 Good morning, everyone. And thanks for being here. I want to start with some important information for those who have furnaces damaged in the flood. With cold weather right around the corner, I asked my team to find a way to help those who haven't repaired or replaced their heating systems. Anecdotally, we've heard that some are struggling to get them fixed for a variety of reasons, including supply chain issues and finding someone to actually do the work. So we want to help fill these gaps when we can. But first, we need to know who and where they are. So we've been working to get the data from FEMA, so we know who reported these damages and we received that information this past week. As a result, we'll be sending out a survey to over 1,000 individuals to get more information. So if you reported damage to your heating system and you receive a survey from a vermont.gov email address, please help us by responding. But please make sure you check the email address and it is vermont.gov email. That's vermont spelled out and dot gov. And if you didn't damage your heating system, you shouldn't be responding to a survey or getting a survey. So be aware if you do. And it's just about the scams that might come along with that once you announce something like this. We'll have more on this next week. And Chief Recovery Officer Farnham will address some other questions about heating system repairs in the FEMA process in a few minutes. But first, we have an update on our business assistance program, BGAP, to get more funding to businesses, landlords and non-profits who were impacted by this summer's flood. We'll also hear from a couple of business owners, Jen Roberts from Onion River Outdoors and Erica Hayes from Cambridge Village Market about their experiences and recovery efforts. As a reminder about the BGAP program, shortly after the flooding, we announced this $20 million program that provided grants up to $20,000 to help employers impacted by the floods. The goal was to help businesses reopen as fast as possible. And thanks for the good work of the Agency of Commerce and Community Development and the Agency of Digital Services, we were able to create the program from scratch and get the checks out the door in under 30 days. In the first phase, we set a cap of $20,000 because we wanted to help as many employers as possible and to get a sense of the financial need before committing the entire 20 million. But now that employers have had several weeks to apply, we know there's over 120 million in unmet needs. So in the next phase, we're going to remove the $20,000 cap and increase the percentage so we can close the gap a little bit more. Now that many of these small businesses have reopened, this additional money should make sure they can stay open, which is equally as important. I've asked the e-board to convene tomorrow to move forward with these updates. And I'll now turn it over to Commissioner Goldstein for more of the details. Thanks, Governor. Good morning. As the governor mentioned, we are making some tweaks to the BGAP program as we look to get more money out to impacted businesses, nonprofits and landlords as they continue to recover from the physical damages sustained through the July flooding. Previously, the program issued grants of 20% of net damages but up to a cap of $20,000. If entities suffered more than a million dollars worth of damage, they had an opportunity to go higher than $20,000, but it was based on how many employees they had. Today, we're announcing that we want to raise the grant percentage to 30% of net damages and we are removing the $20,000 cap. For entities with damages over $1 million, we are removing the employee number and keeping the cap at the lesser of $500,000 and 20% of uncovered damages. This means if a business applied, previously applied and reported damages of $300,000, they were approved for a grant of 20,000. With this change, that same business will now be eligible to receive a $90,000 grant to help recover and reopen. Businesses, nonprofit organizations and landlords who have already applied for BGAP will not have to apply again. The department will be making changes to the payments for those applications that are still under review and for those applicants that have already received a check, we will be issuing a supplemental check to cover the difference. When this program launched, as the governor said, it was less than a month after the floods, we wanted to cast as wide a net as possible to make sure no one was left behind, which is why caps were put in place. We were really unaware of the amount of the need and we knew that we had limited state funding to address the need. Now that we're seeing these applications coming in and what has reported, we know there's over $120 million of damage and more than 600 businesses and landlords and farms have applied for the program. We have been continually assessing the need versus the state money, the state funding available throughout this process and feel that the shift in this program will deliver much more value to the businesses who need it most, who are working so hard to get back on their feet and their doors open or their apartment buildings livable again. We will continue to work as fast as we can to get the money out the door and hope that this added financial relief will help many of our hardest hit areas of the state to continue to come back online this fall. I know the governor introduced the members of the business community. I'm going to pass this now over to Erica Hayes from the Cambridge Village Market. Thank you. Good morning. My name is Erica Hayes. I am the daughter of the new owners of the Cambridge Village Market, Ron and Linda Fry. We purchased the market back on June 15th, just three short weeks before the flood. The market was built in the 1850s and it has been the heart of the village ever since. We knew we had to keep the doors open and we knew we had to bounce back one way or another, not only as business owners, but for the community as well. What we did not expect was how quickly that was going to happen with the help from our amazing community, friends and family, as well as our incredible staff and the assistance and guidance from the governor's office and the other state programs and state employees that have helped us along the way. The first $20,000 grant was more than helpful. And now knowing that the additional assistance that we will be receiving is going to put us in a much better position to recover and to fulfill our vision for the market and for the community. We've lost so much due to the flood, but only two short months later, we are now beyond grateful to say that we will be able to completely recover and we have gained so much more out of this process. We know our local community relies on us and we rely on them as well. With that, I will hand it over to Jen. Thank you. Hi, my name is Jen Roberts. I'm the owner of Onion River Outdoors in Montpelier. I was training a new staff person at Onion River when the rain started on July 10th. I was not alarmed. Our stores basement forms part of the channel that guides the north branch of the Wynoski River through downtown Montpelier. Water in the basement is a fact of life for us. We knew to watch the informal river gauge on the side of the Langdon Street Bridge, where long ago someone painted the letters CB for sellers and basements at the critical water level. We knew where the water would start seeping up from the cracks in the floor when the river hit that CB level. Throughout the afternoon, the forecast worsened and the tone and volume of warning emails from our downtown business association increased. Still, we were not alarmed. In 2011, we had water above knee height in the basement. We knew what to do. We put out the call for help from our friends, customers and coworkers, and they showed up to move inventory. An army of volunteers moved through the rooms of the basement, diligently lifting items to the highest shelves. Surely we thought the water wouldn't rise above waist height. The last time it did was because of a fluke, an ice jam in the river. The time before that was the great flood of 1927 before we had the protection of rights filled down. We knew we were taking the right steps to protect our business. Later in the evening, we realized we needed to bring the volunteers back to get everything out of the basement. We put out the call a second time. And again, our friends and customers and coworkers came back to help move more items up to the main floor. This time, they couldn't work for long. The water was rising too quickly and they became concerned about the safety of being in the basement with so much water pressure against the outside wall. By the time we realized that we needed to move items even higher than the first floor, the river was shinned deep in the parking lot and threatening to cut off the roots out of town. We left one last brave soul who was determined to keep pumping out the basement. And we rode our bikes home through the deluge. We've all seen the devastation that followed as well as the tremendous outpouring of help from our communities. Day after day people gave time, energy and money. Two months on Montpelier is still drying out and still rebuilding. Only a few shops have been able to reopen so far and ours has not been one of them. The hurdles have been enormous. Wet buildings, mold, toxic mud, a shortage of skilled labor to rebuild our stores, lack of federal aid for small businesses and a summer when the rain never seemed to stop. The Big App funds that our state government provided were for some businesses the only aid they would receive. The initial allotments started our path to recovery. Lifting the cap is going to help Onion River and many other businesses reopen and recover sooner than we could have without this help. When I heard about the additional funding, my relief brought tears to my eyes. We have all learned from this summer's flooding that we need to help each other in coordinated ways, thinking ahead, establishing rainy day funds and preparing emergency response plans. This is why we organize ourselves into a state government and these are the times we rightly rely on this, our larger communities help to recover. With this additional Big App assistance, Onion River and other small businesses will reopen sooner, re-employ our staff and get them off of unemployment sooner and help our downtowns recover their basic services for the good of our whole community. Thank you. We'll now turn it over to Doug Farnham. Thank you, Jen. So I'd like to start out by talking about one specific type of situation as the governor referenced it's related to heating systems. If you received a FEMA individual assistance award for damage to your home and involves your heating system or any other short term repairs that could make it habitable before winter, even if you are considering a buyout in the long term, please go ahead with those repairs. Don't wait. You go ahead with those repairs and keep your receipts as long as you keep your receipts so that you can demonstrate to the state and FEMA down the road that you use that award for immediate repairs to reoccupy. It will not affect the amount of your buyout. So we are committed to working with FEMA and the municipalities to address the buyouts and the interest that there is currently in those in buyouts. There's over 200 households that have inquired about buyouts, but it will take time to work through that and it would be disingenuous of me to say that we're going to have the buyout situation resolved before the winter starts. So please, if you received an award to repair your heater, to do things that you would need in order to reoccupy for this winter, move ahead with that. Keep your receipts. And if your expense exceeds what FEMA awarded you, if you're within that 60 day appeal period, please go back to FEMA with that documentation and appeal. There's no harm in appealing. It won't affect your original award, particularly when you have evidence that the cost exceeded what FEMA originally estimated the damage would take to repair. Tied into that, I would say if you applied for individual assistance and you received an award shortly after the flood, some of you may be coming up on the end of your 60 day appeal window. I would encourage you to just take another look at your award, at what it has cost you in the meantime and make sure you don't miss an opportunity to appeal if you haven't. Obviously, if you're satisfied and you see that the expenses line up with the award you received, that's great. But if you feel like you have evidence that shows you should get a larger award, I can't promise your word will be adjusted, but I do know that FEMA will accept that appeal as long as within the 60 day window and they will look at the facts of your situation. When I say keep your receipts, please keep your receipts. I would recommend for at least two or three years because you don't know as we have community discussions over the next year or two what may come into scope as far as buyouts or other options. So we wouldn't want you to be harmed down the road because you had an individual assistance award that you used, but you didn't have the receipts to show you used it on the appropriate expenses. So please keep them for several years at a minimum. I would also like to thank FEMA and General Roy for the extension of the individual assistance period and remind people we are still getting applications for individual assistance. That is going through October 12th. And as a Vermonner that grew up in the Northeast Kingdom, it's difficult for me to ask for help. And I just want to say please, please go come forward. If you haven't applied for individual assistance, we still have disaster recovery centers open. You can still call in and register through October 12th. You can still start that process. So you have not missed your opportunity to get some assistance. And that could be related to your home or it could be related to rental assistance if you're unable to live in your home. I would also say in the realm of the direct housing program, please if you do not have your own home right now, if you are unhoused because of the flood, please engage with FEMA and let them know that you need help in that area. If you are moving around between friends and family and your situation is uncertain going into the winter, we want to make sure that FEMA knows that you may need help and that the only way for them to know that is for you to come forward and engage with them. I recognize that this has been a traumatic event for hundreds of households, it's not thousands. But I do think if you come forward and engage, it's very likely we'll be able to give you more help than you have right now. And I think it will be worth it. So thank you. Now I'll turn it over to General Roy from FEMA. Thank you, Doug. Governor, thank you so much for the opportunity to be here with you today. I asked the governor if I could have a couple of minutes today just to talk about the appeals process. And I'm not going to read from my speech at all. I'm going to speak to you with my fellow Vermonters. You know, we have over 360 people here in Vermont focused on the recovery. And we still have four disaster recovery centers open. We, the governor in one of our morning meetings the other day talked about a gentleman he met in a local store who had been impacted by the storm and was getting a second loan for his property. The governor asked him, have you talked to FEMA by just that? He said, well, they gave me a denial letter. And that's the challenge is people will get the letters. We talked about this up front. In fact, we had meetings with the staffers, congressional staffers that go over the ineligibility letters that it doesn't mean that you're denied. It just means that you may be in a state where we need more information from you to help you. As a direct results of that, the team that we have here in Vermont have conducted over 7,900 calls to applicants. As a direct result of those calls and checking on the status as Doug talked about, we've added over $4.4 million dollars in assistance to those individuals because we've updated their status. Vermonters are a true race of people. I think Calvin Coolidge said that will literally beggar themselves in service of others. And in this case, they don't want to take from somebody else. They think that if they ask for help, they're going to take it from somebody. And that's not the case. So I know there's a ton of great work that's going on out there in our disaster recovery centers. And so I asked for just one vignette from our team to showcase what's going on and using you as an outlet to be able to put the word out to seek assistance from FEMA. Even if you've gotten assistance, you may be eligible for additional assistance. So I'm going to read it to you right here. A gentleman came into the DRC disaster recovery center with his granddaughter to inquire about his case. He felt he wasn't giving the whole story. We felt he wasn't going to give him the whole story, but he wouldn't disclose any extra information. While he was talking to the mitigation staff, his daughter told us that he was homeless, sleeping in his truck or his shed with no water or electricity, and he had many health issues. She didn't think he would endure the winter weather. Before they left the disaster recovery center, the gentleman said he wasn't looking for a handout and didn't want to accept the food voucher. He believed it was for the less fortunate. He explained that we are here to help. We explained that we're here to help everybody regardless of loss, of loss, income, or social status, and that the government is here to assist you. We went over the information he would need to submit to FEMA for to get assistance. After all the documents were submitted, he was awarded housing assistance, other needs assistance, and rental assistance. He actually shed tears when he learned of the funds he was being awarded. It's just one small example of what's going on in our disaster recovery centers as people come in and request for assistance. So I implore upon you to help us get the word out. Here we are in the extended window for individual assistance, which is supposed to end on the September 12th. We are still at about 75% rate of people applying for assistance who are eligible for assistance. So that means that people are out there who are eligible for help that have yet to apply. So we have a couple weeks left and anything you can do to help us get the word out for people to approach FEMA and get the assistance that is available for them, we'd be grateful for. So with that, thank you so much. Governor, back to you. Thank you very much. We'll now open it up to questions of expanding the assistance to businesses, especially with the fall season coming up and a lot of businesses getting ready to welcome an influx of visitors. Well, we have a variety of businesses. Some are attached to tourism. Some are just from day to day operations, manufacturing and so forth. So this, you know that when we first put this into place, as I said before, we had to put a cap on it because we didn't know how far the money would go. We didn't know the extent of the unmet need. And so we put the cap in intentionally so that we could get through the first phase. Now that we know, we know that there's that $120 million of unmet need. This $20 million isn't going to satisfy all of that. But lifting the cap, this $20,000 cap, lifting that and then being able to provide for 30% of their damages will go a long ways towards that. So as we open up for the season, Cambridge market being one right on a corridor that where we have a lot of visitors from out of state and they'll be open and ready to go and be able to provide for the traffic that we expect in the height of the season. So again, whether you're a fixed business, manufacturing business, or one that relies on tourism as well as local trade, this is going to be essential, I believe. How much money is left at the gap? Out of that $20 million, how much is left? We, I believe it's about $16 million, but go ahead. Yeah, we've committed about $6 million so far, but we will have, there's some applications in process, so we estimate that there is $10 million more to spend on this enhancement. What can the commissioner mean for the governor to? What else do you expect to ask of the e-board tomorrow? Are you looking for more money in this? Are there any other requests that you're looking for? Yeah, we aren't asking for anything at this point. We wanted to update them on where we're going with this and make sure that they know because when we went into the, on the first e-board meeting, we asked for the $20 million and we told them what we were doing. We just wanted to let them know about the second phase and make sure they were all on board with this, which they have the shortest they are. There's $120 million in unmet the $20 million program, does upping the cap functionally mean that there are going to be some businesses that don't get any money because other businesses are getting more money? We believe everyone will be covered under this lifting the cap as well as raising it to 30 percent other than the higher end, which Commissioner Goldstein had said, I talked about in her remarks, but everyone will be covered on this for this next phase. Yeah, the way we came to the percentage was looking at all of the outstanding applications. So we'll preface that by saying if there's a new, a brand new application that comes in, we can't guarantee anything, but we're thinking since this has been out for about a month and a half, you know, we have 600 applications that it will be able to cover everybody. So does that mean that if there's $120 million in unmet need and you think that this $20 million is going to suffice for this program that a lot of those businesses that suffer those losses are just not applying for assistance? We do expect that there are some businesses that are not applying that could either mean that they're working on this on their own. But we've also accounted for additional take up in this regard, not not a whole deluge, but we are estimating that there may be people more interested since there is not a cap that answers your question. Is the state doing anything to kind of make sure that this money isn't gobbled up pretty quickly by a few large actors that, you know, will have the staff to apply to grants and not overlooking, you know, some small businesses that may have barriers to doing that. Like BIPACO and businesses only with barriers, etc. Yeah, so there of the 600 applications, there's only about 20 that are the over a million dollars worth of damage. That doesn't mean that they're the larger business, it just means they have the largest impact of the physical damage. The rest, most of the applicants are in the from zero to $250,000 worth of damage. So, you know, are there businesses that aren't applying? Perhaps. But we continue to promote it in every one of our newsletters press conferences that people should go out and apply for this. I think two on one collected information that about 1000 businesses were impacted and we have 600 applications. So clearly there are people not not applying. But is the state contemplating any like specific outreach to communities that might not know how to apply, not know how to apply other than just kind of, you know. Yes. I mean, we, we are working through the Regional Development Corporation Network, who especially on the central Vermont side has they set up their own disaster center to actually submit applications to arrange for translations to help the BIPAC community apply for these grants. That's just one example, but there's also similar folks in Ludlow area, as well as the Hardwick and Caledonia counties. 690, how many businesses have got money so far? The 280 have been approved and about 169 have been paid out. So there is a queue of people waiting up to be paid. And there's also a queue of people they're under review. By talking about heating systems, do you have any information about how the Efficiency Vermont program is going, which is geared specifically towards helping make people whole and also upgrade? Yeah. Yeah, we're working with them to, to make sure that we are sharing this information. That's part of the reason we want to do the survey. And so we know the, what the unmet need is. We have no idea whether there's 50 or a thousand who need assistance in terms of their heating systems. So when we get that information, then we'll be working with all the, the associations as well as with, with Efficiency Vermont to be sure that we're, we're getting all the information to these, these victims, flood victims to make them whole. Have you, have you heard anything about the data? I have, have you heard anything? I actually don't know that it's actually been deployed yet. I still think it's in development. One of the things I have the floor, I did want to mention is the timing of the deployment of additional money from the B gap is hopefully going to be very helpful with that because this money can be stacked or braided together with that. So hopefully you know, landlords or businesses that need to you know, install new heating systems or move them can use that money to, to do that work. So I don't know who this is for, but you're saying the recipients of this survey are going to be people who have previously reported to FEMA that they have flood related damage to their heating systems. Yes. So they've done that. Then why wouldn't the issue have been resolved by FEMA? Well, again, they may have received their assistance, but they have not had their heating systems repaired. And that could be due to supply chain issues or not being able to find the help to do it. And we want to link that together so that that's part of our challenge. It's not just the, the financial end. It is actually finding the tradespeople to do the work. And if there's, if there's a gap somehow, we want to help put that together. So this is you're getting the sense you're worried based on these anecdotes that you've been hearing that you're going to get into a place where people don't have heat when they need you. So this is. Yeah, when you see that, yeah, when you start seeing the temperature drop and I hear some of the stories and anecdotally, we want to make sure that we're doing everything we can to meet the need. And that could be in different ways. And it's not, as I said, it may not just be financial. It might be just trying to find someone from out of the area. Or if there's so much that that the in state resources can't, can't help or there's a supply chain issue in state that we can. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for being here. I want to start with some important information for those who had furnaces damaged in the flood. With cold weather right around the corner, I asked my team to find a way to help those who haven't repaired or replaced their heating systems. Anecdotally, we've heard that some are struggling to get them fixed for a variety of reasons, including supply chain issues and finding someone to actually do the work. So we want to help fill these gaps when we can. But first, we need to know who and where they are. So we've been working to get the data from FEMA. So we know who reported these damages and we received that information this past week. As a result, we'll be sending out a survey to over 1,000 individuals to get more information. So if you report damage to your heating system and you receive a survey from a vermont.gov email address, please help us by responding. But please make sure you check the email address, and it is a vermont.gov email. That's vermont spelled out and .gov. And if you didn't damage to your heating system, you shouldn't be responding to a survey or getting a survey. So be aware if you do. And it's just about the scams that might come along with that once you announce something like this. We'll have more on this next week and Chief Recovery Officer Farnam will address some other questions about heating system repairs and the FEMA process in a few minutes. But first, we have an update on our business assistance program, BGAP, to get more funding to businesses, landlords, and nonprofits who were impacted by this summer's flood. We'll also hear from a couple of business owners, Jen Roberts from Onion River Outdoors and Erica Hayes from Cambridge Village Market about their experiences and recovery efforts. As a reminder about the BGAP program, shortly after the flooding, we announced this $20 million program that provided grants up to $20,000 to help employers impacted by the floods. The goal was to help businesses reopen as fast as possible. And thanks to the good work of the Agency of Commerce and Community Development and the Agency of Digital Services, we were able to create the program from scratch and get the checks out the door in under 30 days. In the first phase, we set a cap of $20,000 because we wanted to help as many employers as possible and to get a sense of the financial need before committing the entire $20 million. But now that employers have had several weeks to apply, we know there's over 120 million in unmet needs. So in the next phase we're going to remove the $20,000 cap and increase the percentage so we can close the gap a little bit more. Now that many of these small businesses have reopened, this additional money should make sure they can stay open, which is equally as important. I've asked the e-board to convene tomorrow to move forward with these updates. And I'll now turn it over to Commissioner Goldstein for more of the details. Thanks, Governor. Good morning. As the governor mentioned, we are making some tweaks to the BGAP program as we look to the money out to impacted businesses, nonprofits and landlords as they continue to recover from the physical damages sustained through the July flooding. Previously, the program issued grants of 20 percent of net damages but up to a cap of $20,000. If entities suffered more than a million dollars worth of damage, they had an opportunity to go higher than $20,000, but it was based on how many employees they had. Today we're announcing that a grant percentage to 30 percent of net damages and we are removing the $20,000 cap. For entities with damages over $1 million, we are removing the employee number and keeping the cap at the lesser of $500,000 and 20 percent of uncovered damages. This means if a business applied, previously applied, applied and reported damages of $300,000, they were approved for a grant of $20,000. With this change, that same business will now be eligible to receive a $90,000 grant to help recover and reopen. Businesses, nonprofit organizations and landlords who have already applied for BGOP will not have to apply again. The department will be making changes to the payments for those applications that are still under review and for those applicants that have already received a check, we will be issuing a mental check to cover the difference. When this program launched, as the governor said, it was less than a month after the floods, we wanted to cast as wide a net as possible to make sure no one was left behind, which is why caps were put in place. We really unaware of the amount of the need and we knew that we had limited state funding to address the need. Now that we're seeing these applications coming in and what is reported, we know of damage and more than 600 businesses and landlords and farms have applied for the program. We have been continually assessing the need versus the state money, the state funding available throughout this process and feel that the shift in this program will deliver much more value to the businesses who need it most who are working so hard to get back on their feet and their doors open or their apartment as much as we can to get the money out the door and hope that this added financial relief will help many of our hardest hit areas of the state to continue to come back online this fall. I now, the governor introduced the members of the business community. I'm going to pass this now over to Erica Hayes from the Cambridge Village Market. Thank you. Good morning. My name is Erica Hayes. I am Linda Fry. We purchased the market back on June 15th, just three short weeks before the flood. The market was built in the 1850s and it has been the heart of the village ever since. We knew we had to keep the doors open and we knew we had to bounce back one way or another not only as business owners but for the community as well. What we did not expect was how quickly our incredible staff and the assistance and guidance from the governor's office and the other state programs and state employees that have helped us along the way. The first $20,000 grant was more than helpful and now knowing that the additional assistance that we will be receiving is going to put us in a much better position to recover and to fulfill our vision for the market and for the community. And we will be able to completely recover and we have gained so much more out of this process. We know our local community relies on us and we rely on them as well. With that I will hand it over to Jen. Thank you. Hi, my name is Jen Roberts. I'm the owner of Onion River Outdoors in Montpelier. I was born and raised in Montpelier. When the rain started on July 10 I was not alarmed. Our store's basement forms part of the channel that guides the north branch of the Winnuski River through downtown Montpelier. Water in the basement is a fact of life for us. We knew to watch the informal river gauge on the side of the Landon Street Bridge the river hit that CB level. Throughout the afternoon, the forecast worsened and the tone and volume of warning emails from our downtown business association increased. Still, we were not alarmed. In 2011, we had water above knee height in the basement. We knew what to do. We put out the call for help from our friends, customers and coworkers, and they showed up to move inventory. An army of volunteers moved through the rooms of the basement, diligently lifting items to the highest shelves. Surely, we thought the water wouldn't rise above waist height. The last time it did was because of a fluke, an ice jam in the river. The time before that was the great flood of 1927, before we had the protection of rights built down. We knew we were taking the right steps to protect our business. Later in the evening, we realized we needed to bring the volunteers back to get everything out of the basement. We put out the call a second time, and again, our friends and customers and coworkers came back to help move more items up to the main floor. This time, they couldn't work for long. The water was rising too quickly and they became concerned about the safety of being in the basement with so much water pressure against the outside wall. By the time we realized that we needed to move items even higher than the first floor, the river was shinned deep in the parking lot and threatening to cut off the roots out of town. We left one last brave soul who was determined to keep pumping out the basement, and we rode our bikes home through the deluge. We've all seen the devastation that followed, as well as the tremendous outpouring of help from our communities. Day after day, people gave time, energy and money. Two months on, Montpelier is still drying out and still rebuilding. Only a few shops have been able to reopen so far, and ours has not been one of them. The hurdles have been enormous. Wet buildings, mold, toxic mud, a shortage of skilled labor to rebuild our stores, lack of federal aid for small businesses, and a summer when the rain never seemed to stop. The BGAP funds that our state government provided were for some businesses the only aid they would receive. The initial allotment started our path to recovery. Lifting the cap is going to help Onion River and many other businesses reopen and recover sooner than we could have without this help. When I heard about the additional funding, my relief brought tears to my eyes. We have all learned from this summer's flooding that we need to help each other in coordinated ways, thinking ahead, establishing rainy day funds and preparing emergency response plans. This is why we organize ourselves into a state government, and these are the times we rightly rely on this, our larger communities help to recover. With this additional BGAP assistance, Onion River and other small businesses will reopen sooner, re-employ our staff and get them off of unemployment sooner, and help our downtowns recover their basic services for the good of our whole community. Thank you. We'll now turn it over to Doug Farnham. Thank you, Jen. So I'd like to start out by talking about one specific type of situation as the governor referenced it's related to heating systems. If you received a FEMA individual assistance award for damage to your home and involves your heating system or any other short term repairs that could make it habitable before winter, even if you are considering a buyout in the long term, please go ahead with those repairs. Don't wait. You go ahead with those repairs and keep your receipts as long as you keep your receipts so that you can demonstrate to the state and FEMA down the road that you use that award for immediate repairs to reoccupy, it will not affect the amount of your buyout. So we are committed to working with FEMA and the municipalities to address the buyouts and the interest that there is currently in those, in buyouts. There's over 200 households that have inquired about buyouts, but it will take time to work through that. And it would be disingenuous of me to say that we're going to have the buyout situation resolved before the winter starts. So please, if you received an award to repair your heater, to do things that you would need in order to reoccupy for this winter, move ahead with that. Keep your receipts. And if your expense exceeds what FEMA awarded you, if you're within that 60-day appeal period, please go back to FEMA with those, with that documentation and appeal. There's no harm in appealing. It won't affect your original award, particularly when you have evidence that the costs exceeded what FEMA originally estimated the damage would take to repair. Tied into that, I would say if you applied for individual assistance and you received an award shortly after the flood, some of you may be coming up on the end of your 60-day appeal window. I would encourage you to just take another look at your award, at what it has cost you in the meantime, and make sure you don't miss an opportunity to appeal if you haven't. Obviously, if you're satisfied and you see that the expenses line up with the award you received, that's great. But if you feel like you have evidence that shows you should get a larger award, I can't promise your award will be adjusted, but I do know that FEMA will accept that appeal as long as within the 60-day window, and they will look at the facts of your situation. When I say keep your receipts, please keep your receipts, I would recommend for at least two or three years. Because you don't know, as we have community discussions over the next year or two, what may come into scope as far as buyouts or other options. So we wouldn't want you to be harmed down the road because you had an individual assistance award that you used, but you didn't have the receipts to show you used it on the appropriate expenses. So please keep them for several years at a minimum. I would also like to thank FEMA and General Roy for the extension of the individual assistance period and remind people we are still getting applications for individual assistance. That is going through October 12th, and as a Vermonner that grew up in the Northeast Kingdom, it's difficult for me to ask for help. And I just want to say please, please go come forward. If you haven't applied for individual assistance, we still have disaster recovery centers open. You can still call in and register through October 12th. You can still start that process. So you have not missed your opportunity to get some assistance, and that could be related to your home or it could be related to rental assistance if you're unable to live in your home. I'd also say in the realm of the direct housing program, please, if you do not have your own home right now, if you are unhoused because of the flood, please engage with FEMA and let them know that you need help in that area. If you are moving around between friends and family and your situation is uncertain going into the winter, we want to make sure that FEMA knows that you may need help and that the only way for them to know that is for you to come forward and engage with them. I recognize that this has been a traumatic event for hundreds of households. It's not thousands. Um, but I do think if you come forward and engage, it's very likely we'll be able to give you more help than you have right now. And I think it will be worth it. So thank you now. Turn it over to General Roy from FEMA. Thank you, Governor. Thank you so much for the opportunity to be here with you today. Um, I asked the governor if I could have a couple minutes today just to talk about the appeals process. I'm not going to read from my speech at all. I'm going to speak to you with my fellow Vermonters. Um, you know, we have over 360 people here in Vermont focused on their recovery. Um, and we still have four disaster recovery centers open. We, uh, the governor in one of our morning meetings the other day talked about a gentleman he met in a local store who had been impacted by the storm. Um, and was getting a second loan for his property. The governor asked him, Have you talked to female budget status? Well, they gave me a denial letter. Um, and that's the challenge is people will get the letters. We talked about this upfront. In fact, we had meetings with the staffers congressional staffers to go over the ineligibility letters that it doesn't mean that you're you're denied. It just means that you may be in a state where we need more information from you to help you. As a direct results of that, the team that we have here in Vermont have conducted over 7,900 calls to applicants as a direct results of those calls and checking on the status as Doug talked about. We've added over 4.4 million dollars in assistance to those individuals because that we've updated their status. Um, you know, for monitors are a true race of people. I think Calvin Coolidge said that will literally beggar themselves in service of others. In this case, they don't want to take from somebody else. They think that if they asked for help, they're going to take it from somebody. And that's not the case. Um, so I know there's ton of great work that's going on out there in our disaster recovery centers. And so I asked for for just one vignette from our team to showcase what's going on and using you as an outlet to be able to put the word out to seek assistance from FEMA. Even if you've gotten assistance, you may be eligible for additional assistance. So I'm going to read it to you right here. Um, a gentleman came into the DRC disaster recovery center with his granddaughter to inquire about his case. He felt he wasn't giving the whole story. We felt he wasn't giving the whole story, but he wouldn't disclose any extra information while he was talking to the mitigation staff. His daughter told us that he was homeless sleeping in his truck or his shed with no water or electricity and he had many health issues. She didn't think he would endure the winter weather. Before they left the disaster recovery center, the gentleman said he wasn't looking for a handout and didn't want to accept the food voucher. He believed it was for the less fortunate. He explained that we are here to help. We explained that we're here to help everybody, regardless of loss of loss, income or social status and that the government is here to assist you. We went over the information he would need to submit to FEMA to get assistance. After all the documents were submitted, he was awarded housing assistance, other needs assistance and rental assistance. He actually shed tears when he learned of the funds that he was being awarded. It's just one small example of what's going on in our disaster recovery centers as people come in and request for assistance. So I implore upon you to help us get the word out. Here we are in the extended window for individual assistance, which is supposed to end on September 12th. We are still at about 75 percent rate of people applying for assistance who are eligible for assistance. So that means that people are out there who are eligible for help that have yet to apply. So we have a couple weeks left and anything you can do to help us get the word out for people to approach FEMA and get the assistance that is available for them, we'd be grateful for. So with that, thank you so much. Governor, back to you. Thank you very much. We'll now open it up to questions. The importance of expanding the assistance to businesses, especially with the fall season coming up and a lot of businesses getting ready to welcome and influx of visitors. Well, we have a variety of businesses. Some are attached to tourism. Some are just from day-to-day operations, manufacturing and so forth. So this, you know, that when we first put this into place, as I said before, we had to put a cap on it because we didn't know how far the money would go. We didn't know the extent of the unmet need. And so we put the cap in intentionally so that we could get through the first phase. Now that we know, we know that there's that $120 million of unmet need, this $20 million isn't going to satisfy all of that. But lifting the cap, this $20,000 cap, lifting that and then being able to provide for 30% of their damages will go a long ways towards that. So as we open up for the season, Cambridge Market being one right on a corridor that where we have a lot of visitors from out of state and they'll be open and ready to go and be able to provide for the traffic that we expect in the height of the season. So again, whether you're a fixed business, manufacturing business or one that relies on tourism as well as local trade, this is going to be essential, I believe. Yeah, how much money is left to be get this out of that 20 million? How much is left? We, I believe it's about 16 million. But go ahead. Yeah, we've, we've committed about $6 million so far. But we will have, there's some applications in process. So we estimate that there is 10 million more to spend on this enhancement. What are the mission army for the governor to? What else do you expect to ask of the eboard tomorrow? If you look, are you looking for more money in this? Are there any other requests that you're looking for? Yeah, we aren't asking for anything at this point. We wanted to update them on where we're going with this and make sure that they know because when we went into the on the first eboard meeting, we asked for the 20 million and we told them we were what we were doing. We just wanted to let them know about the second phase and make sure they were all on board with this, which they have as short as they are. There's $120 million and I'm at the $20 million program. Does upping the cap functionally mean that there are going to be some businesses that don't get any money because other businesses are getting more money? We believe everyone will be covered under this lifting the cap as well as raising it to 30% other than the higher end, which Commissioner Goldstein had said I talked about in her remarks, but everyone will be covered on this for this next phase. Yeah, the way we came to the percentage was looking at all of the outstanding applications. So we'll preface that by saying if there's a new a brand new application that comes in, we can't guarantee anything, but we're thinking since this has been out for about a month and a half. You know, we have 600 applications that it will be able to cover everybody. So does that mean that if there's $120 million in unmet need and you think that this $20 million is going to suffice for this program that a lot of those businesses that suffer those losses are just not applying for assistance? We do expect that there are some businesses that are not applying. That could either mean that they're working on this on their own, but we've also accounted for additional take up in this regard, not not a whole deluge, but we are estimating that there may be people more interested since there is not a cap that answers your question. Is the state doing anything to kind of make sure that this money isn't gobbled up pretty quickly by a few large actors that, you know, will have the staff to apply to grants and not overlooking, you know, some small businesses that may have barriers to doing that, you know, so like BIPACO and businesses, only with barriers, etc. Yeah, so there of the 600 applications, there's only about 20 that are the over a million dollars worth of damage. That doesn't mean that they're the larger business, it just means they have the largest impact of the physical damage. The rest, most of the applicants are in the from zero to $250,000 worth of damage. So, you know, are there businesses that aren't applying perhaps, but we continue to promote it in every one of our newsletters press conferences that people should go out and apply for this. I think two on one, collected information that about a thousand businesses were impacted and we have 600 applications. So clearly there are people not not applying. But is the state contemplating any specific outreach to communities that might not know how to apply, not know to apply, other than just Yes, I mean, we, we are working through the Regional Development Corporation Network, who especially on the central Vermont side has they set up their own disaster center to actually submit applications to arrange for translations to help the BIPAC community apply for these grants. That's just one example. But there's also similar folks in Ludlow area, as well as the Hardwick and Caledonia counties. That's six million, I mean, businesses have got money so far. The 280 have been approved and about 169 have been paid out. So there is a queue of people waiting up to be paid. And there's also a queue of people that are under review. By talking about heating systems. Do you have any information about how the efficiency of Vermont program is going, which is specifically towards helping make people pull and also upgrade? Yeah, yeah, we're working with them to to make sure that we are sharing this information. That's part of the reason we want to do this survey. And so we know the what the unmet need is we have no idea whether there's 50 or 1000 who need assistance in terms of their heating system. So when we get that information, then we'll be working with all the the associations as well as with with efficiency for Mont to be sure that we're we're getting all the information to these these victims flood victims to make them whole. I have heard anything. I actually don't know that it's actually been deployed yet. I still think it's in development. One of the things I have the floor I didn't want to mention is the timing of the deployment of additional money from the B gap is hopefully going to be very helpful with that because this money can be stacked or braided together with that. So hopefully, you know, landlords or businesses that need to, you know, install new heating systems or move them can use that money to to do that work. So I don't know who this is for, but you're saying the recipients of this survey are going to be people who have previously reported to FEMA that they have flood related damage to their heating systems. Yes. So they've done that. Then why would the issue have been resolved by FEMA? Well, again, they may have received their assistance, but they have not had their heating systems repaired. And that could be due to supply chain issues, or not being able to find the help to do it. And we want to link that together so that that's part of our challenge. It's not just the financial end. It is actually finding the trades people to do the work. And if there's if there's a gap somehow, we want to help put that together. So this is you're getting the sense you're worried based on these anecdotes you've been hearing, getting to a place where people don't have heat when they need you. So this is Yeah, when you see that, yeah, when you start seeing the temperature drop. And I hear some of the stories and anecdotally, we want to make sure that we're doing everything we can to meet the need. And that could be in different ways. And it's not, as I said, it may not just be financial. It might be just trying to find someone from out of the area. Or if there's so much that that the in state resources can't can't help, or there's a supply chain issue in state, that we can use whatever means we can to reach out of state to provide for for help. So the state you can envision contracting with out of state or at least bringing them in, you know, reaching out to to bring people in if we need to, we may not, but we just don't know what the what the spectrum provides. And if you reach out to the monitor response to the survey and says, Yeah, I reported this flood damage. I was denied by them. So I don't have the money to replace it. Is the state going to step in? We will work with them. And again, we would implore that they appeal their FEMA denial, as General Roy had talked about before. And as I advocate for many people, the situation when I was in the store talking with someone who who said that they were taking out a loan, because they got denied by FEMA, he wasn't complaining. He said, I just, you know, I had to take out a loan for $10,000. And I'm going to need another two. He said, I'm going to have to go back. And he wasn't complaining about that at all. But I said, did you did you appeal the FEMA denial? And he said, No, he said, I just got the letter. And I said, I'll just there's other people who need the help. And I'll just I'll just do this on my own. So that that's when I talked with our team about this, that I think this is this is something that FEMA expects appeal it if you if you disagree, appeal the FEMA, FEMA response. And that's why we wanted to make sure that we're communicating that. If someone is paid out, let's just say $5 or $6,000, which is well below the cap of $41,000 or $2,000, can they and they've already spent that because they needed to get that money out the door, fix up the board. Can they appeal that leave? They can't but I'll have Sam, do you want to jump in at all? So we're close to have Sam Harvey with us. He's one of our individual assistance experts. And so Good morning, I'm Sam Harvey. I work with FEMA on the individual assistance side. So to get to your question, yes, if somebody received, let's say $5,000 from FEMA, specifically for their HVAC, to repair, replace it, and they get an estimate or a quote that says it's going to cost $10,000 to fix it. And they've already put $5,000 towards it. They can still come back to FEMA file an appeal, say, you know, I received this much. My estimates are for this much. I have a document to show it. And through that appeal process may be awarded the remaining $5,000 to get to that total amount. But they have to have the documentation for whatever project Yeah, it would require either a contractor estimate or a contractor quote or invoice, something official that we can verify. We'll call them back and say, Is this your quote? And if so, we can move forward with the appeal. How many applications applications you guys have received so far in total and how much money has gone out since the disaster was declared? Specific to HVAC or just in terms of individual assistance in individual assistance, we're right around the I believe it's just over 7500 applications that have come in. And around 17 to 18 million dollars has gone out to Vermonters for everything from housing repair, personal reprop personal property replacement, as well as temporary housing rental assistance. Do you know the average size of the payout? Obviously, it varies a fair bit. But the average payment is around $6,000 to $7,000. My consternation about replenishing FEMA's budget, if we find ourselves in a situation where the money is depleted, and there hasn't been a replacement, would FEMA be able to use the immediate needs funding provision in order to continue? He's got a phone in front of him. Would you all be able to invoke the immediate needs funding provision or would they continue giving out assistance? So immediate needs funding is already in place right now. And so as we stand right now, funding for a public assistance programs is on hold with the exception of some very specific requests. So if I have a project that we really need funding for, that's for permanent repairs, we work one-on-one with FEMA for that. But if it's for emergency, for protective measures, that's covered. Related to same issue related to SBA and USDA, if we have a government shutdown on October 1, there's no funding. Would that interrupt SBA and USDA's ability to administer their disaster programs? I don't know. I apologize. I don't know that. One last question for you while you're here. I'll clear city council, the preliminary approval to let FEMA site 36 trailers on a parcel outside of downtown. Can you talk about what's happened since they gave that go out? Certainly. Yep. We continue to work with them, looking at the infrastructure, the size of the water main you would need for it, how it would lay out, the electrical systems, et cetera. So we have contractors right now working that with the city and the state to do a layout of what that site would look like. What level of confidence do you have right now that this is going to be a viable project? I have a strong level of confidence. The only question is the longevity of it. Obviously, there's a desire if at all possible for it to be permanency to it. Right now, that's not assured for us. We continue to work with the state and the city on potentials for it. If there's another plot we can move it to or adjust, you know, that would be optimum for both the residents as well as, you know, for Vermont, for housing overall. So that's that's the discussion we're looking for. But programmatically, you know, FEMA's mission is to get people who are displaced from their homes into a home as quickly as we can. And so many times we put these in place, they're not permanent locations. They're temporary nature. And then at the end of 18 months, you know, they're placed somewhere else or they found something in the interim period, you know, ideally, we would like to be a permanent location. That's still under consideration. Solutions in the offing for the one. So in our we continue to look for those individuals and we have two categories, people who we're looking at for providing directly. So a finding an apartment, put them in that part or a mobile home unit and finding commercial pads. There are significant number of commercial pads available in Windsor. We're still exploring a lamoille to see how many may be available for that as an option. The populations for both those counties for direct housing right now are very small, I think eight and six, roughly speaking. So not a huge population. Obviously, when Washington County is the the biggest one. The last one is clear in your ideal world. You put the thirty six trailers on this lot. And after twenty four months, these folks have an opportunity for for a few to either donate those trailers or to them to buy those trailers and they can live there indefinitely. We'll go to 18 months because we haven't gone extended yet, but a good point. And certainly that would be ideal for everybody, right? It'd be ideal for female because we wouldn't have to go in and the expenses of picking them up and move them. It would help people who were displaced and now have a permanent place to live and it would help the housing stock for Vermont. So yes, sir. Is thirty six trailers expected to take care of the needs of direct housing in Washington County? As we stand right now, we feel more than handle the population we have. What we don't know is as of the two hundred some odd people we've contacted and a number of them said, no, I'm good. If that they their status changes over time and all of a sudden it's like, hey, I need help. I thought I was going to be OK. I'm not. And so. But we do have a lot of data across the country on on what we start with and when we end with. And typically you start with a large population and by the time everything is set up, it's a smaller population. The good news, I think for FEMA, is that the state and has leaned so far forward so quickly that, you know, well, we're going to have them set up and, you know, and relatively short period of time as housing is concerned. I have a clarifying question about what you asked about earlier. You were asking about what happens if FEMA runs out of money. But did you ask or did you answer specifically? What happens, you know, if there's a government shutdown? Can you guys still pick up the phone if someone is applying for individual assistance? So all the staff that we have here in the field are all paid out of the disaster response. Really fun. So so we whether the shutdown or not, we continue working and in the programs that we have back in headquarters fall under the stipulation that they are critical. And so they continue to work as well. So that would slow down someone's individual. I was the wonder that you've contacted. How many have said that they're interested in? We had a population around 57 to begin with. And I think it's slowly whittling down onesies and twosies. Households or how many of those are the same? 57 applicants. Got you. Yeah. Can we just talk about the development of that area? Do you guys have a goal in terms of how long it would take? Well, our goal is to have have everybody in place within 90 days of having it having it started. Now, you know, there are always challenges, right? For infrastructure, anybody who's been involved in building a house, you realize that there are challenges here, but that's our goal. We as you see right on the trailer, right? We have the mobile housing units available. We have, you know, we have a number of right now, a small number positioned. But it's a two day move from where they're at to get here. So it's really about laying the infrastructure. That area is a very flat area. So just what challenges do you guys foresee with development? Well, we've got some really experienced contractors. In fact, one of the individual, the Secretary of Transportation was talking to him. He's been home one year out of last seven. So they've got a lot of experience doing this. And I'm more more than assured that there will be no challenges. And of course, working with the state and the city to ensure that that, you know, the properties developed appropriately. So it's not subject to precipitation. You said 90 days from the start, you guys, do you have any idea in terms of talks with the city when that might start? Well, within, I say a couple of weeks of that, yeah. I wanted to get back to that 6,000, 7,000 dish number from individual assistance. I mean, are you when those checks are going out? Are are are you hearing appeals from people? Are you hearing that that number is satisfactory to to help people recover? What? Yeah, that's a good question. How many how many of the 5,775? I think this morning was the actual number have applied. Now, of that number, I think 120 of them are from residents in counties that are not declared, Frank Addison, etc. So the good question is how many of those people who've received initial funding have come back based upon a letter we provided them. I'm not sure we can certainly get that to you. But when you take a look at at the fact that, you know, we've got our initial estimate was around 6,100 people based upon the population, you know, in the impacts. We're at 5,700 now. So we're we're getting there each day. It's smaller numbers around 13 or so. I think it was yesterday for people who who have registered. But it's eligibility letters, right? Like and I've said many times to you, right? Life changes. You thought you had enough and all something changed. Please continue to call us, you know, reach out, go to the disaster recovery centers. That's the perfect place to go to sit down with folks to talk about what's going on to provide you additional assistance. Did you say 90 days to get those trailers cited and happenable, but one after you start? Yes, sir. That's that's that's our typical goal. Yes, sir. That would put us into January. What are those folks doing in the interim? So right now, many of them are friends and families. So they found something temporarily to stay in until such time as it set up. But the challenge for us is is that every month that goes by, they may find something out of the permanent solution. An apartment may have opened up for them. It's like, hey, great, I got another place I can go to. People on the phone before you go to them, I think Secretary Curley has a quick update. I just wanted to clarify that it looks like Efficiency Vermont does have that program online. I didn't want to spread misinformation. I also want to keep Peter walking my good graces, but I want to make sure folks that they are going out there and applying because that's really important money. Again, it's grant money. So Efficiency Vermont does have that on their website at efficiencyvermont.com. We'll go to Tim McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine. Hi, Governor. I just wanted to be clear on the big how it works. So what you're providing is net of basically less of insurance or less money from Vermont Community Foundation or the Montpelier Recovery Group. That's correct. Yeah, so the way it gets calculated is people will put in their total damages and from that, any money that they expect to receive from insurance, any money from the Community Foundation or any other charitable organization funds, and we are taking the percentage from the net damage figure. You know, with the pandemic funding, there's the federal government has tried to claw back some money because of just the financing. I mean, I could see a scenario in which a business could get a lot more money down the line. Would they, would you seek to maybe grab back some of the money because it would go over the percentage you were talking, that net percentage you were talking about? Yeah, I mean, we think that we've built in a fair amount of cushion by paying 30%, but we will be monitoring somewhat afterwards to see where people finally ended up, but we anticipate just from the applications that I've seen, the gaps are tremendous. I mean, there's really hardly anyone who's getting a large insurance payout. I could just say that as a general comment. So I appreciate the question, but I do think that we're allowing for that cushion and within six months or six months after, we'll probably do some follow-up. I see the big license plate behind you. I know that some of the license plate funds were gonna come in and support this program. Has there been any money or did you anticipate very much money from that for the big gap? I just heard from our finance people that we've received $250,000 from it so far. Oh, that's pretty good. We at the big gap, yes. Yeah. Yeah. And just a quick question on FEMA. The 18 months that General Moray has talked about, the clock doesn't start ticking until someone receives that direct housing benefit, regardless of whether it's the motel or the trailer. Is that correct? That's 18 months from date of declaration. So it's 18 months from July 14th. Okay, so the clock is already ticking. Yes, sir. It goes until like January or February of 2025 then. I think January 25th and less is a state request and extension and it's approved. Okay, all right. Thank you very much. Yes, sir. Chris Roy before Daily Express. Chris Roy. One thing that's also available if you were flooded is presumably the state motel program to get 84 days if you were affected by natural disaster. Do we have any information about how many people are availing themselves of that? I wonder if Commissioner Winters might be on the line, might be able to answer that question. I am here, Governor. I'm sorry, I missed the question. What was the question? I believe that if you're affected by natural disaster, you get, I think it's 84 days for the state motel program. Do we know how many people are staying in motels right now through that program because of the flood? Thank you, that is correct. They do get 84 days under natural disaster and if you give me a few minutes, I'll get you that number. I don't have that in front of me. Sure, thanks. Update on roads. I know most state roads are back open, but maybe local and rural roads, what state roads are in? I make them give me this information every morning so he's well first. Good morning. As far as state roads, we still have two state roads that are fully closed and those will go toward the end of October before those are open. They're on schedule, they're on track, they're just going to take that time. We have eight state roads that are partially open and the longest that I see among those eight would be around the 10th of November. Those also are tracking on time, they just are going to take that much time. There are no state bridges that are currently closed. As far as local town roads, I don't really have that information, but what I can tell you is that Vermont Emergency Management and the SCOC continues to communicate with Vermont towns. AOT, for example today, is working in four Vermont towns with our technicians and those towns. We have good rapport with road departments every day of the year and I am not aware of requests of the state of Vermont for assistance for local roads at this point. And obviously, as you've heard, as far as the funding pieces, they may not always come together but we have rendered what assistance we could throughout this and if there's clearly any urgent or emergent situations that a town makes us aware of, we would address that or at least see what we could do to address that. Well, we have been helping with our temporary bridges. I believe right now we have seven temporary bridges out across the state and those are mostly all with local towns. Do you just have any sense of now we're two and a half-ish months out from this? What the totality, like what the dollar figure has been and what that means, do we have any sense what that dollar figure is? We continue to compile our numbers. Some of the agency of transportation's damages we will be working with FEMA on with respect to the active railroad and with respect to the Lamoa Valley Rail Trail and hopefully with respect to our central garage facility on Route 302 in Berlin down near the wayside diner because it's publicly owned so that would be FEMA eligible. As far as the state roads and bridges and culverts and things, those come under the highway administration. You may recall a month or so back we had a representative from federal highway. So that work continues. We're actually transitioning now to programming a lot of permanent projects that would ping the federal highway side. And so I don't have an end number yet. Okay, I can say that we are in the high tens of millions of dollars when it comes to rail damage at this point. Anything else? Thank you all very much.