them to

get out and clear the snow We'll start responding throughout

throughout the storm kind of assessing you know where the

hot spots are and where we need to deploy resources

but they won't be we won't wait until all the

snowflakes have fallen before we start responding to the storm

Thank you

Uh my my final comment is just as folks out

there are seeing these crews out there working hard when

they see law enforcement out in the community when they

when they see the National Guard deployed just say words

of thanks because

If we're lucky we're at home where it's warm these

folks are out on the streets trying to make sure

that everything is safe for us when we have to

go out and about

And so we just owe them all a really big

debt of gratitude

Thank you