 Good morning, everyone. Thank you very much for tuning in. Today, we'll have our typical situational update from Commissioner Morrison and a FEMA report from FCO Will Roy. We'll also hear from Commissioner Goldstein about the $20 million business relief grant program we announced last week. We'll share details so businesses know how to apply and work to answer your many questions. But I want to be clear, right up front, $20 million will not be enough. It won't even come close to meet the total need or even reach all impacted businesses. In short, this isn't a perfect or complete solution to the challenges employers face. But we know it's important to do what we can, as soon as possible. So Secretary Clouser, Mr. Goldstein and their teams went to work and were able to free up this $20 million. We also worked to balance the need to get money out quickly with our goals to use this emergency funding to get people back to work. And the doors of businesses back open because that's the goal. This funding is meant as a lifeline. And Couplewood Supplemental Funding from our congressional delegation that they're working on, along with SBA loans and fundraising efforts, can help our businesses survive and recover. But to reiterate, in order to make sure we fully recover, we will need supplemental support from Congress to fill gaps for both businesses and individuals as well as long-term mitigation measures. Together, we can make sure the businesses that fuel our economy create jobs and make our communities vibrant and strong, make it through this disaster. Finally, before I turn it over to Commissioner Morrison, I want to express my sincere congratulations to now Brigadier General Tracy Poirier, who was promoted from Colonel yesterday. General Poirier is the first woman in Vermont Army National Guard history to achieve the rank of Brigadier General. So we're very, very proud of you. And on behalf of all Vermonters, again, congratulations. Thank you for your service. So with that, I'll turn it over to Mr. Morrison. Thank you, Governor. I have some handouts that I hope you'll share, knowing that you guys are out in some of the hardest-hit communities trying to get stories on the back roads and places like that. Perhaps you can help us spread the word. I just have a few remarks today about weather, debris, and 211. We're cautiously watching today's weather and into this evening. We're monitoring conditions that could result in strong thunderstorms, lightning, winds up to 60 miles an hour, and localized flash flooding. Please keep an eye out for changing weather conditions and do not take chances. Getting buildings clean and dry remains a high priority. Communities are using a variety of strategies to remove debris from the right of way. Amongst those potential strategies are what three communities are doing, which is accessing the state debris contract. Montpelier Barrie and Berlin are currently using the state contract. We expect more communities to access the state contract going forward. To date, there have been 1,342 tons of debris removed through this contract. If a municipality is struggling with flood debris removal, please elevate that concern to your local Emergency Management Director. Your EMD can contact the State Emergency Operations Center for assistance. As of last night, 211 has received 4,290 calls related to the flooding. Some of those are repeat, but this is the overall number. More than one-third of these calls have been from Washington County, which accounts for 1,596 of those calls. Windsor County has accounted for nearly 12% of 211 reports. And LaMoyle County has accounted for just over 9% of the reports, yet it has the highest percentage of homes that were self-reported as uninhabitable. Of the 392 reports we have received from LaMoyle County, 181 callers reported that their home was uninhabitable. 763 callers statewide have self-reported that their home is uninhabitable, which is approximately 18% of the total number of reports that we've received. We continue to encourage Vermonters to report their damage to vermont211.org, or by calling 211 if you are unable to get online. Every bit of the storm damage, whether it's a car, driveway, a wet basement that you pumped out yourself already, lost possessions, a blown culvert, anything that was damaged due to the floodwaters should be reported so that we can paint an accurate picture of the total damage in Vermont. We have handouts that you can take with you when you're in the community and encourage others to report their damage. There is no backlog of calls in the 211 system, so please go online or call today. That is all I have for you today. Thank you, and I will turn it over to General Roy. Thank you, Commissioner. Good morning. On the 14th of July, the President issued a major disaster declaration for Vermont, and it's been amended six times. The declaration authorizes funding for hazard mitigation statewide to assist Vermont in preparing its infrastructure for future storms. The declaration authorizes funding for 14 county for emergency protective measures for activities associated with life-saving and life-sustaining operations. The declaration authorizes 11 counties for public assistance to assist the communities and recovering from the damage to the infrastructure like roads, bridges, culverts, and buildings. Nine counties as of today, with the addition of Orleans yesterday, have been declared for individual assistance for residents who have had damages directly tied to the storm. First, if you live in a declared county and you've had damages, first call 211 and then contact FEMA at 1-800-621-3362, 1-800-621-FEMA, or you can go to disasterassistance.gov. Second, if you've already received a funding from FEMA and life circumstances have changed, like you've had to leave your home because of mold, contact FEMA. You may be eligible for additional assistance. Third, if you have been determined as ineligible either in part or whole for financial assistance from FEMA, please contact us at 1-800-621-3362 or go and visit us at one of our four disaster recovery centers. We have disaster recovery centers now in Waterbury at the Armory and Barrie at the Auditorium at Adiant Birch Row in Rutland and at the Floodbrook School in Londonderry. Lastly, FEMA is here for the long term. We've already deployed personnel to Vermont to assist the state in its long term recovery operations. I'll do a quick rundown of our operations as of today. We currently have 476 personnel from FEMA in Vermont. Our disaster survivor assistance teams have visited 6,800 homes and 350 businesses and they are in 17 communities today. We have five of our FEMA mobile registration intake centers throughout the state for people to go there to sign up for assistance. We're also supporting the state's multi-agency resource centers and as discussed earlier we have four of our disaster recovery centers where people can go to sign up or seek assistance with FEMA. The Small Business Administration is also there and importantly they're a mitigation personnel to help you take a look at how you may be able to mitigate your home from future disasters. We have approved $5.6 million in assistance for individuals of which $5 million has already been dispersed in people's bank accounts. We have visited, correction, we have 2,100 homes requested to be inspected for damage and we've already inspected 1,400 of those homes. So again FEMA is here for the long term and we look forward to working with the Governor and his staff to help Vermont become stronger after this storm than it was before. Thank you. I'll be followed by Commissioner Goldstein. Thanks. Good morning. As the Governor mentioned and Secretary Curley mentioned last week the Department of Economic Development has been hard at work to stand up a business emergency grant program for those impacted by the floods. The business emergency gap assistance program is being established to provide rapid grant funding as rapidly as possible to assist businesses and not-for-profit entities that sustain physical damage so that they can get reopened and employees back to work again. We know that the $20 million will not be enough to meet the need that exists in the business community and gaps will remain but this is just the beginning. At this time the way we're going to calculate awards and applicants will send to us their list of documented damages. So let's say they have $100,000 worth of damage the award calculation will be 20% of the net documented damage to their physical property and that property includes things like inventory, equipment, supplies. The maximum level that they can get is $20,000. We put a ceiling on it so that we can get as many businesses that were impacted as possible get them some funds. There will be opportunities to exceed that ceiling in cases where the physical damage was so significant upwards of over a million dollars that we will raise the cap from $100,000 to $250,000 to $500,000 depending on the level of employees that have been you know at that organization that have been laid off. Of the $20 million we will set aside a million dollars for agriculture and the agency of agriculture will be working on developing a program specifically for farms. The physical losses as I said include physical space replacements. We're going to need things like if they have insurance estimates or estimates for replacement or estimates for repair. The businesses as we've been hearing about have been collecting photographs, damage assessments, all these estimates and we will need to collect that they will upload that to the system. The net physical loss just to be clear on the calculation is the remaining loss after they enter in what is expected from possible insurance and what is expected from other possible grant programs that they may have applied to or received money from and we take the 20% from that net physical loss. This is a high level recap of the program. We're going to release the details over to our website so that folks could get prepared. We expect to open this portal next week. We are putting finishing touches on and we've only started working on this in a week and the good people of the agency of digital services have been acting very rapidly to get us a solution. We hope we really hope that this will truly bridge a gap for business owners. Once again we can't say enough we understand this will not make businesses whole but we really want to bring state resources to an already very robust effort by charitable organizations all over the state that have been raising funds for grant programs. We believe this is the first of many steps as governor mentioned we will need to collect information from all impacted folks not just physical we will collect information about economic injury even though we can't pay on that at the moment but we need the most aggregated level of damage assessment so that we could try to get additional federal resources. The other thing I want to encourage and the other message I really want to get out there is the SBA resources have timelines and deadlines and we really hope that businesses don't wait to apply for that even though those are loans we really don't want anybody to miss an opportunity they could always turn down a loan commitment they don't have to accept it but what's important is that they get the capability to tap into resources that exist while they're waiting for let's say this grant program which again we know is only going to pay a fraction of the harm. The key really is just that this is the first of many steps we really we know it's not perfect and it doesn't come anywhere near addressing all of the gaps we know this but it is a start and we're moving forward and we want to help as much as we can and we will have more information out on our website and hopefully a portal open next week thank you. We'll now open up to questions. Commissioner I wanted to be clear on something let's say we've got a business that has a go fund account or their customers have contributed to them does that get deducted from that $100,000 number? Yes the way we need to work it as a way to prevent duplication of benefit is to make sure that we're paying on net physical damage so if they've already received some sort of funding to help restore or repair or get them back we can't pay on that same use of funds so our only way to do that is to ask for all their other sources and then pay a percentage of the net sort of net uncovered if you will. A lot of these businesses don't own their buildings so how does that work for them? Understood so we are asking questions you know do they own or do they lease some business tenants will be responsible for leasehold improvements some perhaps not so it's going to depend on what the actual repair needs to be but this program will be open for landlords so we understand their role in being able to get their premises back to working orders so businesses could reopen but for businesses that are tenants most likely they're going to need inventory they're going to need equipment supplies most of their things may have been launched out so we are going to accommodate that. And best case scenario how soon will the money be out of the work? I would say a couple of weeks if we launch next week probably somewhere between seven and ten days thereafter we could start with disbursements but I'd feel a lot better after I actually see the full application online. You say it's going to be open to landlords so does that include residential? Yes it does. And is there going to be any sort of like proportion of money to go toward like traditional businesses for lack of better word versus landlords like you meant? We have not done that actually. Okay. Yeah just a general poll. I have one more question too. I'm sorry I walked in a few minutes late and you guys might have covered this. You had talked about the need for some federal funding for full students. This business assistance can you tell me anything more that you know about that? No just that we're working with our congressional delegation and they're working hard in Washington to make the case for more funding and that's why it's so critical with 2-1-1 we talked about that a lot even if your county has qualified met the threshold we need you to continue to report to 2-1-1 your damages and if you report damages and you've incurred more damages since report those damages because we need they need all that information to make the case in Congress for supplemental funding so they're doing all they can at this point they're making hopefully inroads but but it's going to be challenging for them as well. Is there a precedent for Congress to give a state money for business grants obviously? Yeah I'm not sure probably a better question for some of them that have been there a while. I mean Congress is about to go on its August recess so good time for them to make that allocation before they go. Is there a backing point? Well again we're doing all we can with the existing resources limited resources we have in our state coffers push comes to shove we'll I mean we're always looking under every rock pulling every lever to find more resources so we'll cross that bridge when we get to it but we putting a lot of stock in our congressional delegation obviously they're influential in DC and hopefully they can make the case because as I said the other day you know this isn't a red state problem or a blue state problem this is a state issue that we all face. Governor this morning a Montpelier Alive's director told the legislature that Montpelier businesses are hesitant to take on SBA debt because they're still under a lot of COVID here after debt. Is there anything the state can do in terms of interest forgiveness extensions something like that to help that problem? Well I don't think they have we didn't give them loans these are SBA loans and so it's worth that again a congressional probably level question. The treasurer says that the state has some 2.4 billion dollars cash on hand money that's allocated but it hasn't gone out the door right is you you talk about pulling levers could potentially that yeah I mean again that's very very short term when you think about that we've committed all of that money and probably then some so it's it's out the door and it's going to be going out the door in the not too distant future so it could be a short-term solution but not a long-term solution and then what? Can I share with Goldstein the one million dollars that you said was specifically for ad does that count the cannabis industry as well? Yes it does count the cannabis and also the cannabis growers the cannabis retail shops would be available under the 19 the remaining 19 million. They're a retail operation. Okay okay and then in I'm sure this is a really complicated formula you guys have come up with to allocate this money is there any kind of weight that will prioritize money for small businesses or new businesses or by-product businesses? The the formula is 20 percent of net physical damages so it wouldn't matter how old the business is as an example what would matter is if the larger amount of damage so for the higher level of damage that's why we have the ability to surpass the 20,000 for BIPOC owners we are partners with Vermont professionals of color network they are going to be outreach coordinators as well as technical assistance providers to make sure that constituency knows exactly about this grant and what it has to offer and what they need to gather in order to apply. I asked about the new businesses. I know I don't need to tell you that the first two years of starting a business is extremely testing. It'll be very very tough for very small and very new businesses and that's why we're basing the formula not on revenue but on the damage so what is it going to cost for them to start back over again. In some respects when you think about the the formula it does help some of the smaller businesses because the cap of 20,000 means more the 20,000 means more to them a very small business than 20,000 to a much larger business so it does help them excuse it in a way. What can people in Orleans County expect to see now now that this designation has been made? We already have our disaster survivor assistance teams in Orleans County. Those who have already signed up for assistance they call FEMA it's unfortunate that the the disaster assistance dot gov only works if you have in a declared counties but you can call FEMA at 1-800-621-3362 and they'll walk you all the way through the process but they'll suspend you and tell us this time as the county's declared so in Orleans County we had a number of individuals who had done that and their assistance already starts because it's been declared. For those who have not done that they can either go to FEMA at the disaster assistance dot gov they can call the 1-800-621-3362 or they can visit one of the disaster recovery centers that will be establishing. So what's different for them today for these homeowners in particular than it was yesterday? Is this your your agency will now be doing more unsighted inspections? So it's a great question and thanks for truly leading me to the answer. So bottom line in front yesterday they weren't they weren't eligible for financial assistance from FEMA? Today they are individual assistance. Thank you Governor. What kind of factors would go into somebody in any county being denied individual assistance? Great question. So let's say you have insurance and you collect that you informed FEMA on your application that you have insurance but you haven't filed the the determination on your insurance claim. Perfect example. So people should continue to apply even through the process? So typically what will happen is they'll get a notification from FEMA that says you are ineligible for assistance. Please read this letter carefully and they'll list exactly what it is in their application that causes them to not be eligible in part or in whole. And so they can be confusing. In fact we met with the congressional delegations to walk them through these type of letters and who to contact if a constituent reaches out to them. So what we say is if you get one of those letters either call us or visit us at one of our disaster recovery centers and sit down with our applicant specialists and they can work you through that. They can upload documents for you, they can explain it better for you and assist you in there. And if your status changes, as I mentioned, if all of a sudden you know you have to leave your residence, you may be able to get additional funding. Any idea how many people might be denied assistance at this point because of this reason? We have a graph which we can share with you as to by type on what they've been denied. I will tell you that for FEMA Region 1 based out of Boston who are here overseeing the individual assistance with the field, they do a hundred percent call up. Anybody that has applied for assistance from FEMA will get a call from our team. Do you know how many people received assistance during their leave? We do know that over 4,000 people did receive assistance during Hurricane Irene and that's kind of our benchmark for where we are. We also recognize though that this, as the governor had said, Irene was a 12-hour incident very impactful. This has been a really long one so the chances are there's more people impacted by this disaster than Irene. Do you think any, so that's five counties that are not under this, nine aren't. Do you think any of the remaining five are close to qualifying? I don't know. We continue to work with the state on doing assessments and that's why the 211 data is so important. It's absolutely critical for us to understand the damages, you know, and we also all recognize that Romagna are hearty people, right? If something happens, it's like I'll fix it. I'll take care of myself, you know, and I don't need to report it because I already took care of it. Well please report it because it helps the state look at this in totality and may be able to qualify. That's what happened with Orleans, right? We didn't have the data we needed. We've really, really pushed 211 and we got enough information to be able to declare them. Bless you sir. Does the state know how many people may still be without phone or internet service? That I will have to turn over to Commissioner Tierney. Commissioner Tierney, are you on the line and did you hear the question? Yes, Governor, I did and no, I don't have that data right ahead, but we can get that. I think it's more likely that the Romagna community brought that board. We will get an answer if I can get the name of the reporter. I can get that to you, June. Earlier this week I was taught about getting a better understanding of damages to schools. Do you have any updated numbers and are there any districts that you worried might not be able to go back in person due to damage? Yeah, Secretary Boucher, are you online? Yes, thank you, Governor. So our updated criminals are 10 schools that have now reported major damage, 14 schools that have reported minor damage, and 95 that have reported no damage. At this point, we're pretty confident at the ALE that all public schools will open on time, not caring of any major concerns in that space. And there are still a couple of independent schools that we're working on to figure out their timelines and whether they can open on time. I have a question for Secretary Tudiz. I'm wondering if there's like ancillary problems with farms that weren't affected by the flooding but are going to place supply problems. I think I know that like a lot of people haven't been able to cut their hay. So I'm wondering how it's going to affect farms that weren't actually flooding? Good morning, Anson Tabots at the Agency of Agriculture Food and Markets. I think one pocket that we're monitoring closely is supply and quality of feed for livestock. You're correct that most farmers are able to get maybe one crop off the field if it's hay. Second one, some people this week had two or three days and they're starting to get that crop in. So I think the availability will be a concern. It's something we're monitoring. We're working behind the scenes to work on availability, whether it be corn that was lost, that it was underwater, whether it be standing hay that was underwater, or just the quality of it also I think is at risk as well. On a similar note, are you hearing from farmers that are having trouble getting their hay out of the field? There are some cases where, yes, I talked with a farmer in Johnson and he had a number of tractors that were underwater, really important tractors for his produce farm, and he's worried that one day they may start and then two weeks down the way with electrical problems they're going to be a problem. So he was really concerned about that aspect of his infrastructure at risk, and he's a mechanic. So his side job was being a mechanic. He was really concerned about some of that infrastructure that he lost that was underwater. What about getting mechanics to farms to repair equipment or moving the equipment to like a John Deere machine? I think when I talked with him, he was going to do his best. He's got a good network of people that he was relying on to help him with that, but I did ask him like, do we need to work on getting you some help with that? And he was confident that his network of people that he's been working with over the years and his own experience, he'd be okay. Where do we stand with the National Guard? What's their main posture and what have they been up to now that we're in week three? General? Hi, I'm General Brigadier General Tracy Poirier. I'm the Director of the Joint Staff for the Vermont National Guard. So we are starting to stand down some of our troops currently. We have 57 airmen and soldiers that are solely focused on flood response and recovery missions. And I put that caveat on that number because we have a lot of full-time employees that are doing this as well as their full-time job. So there's a lot more people applied to the issue, but those are the people that are solely doing that mission for us. Our distribution team is still on, so they're kind of on standby to be able to move things around the state. The LNO team is working on recovering their vehicles and they're kind of standing down. That communication has become very solid between the towns and this LNO sorry liaison teams. LNO liaison officers. So that communication has become very solid between the emergency center and the towns so they don't really need us there to kind of make those connections. The more recent team was what we were called the point of distribution, the pod teams that they were supplying PPE and we had them in six, five locations around the state. But they weren't getting a lot of used people coming to them, so we've changed the mode and we will now be pushing that PPE out to states. So states, I think, are reaching into the emergency management center and saying I really kind of need this many gloves and this much masks and we're just kind of going to push out to them rather than having people sitting lonely in their pod locations. And then we also have just the extra folks that are covering down in the emergency operation center and they'll stay on as long as the emergency operation center is there. That's basically what we're doing right now. General, so the couple Marines rescued some, rescued a woman right outside of the firing range. So what does an army general have to say about the Marine Corps now? I was actually Marine for eight years before I moved to the army, so I'm all for it. Yeah, they, we actually, I think the adjunct general gave those two Marines a couple coins for their service. So those numbers that the commissioners cited at the top of the press heard about damage to all students. Do you know if that was based off of 211 data or FEMA data? Right now it's primarily 211 data. Okay, thank you. Welcome. Do you have those? Also, I couldn't reach them there. I'd be happy to share them with you. I'm going to go to the phones next and we'll start with Keith Rutland-Herald. I'm also, for now, thank you. Thank you, Keith. Joseph, the Chronicle. All right, we'll try Tim McQuiston from On Business Magazine. Hi, Commissioner Goldstein. I'm wondering about there could be many, many funding sources that come in, and you're looking at the net. I'm kind of wondering about the timing. This happened with the pandemic as well. Money sources could be coming in, and a business could find that it actually has, at the end of the day, more money coming in. Will there be an effort to try and claw that back? How do you anticipate this process working fairly for everyone so someone is not, at the end of the day, getting a lot more than someone else? Yeah, I understood. Thanks, Tim. That's a great question. We're doing our best efforts to have folks enter those amounts in, and obviously we cannot control if somebody else starts up a charitable fund, you know, three months from here. But we could only do what we could control. During the process, the applicant will attest that if they are found to have gotten more money than what their damages are, they need to return it. So there are some attestations. We really do depend on their ability to be honest, but we are doing our best efforts to collect whatever information is readily available right here right now. Yeah, I was thinking that people might not be dishonest, but they might find at the end of the day that they got more. So that's fair enough. Thank you. Again, Tim, just to reiterate with the 20% and the $20,000 cap, I don't think there's too much of a danger at this point in our over-allocation. So that's one of the benefits of going in slowly, not by choice, but the way we're doing it. And then we'll be able to assess the need as time goes on. All right, thank you very much, Dylan. Tom Davis, come to us for one. No questions. Thanks very much. Thank you, Tom. Back to the room. Can I just ask you've been warned a lot about fraud and scammers. Have we actually seen any signs of that happening? I'm sure there are signs. I don't know if anyone wants to weigh in on that, but I haven't heard any of anything specific at this point. Maybe. I know there were, we had reports from Central Vermont that some people were posing as FEMA, working for FEMA, but they hadn't. But I don't have data points on how much. But it was soon thereafter that you started making announcements about identification. Absolutely. And the only case we know of where it was put forward, it was actually one of our disaster survivor assistance people helping somebody sign up. They had a business and they were individual. And if you want to receive an electronic funds transfer, you obviously have to offer up your bank account information to us. And so they have to input that. So I think there's a little confusion on that. Other than that, we have not yet seen, not yet seen a fraud, but we always tell people, you know, we identify who we are. We have, you know, we have our badges that can, it can certify that, that, you know, we are in fact with FEMA. If you don't have that, you know, don't share your, your critical information. Thank you, sir. So you said there was like somebody going around claiming to be a FEMA agent asking for bank. Actually, the way around, it was actually a FEMA person who met with an individual and they owned a business and they also were filing as an individual. And so they helped them as an individual. Somehow it got mistaken. So, but it allowed us to jump in early to talk about, hey, be careful of scams. Because unfortunately, there are people out there that will take advantage of people who have been, you know, in very troubled times like this. So there have not been reports of people? We have seen none yet so far. Does FEMA have like, are you able to share what a real badge looks like, like an example of it, so people know what to look for? Because it's a Department of Homeland Security badge, it's not something we can take a picture of and push out. But they have the FEMA vests, they actually have, I got to do my ID card where they can show them. So that's the start point. And of course, going to disasterassistance.gov, right, is a secure site. And calling 1-800-621-3321 is a secure site. Okay. Yes, sir. Two things, trust but verify. I think that's what the general is talking about. But also, if there are any concerns about fraudulent activity, call the Attorney General's office and they have someone there working on that. That's what I wanted to say. We have had, separate from FEMA, we have had some business owners who have expressed concern about what they're being sold. It happened very early on where there were people coming in saying we'll clean for either extremely high amounts or if you give me a 10% deposit, I'll book it for whenever and it'll be reimbursed by FEMA. But keep in mind, it probably never made it to FEMA because hopefully those business owners never entered into that because they can't be promising what FEMA or somebody else's insurance company will be paying back. So we've just been saying to business owners, like, you know, trust your instincts. If it doesn't feel right, what was it? You just said the check. Trust and verify. Yeah, trust and verify. But again, we, what the governor said is, you know, we want to make sure that those are reported because we want to make sure others aren't, it's not going out more broadly. Okay, I'm going to put you, trip 3362. I think I said 3361 is 3362, my apologies. Commissioner Goldstein, I can't believe I forgot to ask this question. The $20 million grant program, is that first come, first serve or is there going to be an application due date and then you'll weigh all of that? It's first come, first serve because we're understanding that there's an urgency here and rather than waiting everybody to wait for a period of time, we want to tend to it right away. Thanks. I just have one more question and that's about the home buyout program. As somebody here said, it's already becoming apparent now where it might not have been a week ago that some homes aren't going to be livable. Can you tell me anything more about that? Yeah, here's what I know about the home buyout program. It takes a long time. It's not instantaneous. We went through it with Irene. There was some that went through years before they were able to attain the buyout and I'll let Will talk about this maybe a little bit more. This is the other piece of this that we're hoping the congressional delegation will be able to have some funding available for that as well over and above what is able to obtain through FEMA because we're just going to have to think about this a little bit differently in the future and what areas we should be building in and what areas that have been built in that shouldn't have been. So it's going to take resources and dollars in order to make those determinations for the future. So we're going to need that in whatever supplemental bill that they are able to attain. Would that apply to something like the mobile home parks? I'm thinking of the one that was declared. Or Weston's? Yes, we declared a disaster area or an inhabitable. So would the state be saying that's just not a good place to build another park in the future? Yeah, you know unfortunately we have a housing crisis on our hands. You might have heard about it. So it's difficult at this point in time to condemn a piece of property that has lots available. But in time we might want to take a look at something like that. And River runs another one on the Barry Montpellier Road that has been impacted multiple times. And so those are the types of situations that we have to take a look at and determine whether it's appropriate to do this long term and what the answer is. It's going to take resources because they still need a place to live. So we're going to have to to do this in a strategic way in order for everyone to have some place safe to live in. So for folks that are displaced, how does the state's own emergency motel program factor into it? Because FEMA also has money for motel states. Yeah, well again it's the GA program that we have. And Secretary Samuelson is probably on the line can describe some of that. But if you're displaced from your home due to the flooding, then there is FEMA reimbursement. Will you want to add anything that I might have talked about with your buyouts as well? Yes sir, absolutely. Thank you. So FEMA provides the funding to the communities who are actually the agents that do the buyout. So it's a local, you know, it's always executed best at the local level, right? So FEMA works with the state to provide the funding for the communities to execute that and then it's the locals who work on those. With regards to displaced population, FEMA does have housing options. Right now if you've been, we have over, I think it's 451 people who are receiving rental assistance due to being damages from their property. Now that doesn't mean necessarily that all those people are somewhere else. It's one of the things where you can receive rental assistance if you anticipate moving, but you may not have. It's really the second month when they request federal assistance for rental assistance that will get a better picture of that. And then, you know, so we do, there are a couple programs we do provide reimbursement for people who have been displaced. It's part of their application process and they continue to update us on their status so we can reimburse them for their expenditures. When you say rental assistance, is that for hotels or for a permit? Yes. Okay. So should people displaced because of the flood go through FEMA and not the state GA program? Well I can tell you if they've had damages that make them eligible for to go somewhere else, they ought to utilize the program that's in place with regards to state. You know, if it's a long-term program, you know, obviously they'll have to take a look what the state has available. You almost mentioned there were some 1400-ish homes that have been inspected so far. Do we know how many of those are uninhabitable because of damage or mold or anything else? So the entry into assistance from FEMA is an inspector looking at your home or your apartment to determine the damages they've had. And so there's been over 2100 people who have asked for us to come and inspect their property for damages. Again, with the home or their apartment. And that's the entry into the program and then based upon that we determine eligibility. As far as the damages is concerned, that's really not a feedback mechanism that we have with the state. I can tell you that there have been a number of structures that have been red tagged, meaning mobile homes and homes and so forth. We learned this morning 60 to 70 thus far. And that's just a preliminary number. Well, again, Washington County seems to have suffered the most damage and the most displacement. So in and around the area. That westerns trailer park or mobile home park in Berlin is one where a number of homes have been red tagged. Are we any closer to getting just a rough estimate of what the economic damage has been to this day? No. I'm sure we're getting closer but we're not there yet. My colleague Lola talked to the emergency operations center yesterday. I'm admittedly not an expert since it's her compensation online. And they said that 314 people have reported needing shelter. Is that people in like for like right across shelters or does that also count people in hotels? I would imagine it counts for everyone. But Dan? I don't have the exact number of my fingertips. I'm happy to follow up with you. We have deployed a number of shelter situations, most of which have been the Red Cross. There have especially early on. I think there were three local shelters that were deployed by municipalities or regions. And then how about people like staying with friends and family? I imagine that's really hard to track. It's very hard to track. And we just that's exactly the right way to say we just don't know the total number that we certainly hear about them and we are managing some of them. But at the same time, more often than not, we just don't cross the radar with those. Back on the note of schools, if I could just ask the secretary a follow up about schools think that they can open on time, but are there concerns about cold and what's being done? Yeah, that's a great question. We have not heard anything specific coming through, so we're having hard one conversations with all the effective schools almost a daily basis. We will have a more sensitive report that will have a summary of all of the more detailed information that we've been collecting this week. I'm happy to share that with you, but at this point, we have not heard of cold contamination as a central for the majority or a number of schools yet. Yeah, for instance, I saw Montpelier High School. They have a professional service in there and they have a lot of the humidifiers and fans and so forth drying the place out. So I'm sure that they're adept to removing the potential for mobile mold. Thank you all very much. See you next week.