Advanced Communications and Information Technology - House

all of us watch with great concern what happened to our state last Friday and I wanted to offer the Director of the Department of Emergency Management to come give us an update on where they're out on the recovery and I'll. My official there are where they're at on the recovery and see if they need us to partner with them on anything and to answer any questions you might have and so I'll with that director Gary will let you take the. See here bring whoever you like and when you get settled in if you would just introduce ourselves to the committee and then you are. A clear to proceed and thank you Sir I know you guys are doing a yeoman's amount of work right now. All right good afternoon thank you for the opportunity for us to be here how may take your M. Director of Arkansas division of emergency management and homeland security adviser. Also thank you for this opportunity my name is Marcus divine I am general counsel for eighteen for the department. Thank you gentlemen please proceed. Sure Mr budget out if it's good with you I'll just kind of go through the time line right before what happened what we're immediately started working on where we're at up to this time and we're we I plan on going here in the very near future that's good I'll just to kind of start from the beginning as everybody knows this this started with the Friday storms but I want to go back just a couple of days before that because I think this this piece is important as to how our response was and and some of the things that we were able to do. So historically I mean you all know we have a lot of events in the State of Arkansas or in FEMA region six which is a very active FEMA region when part of region six as Louisiana and Texas you know there's a lot that goes on in region six we work very hard to make sure that we have relationships built with our federal partners and in FEMA's is certainly one the big partners that we always partner with we also because of the weather events that we have to come in Arkansas our plan and procedure is when we're when we get information from the National Weather Service that we happen to be at the system is moving into our state we set up coordination calls and those calls with the National Weather Service our state agency partners and also with the local urgency managers county judges mayors we could have anywhere from eighty to a couple hundred people on that line during that call. We always have the National Weather Service there to brief everybody so that everybody that's on that call throughout the state knows what the potential is from that system moving into our state based on that information from the National Weather Service we make a determination if we're going to put our state emergency operations center teams on stand by which means that there at the house but they're available to respond within an hour or we may make the decision to actually activate the Stadio C. have our team members in the seats ready to go before the system it's the state of Arkansas so that the storm that came in Friday we went through those same procedures that we always do we make the determination I believe is on Thursday after the briefing to go ahead and activate Stadio see and have our teams the atom Arkansas division of emergency management teams. In the seats are ready to go if something happened it just so happens I was in DC that week meeting with FEMA representative and emergency management meetings and actually flew into the little rock airport landing at one o'clock on Friday so as you can imagine this is I got off as soon as I landed turn my phone on I started getting messages about the system that was coming quickly in Arkansas I went to the Stadio C. and shortly after that thing started started occurring Friday night as a storm hit course prior to that immediately after I was on the phone with Tony Robinson who is our FEMA region six regional administrator he was actually in DC with me I was on the phone with him Friday night they actually had their first female individuals were on scene up here in Arkansas they have to do it in Texas they immediately started deploying up here they got here late Friday night early early hours of Saturday morning they actually slept on the floor at the EOC because they their hotels weren't available to the following day but they were on the ground and they were here with us as you know Saturday morning. the governor some of the legislators did a damage assessment to order of of the areas that were impact while that was going on I had a team members from emergency management my team members along with FEMA representatives and a Black Hawk helicopter flying the disaster area no words they flew the path of what the tornado ran we also immediately started getting information out of FEMA on GIS satellite imagery of the impact that the storm had had on our state. Because of this and we we've my folks in fear folks flew that all the way up into up into women to make sure that we captured all of that all of that data all that information. Because of that we were able to On Sunday morning prepare the documents for the governor designed to make a request for a major declaration of of the federal government to the president that was submitted on a Sunday and that declaration was approved Sunday evening before seven o'clock so I want to kind of highlight just did that for just a second this event happened Friday night. We had a major declaration approved Sunday before seven PM I have worked quite a few disasters including the river flooding to two thousand nineteen it took us about five or six days to get that decoration I will tell you that we were primary proud of that five or six days to get it because that was unheard of to get it that quick it is I don't know how we could have got a major declaration any quicker than what we did but it was because of those resources that we were able to deploy in because of that partnership with with FEMA that we could we could get that going I want to give you some numbers this is from the GIS Satellite imagery and some of the work that that FEMA Dunst has has done on the affected areas and I want to make sure that that I'm clear on this part that as I go through these numbers these are based on that GIS data and imagery from the air so these numbers may not be and probably are not a hundred percent accurate but it does give us a good indication of the impact that this event had on a residence in our state so for single family dwellings there was one thousand five hundred and twenty seven that were identified as affected three hundred eighty one eighty one of those had minor damage a hundred and fifty seven major and a hundred seventeen destroy. multi family dwellings we had a hundred forty affected sixty six minor twenty six of a major and four of those destroyed again these are. What I would consider preliminary numbers it's it's people on the ground going lot to lot because he was a door to door but in some cases it's a lot to lot to verify all of these buildings infrastructure. And and these particular numbers do not count the businesses that were destroyed so those are additional businesses but we were able to get that declaration very quickly when we got the disaster declaration approve that turned immediately turned on some FEMA programs for citizens Monday morning the registration line was opened by Monday afternoon the first distribution of funds to our citizens started rolling out to date these are numbers that I got today we had three thousand four hundred and seventy have registered and so far three hundred ninety nine thousand three hundred eighty two dollars and nineteen cents has been approved to go out to our citizens in addition to that we got approved for critical needs which allowed seven hundred dollars to be sent out to our citizens almost immediately and again that's for that's for critical needs that's that a media media health for them. We also have a request in two FEMA for a hundred percent reimbursement on category a which is debris and category B. which of is emergency protective measures were waiting to hear back on that but again I wanna I wanna be very clear that this hundred percent is good for for thirty days and we kinda choose those thirty days within a certain certain time period so even if it's approved when we say a hundred percent that's for thirty days I don't want anybody to think that's for the duration of this of this disaster because there will be normally on public assistance there's a seventy five twenty five that's for our infrastructure when I say public assistance that's infrastructure public buildings your roads things of that nature waste water plants things and things like that debris removal You know I've I've I've got to take a moment here and and just tell you how impressed I am with our city mayors or city officials in these impacted areas they have done just a outstanding job we have worked hand in hand with them but there they are the mayors are the leaders of their cities and and I I just I can't say enough about how great they have been to work with and how quickly they are tackling a very huge monumental debris problem that they have and all of our affected communities. A clean up started almost immediately a couple of the cities have contractors in place I think one of the city's is doing the work them themselves which is they're they're doing a great job The North Little Rock I wanna kinda just just mention them they're movin some of the their debris into Barnes park and disposing of it they're chipping it up and so forth there was an issue that we help resolve just just. Not long before I came in here FEMA approve them to use a flat area to put some of that debris there was little bit of concern because the first that what approved because of where it was that and that would slow the debris removal but we were able to work with FEMA FEMA understood the problem that we're having that North Little Rock had with the debris and they were able to get a a waiver for that that so that the city could use that area for debris removal in and and clean up the debris again the I have been able to talk to all of the mayor's at least once my team is with them continuously from the all the ones here in central Arkansas entity including when and it's just been working hand in hand with them to make sure that we are getting them all of the resources that that they need Kind of us some top issues that I just want to touch on because you probably are to some of these the waste water plant in wind was impacted pretty heavily we have been able to coordinate meetings with the local officials there state and our federal partners and they are are quickly working on solutions for that so right now there's they're doing some trucking of of moving that stuff to other cities to to go through the treatment process but we continue to work with them when school is another area that we were working with another a top priority I will say helping coordinate with department of education of course they're trying to get some the children into a one of the other schools so they could start school early next week I think the last I heard was Monday so we're helping all that we can on that. I will I will be in win tomorrow with my team to again have additional conversation with the officials there on the waste water in the school just to make sure that that they're getting everything that that they need from us to make sure that we can get this salt the next big. Issue that we have to tackle is housing now right now we have shelters set up there are currently five shelters open capacity is seven hundred forty three which means there's room for seven hundred forty three people in there currently there are a hundred and ten occupants currently in there so we those shelters were set up a media at Lee and again that's for immediate needs but we have a housing for a longer period of time we are working very close with the Department of Human Services on a plan to take that forward and we're we're continuously to work that issue and I think you will have a lot of movement very quick and again we're not ever seven days into into this event and we're already taking care of housing and stuff and working on that. some of the for individual assistance I'll touch on a couple of things there we We are setting up disaster recovery centers this is where citizens can go kind of a one stop to talk to different groups about what type of individual assistance they can get this will include representatives from FEMA representatives from all the states the governor was very clear that she wanted state agencies in the center's working along side of our federal partners to make sure that those citizens were getting those those things that they need it so to set up a D. R. C. those or are up FEMA approved there they're working on setting those up they have to meet certain requirements to get set up course after the ADA compliant they have to meet those beats up of a FEMA so would my team has been working very close with FEMA with the the locals with the city mayors in their staff to identify these buildings within those communities so that we can set up the DRC's however what we were able to do thanks to our partners with FEMA. Is we have set up disaster survivor assistance teams in those impacted areas so we were able to move in a couple of Mobile units and other teams in there so that we can start addressing some of those immediate needs so instead of you know it does take all a little while to set up those DRC's it's that way in any disaster but we were able to move in some resources right off the bat to start in helping our citizens. of those the RC should be set completely set up by the first part of the week again they will be staffed with the local state agency representatives federal representative to include SBA and again they're assisting us citizens Adam will have their staff in those D. R. C.'s bone we we do those by I want to say voluntary but all of our staff have their full time jobs but they're all required to spend time in those DRC's just like they are required to spend time in the merchants operations center they're trained to do all of those as long as their day to day job of finance HR whatever that may be so they will be in there and again the thank you the governor has has made it clear that she wants representative from other state agencies that can be there to to land that assistance. Very quickly and we're in the process of doing this now with FEMA we will set up what's called a joint field office or jail follow this will be a long term facility that will work on the recovery efforts this is where we manage all of those recovery efforts and this will go on for four months I mean it's not unusual for J. F. O. to be set up for a couple of months so again they have I believe identified a site it's one that we've used in the past so it meets the needs and we help to have that finalized again my staff will be in that jail follow along with the FEMA and along with some other state agencies and officials all of us working together on those on those recovery efforts. I also want to want to say if if you've been out in the areas that were impacted if if you've look at the at the damaging many of y'all have probably volunteer to help in some of those communities hi I just I can't say enough about the volunteers and the neighbors in the state of Arkansas we have fantastic fantastic volunteer organizations that anytime there's an event there out there as soon as the wind stops blowing this is a stop raining there out there with chainsaws are out there clearing areas and they're they're feeding and they're taking care of all of our citizens it is truly a a a partnership all of us working together and hi. You know I've done this for seven years now I've I've let you know emergency management department for seven years now. Things are moving faster than I've seen in any other disaster and you take in the fact that this is the biggest disaster with the most impacted that we've had in a very very long time but we're not slowing down. Come again I will be in win tomorrow working with my team helping them out my teams in the field with the city's working hand in hand with them as we go through this we had one of the things that with nothing I want to mention with FEMA during our flight Sunday up to within a female administrator Dan crise well was here with us she is responsible for all of FEMA now she spent the full day with us I flew up there with her she was so as surprised as I was as the number of trees that we had down throughout this entire path a lot of the damage to our houses was done by trees falling you know as we were talking about that I told her that in my opinion we've had a lot of rain or ground was saturated and and you know that that led to additional damage that we may not have had I saw houses where large trees fell down right in the middle of the house and just completely destroyed the entire structure. there may be no House beside it that had shingles blown off so you were going outside of the actual residential the city areas where the the tornado was still on the ground I'm going in to Going into the the county area there was just a huge amount of trees that are down so debris again is going to be huge challenge hi I just I know I've said it a couple times I can't say it enough of our city officials are mayors or just they're getting the debris cleared out very quickly a couple of comments on on the tornado and and I will be through for questions the tornado that went through we and was identified as that you have three winds of a hundred fifty miles per hour it was seventy three mile path I have in that seventy three miles when into Tennessee I believe and it was sixteen hundred yards wide when it went through the one here in central Arkansas reports I've gotten from weather service it was a E. F. F. three. Here in central Arkansas maximum winds of a hundred and sixty five miles per hour it was thirty two miles long six hundred yards wide in the past so very large of an. So as chairman I will I will pause there I'm glad to answer any questions if there's things I don't have answers for I'll be glad to to get those and get back to you Drucker we appreciate your your efforts on all this and you taking a few minutes out to visit with us and to ensure our questions and how we might be able to help here okay just a couple questions I have and then we'll got review members that have questions so when the tornado went through Vilonia one of the things that I notices you know we did we set up the you know the of the FEMA camps and and for the citizens but this lot of time the citizens were so busy trying to clean up the debris in their area that they didn't know all of that these resources to help them are available from FEMA and from the state and so will there be any efforts to I had to send people out into the community to make sure that the people impacted know that these this help is available. yes absolutely in fact there yeah I mention those disaster survivor assistance teams are out there now the that's what support of what they're doing we have also had a a a a we have a team of people up here working with my media people are public information officers so we have a whole team is working on getting that information out we're putting it out and you know multiple languages to make sure that that reaches all of our citizens that are impacted we will continue to do that the governor's office has been fantastic putting stuff out also and making that message known and and they're certainly websites out there help Arkansas is one that the governor has just stood up they can also go to the department public safety DPS Arkansas dot gov website which they click on our for emergency management they can also get some additional information there but yes getting information out to our citizens is is certainly a priority and we will continue to push that message as best that we can I thank you Sir then the other question I have is the this the school on the waste water plant were heavily damaged over and when their office they're gonna have to be rebuilt is that something that the school district's going to have to pay for is the state going to federal or is it just too early to make that the know that yet. So it it it will be a combination of all of the above there and again I want to be real careful when when I talk about FEMA reimbursement because that's FEMA reimbursement for eligible things that's where my team I have a public assistance team that has but do been doing this for a number of years now again it's it's no different than than the disasters you know that we had last year or the year before you know the multiple disasters that we have so we will work hand in hand with them to make sure that we are capturing all of that all of that resources and all of that ability to get them reimbursed everything that we can with federal funds again insurance plays into that you know you know of course are not going to duplicate benefits so we have to maneuver through all of that pieces of it the initial funding for that school they are working on that now where that's going to come from and that's good will be part of the discussions I understand that we're going up tomorrow on our waste water plant will be the same way. my understanding they do have insurance so we will have to work through that same thing to see what I'm insured losses that we can get reimbursed to depending on the amount of that the public infrastructure that is damaged the school's wastewater other things that we've had here in central Arkansas it is possible that instead of a seventy five twenty five cost sure that that that could be increased and it could be a ninety two and we're we're getting ninety Federal ten state or local again that remains to be seen work continuing to work through that and and you know this is a process that that part that recovery part is a process that will take time and you know there's there's you know that money spent you know we we get the school rebuilt we will probably be paying on those projects long after that school is rebuilt we have current disasters that are still open that were paid projects on It will continue to do so the other thank thanks to thanks to our legislators where are. We are blessed in the State of Arkansas compared to some other states because again thanks to our legislators we have a state disaster Fund program that is set up so we have PA I a and mitigation funds at the state level so that allows us to be able to do some response and recovery with some finding anyone on or disasters that don't reach the federal federal level one comment Mr chairman I'd like to make on regarding federal disasters you may or may not heard I have heard but we just thank yesterday got notified that we were approved for a federal major declaration for the ice storms in south Arkansas so that's that's great for that area we will be able to help them recoup some funding that they had for that in infrastructure there. so we are currently since January one we have to federal disasters that we will be working and I believe three St Clair disasters I may be off on the two or three St Clair disasters for thank you in college I want to try to see if we can wrap this up by the bottom of the hour so that way everybody has time the alliance before we have to go back in session and I know all you gentlemen have a full day have you Mr are representative Richard St. Thank you Mr so just a couple of really quick questions one little concerned you you talk about you that all of your staff kind of Providing some support being that prepared for our should say going down occupying these D. D. R. C.'s you said yes Sir so so have you are these actually stood up at this point so okay so the actual DRC's are in the process of being set up we hope that and those are like I will say harden facility the brick and mortar facilities okay that people can go into we are anticipating that those will be set up actually operational the first part of the week okay so but in the meantime we have those survivor assistance teams and some Mobile units out there while we're in the process of doing so with your mobile units that are out that have few giving numbers at this point how many people they've been able to help how many people that they've been able to to see at this point I'm kind of along the same lines as a representative Meeks chair or what how we doing with communication making sure all these individuals that are just trying to get through the next day or getting the information sure I thought I think the best numbers I can give to you is is is those you know three thousand four hundred seventy that have registered so they're also helping them to do that and again we have almost four hundred thousand dollars a through FEMA has already been approved and and going out I think the first person with actually receive money money that Monday afternoon so does your question yes Sir there were out there the best we can get that information out and solve all volunteer organizations are helping house and at last question just for my own curiosity I you've got a lot of things thanks for moving around right now we're very early in the spring storm season I'm a little concerned about capacity and for as we move forward is that a concern of yours you feel like that you're in pretty good shape as far as capacity as far as our staffing and and all of that handling other issues as they come along I I believe we are again this is yes this is a large of a I'm I'm I don't want taking away from that but but the process is the procedures we go through with DRC's and and a joint field office I mean we I think we pretty much average having one of those those things set up every year so we are we are very accustomed to managing that I'd I'd I didn't you know in talking with the governor we're gonna need additional public assistance staff on this disaster she is she is given approval so we will be hiring I think three additional people but I will say that we're able to do that from our management costs that we get from the federal government so there there's not a there's not impact to our general or general revenue or budget that we have to request funds for so we have those funds we don't need additional funds we will just get those positions approved and we will get people hired to to help on that process because this is such a well two reasons one this is such a large of a at and second is because we do have multiple bits going so very much appreciate the support of the governor in all of this. Okay all right any questions I'll reserve room but. Eight a I've had a couple of calls of one was to offer their assistance to for donated items and things and I told them just to get in touch with. Sure would to get in touch with the. Mayor's office they're representative then I've had other people call in as you know there they've got chainsaws or their tree cutters or something like that they want to know if you're hiring people to do that I believe they thought you were and I told him a civil just just call our local Arkansas department of emergency management and and I give them the right information that that is that is perfectly perfectly fine yes ma'am we we will a lot of resources like that come into us we we will push it out to the the locals and you know what do you need any donated you know. Donated items of people want to donate you know. Clothing food water or anything like that we encourage we do we will take that we have them go to the locals because we help them manage that because as you know you can create a disaster out of a disaster if you if you have a bunch of stuff that nobody needs so they're they're managing that really well to me to make sure that that stuff is coming into those donation centers in the individual communities or what they need and what they can get out so that's great monetary there's there's quite a few ways that people can donate you know money is you know to their whatever their favorite nonprofit is it's out there in the field helping on this they can go to our website and make donations and of course help Arkansas is another website that they go to thank you very much. Thank you for what you're doing thank you ma'am. On the on the point of like very briefly saying he didn't ask me to say this but the the Division staff in the departments that we were actually right there in the path of this storm it's it came across military very near where the campus is on and the the staff has been there on continual ships I need to the work and AJ and the team of the leads are really doing good work for the state I know that people expect that but I want to say that that the state of Arkansas really is getting good value could benefit from the work that they do and Adam so. Thank you thank you appreciate that I've got a great staff and and we've got great partnerships with our state and and local local officials it's it's been amazing the the coordination that that's been going on that it's it's due to all of them and we've sent time and time again the worst of nature brings out the best of our our people so and and clearly that's the case here colleagues any other questions I know some of our colleagues Hadley for early for other meetings gentleman again we appreciate your your efforts on behalf of our citizens if we can partner with you on this anymore let us know and may be bear this fall or something we can hold another meeting and and kind of get a follow up on how things are going where we're at and you know lessons learned and and that kind of thing but Sullivan we appreciate you and the work that you're doing on behalf of those of of our citizens so with that we will call this meeting