 Welcome to this evening's town hall on Vermont's flooding disaster with Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Peter Welch, Congresswoman Becca Ballant and Governor Phil Scott. My name is Katie VanHase and I'm State Director for Senator Bernie Sanders. We appreciate you joining this evening and look forward to an excellent conversation. We will be providing information to you today about assistance for individuals, homeowners, farms, displaced employees and small businesses impacted by the flooding. Tonight, our Vermont congressional delegation and governor are joined by state and federal officials who will help provide information and answer your questions about the state's emergency response, insurance coverage and many other issues. If you want to ask a question this evening, please press star three at any time to connect with one of our team members. Again, that is star three. We will take your name, your town and your question. We are going to do our best tonight to get to as many of you as possible. And in order to do that, we ask that you keep your questions as concise as possible. So again, to ask a question at any time during the event, press star three. With that, it is my pleasure to introduce your Senator Bernie Sanders. Welcome, Senator. Thank you very much, Katie. And let me thank everybody who's on the line for joining us tonight for what I hope and expect will be an important and informative discussion. And a special thanks go out to Senator Peter Welch, Congressman Becca Ballin, Governor Phil Scott, and a number of federal and state agency heads who are on the phone as well, including Will Roy, who is the FEMA Federal Coordinated Officer for Vermont, Darcy Carter, who is the District Director of the Small Business Administration, Sarah Waring, who is the State Director of the USDA Rural Development Agency, John Roberts, who is the State Executive Director of the USDA Farm Service Agency. Thank you all very much for being on the phone tonight. The agency heads and your elected officials are going to do our best to provide you with the permanent information that you need and to answer any questions that you might have. After you hear from the elected officials and the agency heads, we're going to open up the phone lines and we're going to try to take as many questions as we possibly can. We have already received almost 200 questions from Vermonters in advance of this town meeting. We're obviously not going to be able to answer all of them tonight, but we will be getting back to every single person who has written in with the question. I don't have to explain to anybody who has been impacted by the flooding as to what that has meant. It has disrupted people's lives. It has driven them out of their homes and businesses and run up huge bills in many cases, which many people are simply not able to afford. So pure and simple this has been, as we all know, a disaster for Vermont. During the last several weeks, Governor Scott, Senator Welch, Congressman Ballant and I have been working hard to make sure that the federal government responds as effectively and rapidly as it can. People are hurting and they need help as soon as possible and I'm appreciative that the Biden administration has been supportive of those efforts. What this town meeting tonight is designed to do is to get the word out about what you may be entitled to and share some information about the application process. Unfortunately, this process can be complicated. So please get your pen and paper out so that you can jot down the contact information that you'll need, phone numbers and websites. Let me just give you some information as to where we are at this moment in Vermont in terms of the application process. To date, more than 2,600 Vermonters have applied for individual assistance. FEMA has visited over 6,000 homes and more than 330 businesses. FEMA has approved 684 individual assistance applications so far, totaling over $4 million in aid to Vermonters, and the SBA has approved $770,000 in 16 loans to homeowners. As we speak, some 450 FEMA staff are in Vermont assessing damage and assisting with signups. 14 teams are going door to door to help residents sign up for FEMA. I should also mention that the federal delegation has written to the private insurance companies in the state to make sure that they treat all Vermonters with respect and pay out the claims that policyholders are entitled to. If people are having problems with their private insurance companies, please don't hesitate to give our offices a ring. Lastly, clearly more work needs to be done on disaster relief. And Senator Welch, Congresswoman Ballant and I working with the governor are working on legislation that is designed to address the too many gaps in what the federal government is currently funded to do in terms of disaster relief. So with that, let me introduce Senator Peter Welch for brief remarks. Peter. Thank you, Bernie. First of all, having traveled the state with Governor Scott with you, Bernie, and with Congresswoman Ballant, and to see the suffering in just the devastation that people have experienced on their farms, crops that were in and now can't be harvested, homes that people have lived in for 30, sometimes 40 years raised their kids and don't know whether they're going to be able to keep it going. And of course, businesses along main streets and many of our villages where the real question is whether we can reopen. It's really heartbreaking. And it's been incredibly inspiring to see how Vermonters have come to the aid of other Vermonters. But at the end of the day, there's a reality that folks face about their homes, about their businesses, about their farms, and can they hang on and keep going. And our job, all of us, the governor in the congressional delegation is to do everything that we possibly can to get you to the other side and come out of this. We in the congressional delegation are going to coordinate our efforts to try to be as responsive to as many Vermonters as quickly as we can. And that secondly, I want to say that what we're hearing from homeowners and from businesses is that loans don't cut it, grants are what they need. And that is going to be something that we have to contend with. But that decision that businesses have to make, that decision that homeowners have to make, especially in this really tight housing market, is very, very tough. But we pledge that we will work as closely together to make certain that we can do as much as possible, as quickly as possible. We're going to do that. But one final thing is really, really, really important for us here in Washington, Bernie, Becca, and me to have documentation or an estimate of what the damages are because we're going to be seeking to get money from disaster relief that is going to help for Vermonters, farms, businesses in families. So document your loss to 1-1. And that's a big ask because a lot of folks are just going day to day trying to keep things together. But that is a tool that we need in order to be in a position to be as helpful as possible. So thank you. And I thank the governor. Bernie, thank you so much for putting this together and Becca for being out there. And we pledge to work together. Thank you. Peter, thanks very much. Now we'll turn it over to Congresswoman Becca Ballant. Thank you so much, Senator. What I want to just add is that we know from touring Vermont that there's been so many people who have turned out to help. When the adrenaline kicks in and you just work so hard in conjunction with your neighbors and your friends in your community. And now that we're getting to be a couple weeks out, that's when people are looking around taking stock of all that they've lost. And this is in some ways the hardest time when we try to assess who's going to fall through the cracks. And I know that we as a delegation are very concerned about those people who are not going to qualify. And we are going to try to turn over every single stone that we can and talk to any agency head, any director of a program that we can to try to get help to Vermonters who may be not eligible for the programs that we'll be talking about tonight. So we are, as Peter and Bernie said, our offices are all working closely together. Our staff know that this is the most important work that they are doing right now. And I'm going to keep my remarks brief because I know we have a lot of questions from Vermonters. Thank you. Becca, thank you very much. Next up is Governor Phil Scott. And Governor, thanks very much for the hard work you and your office are doing. Thank you very much, Senator Sanders. And I want to start by stating the obvious. We have a very long, rough road ahead of us because we'll recover from this historic catastrophic flooding. And to be clear, I know how devastating this has been for all of you. I want to assure you, we'll get through this. But it's important that we stick together as Vermonters in order to do it. But politics aside and so forth, which we've done in other emergencies. For over two weeks now, we focus on the emergency itself prioritizing life and safety. But hopefully, although I'm a little worried about tomorrow with the worst of the rain subsiding, we're now transitioning into the recovery phase. And this work starts really at the local level. So we need to make sure the municipalities are communicating, sharing needs with our state emergency operations center. That's important. And that includes federal and community partners who are going out into the impact of towns and villages to help wherever they can. Our federal partners have been a tremendous help with well over 400 numbers of FEMA on the ground with us. So is the SBA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And again, we've been staying in close contact with Senator Sanders, Senator Welch and Representative Ballant and their staff, as well as the White House to make sure they know what we need. And by the way, they they've all been really, really great to deal with. So I appreciate that. And I think we all know we're going to need more help, federal help because we're just not going to be able to do this on our own. But here's something again, I want to reiterate with you in order to get help for individuals from FEMA. I requested that major disaster preparation up to the entire state. And at that point, each county is analyzed to certify overall needs. So as of today, each counties have been approved by FEMA. But I know there are many in the undeclared counties, especially Orleans and Addison, who need our help, who need federal help but haven't yet met the threshold. So if you suffered any damage to your home at all or property, report your damage to 211. And I know it may not seem like a priority to make a report when dealing with all you have to deal with. And some don't want to ask for the help because they feel as though they can take care of this themselves. And many humble promoters have told me, I don't want to take money away from those who really need it. But it's important to report that damage to 211, not just for yourself, but because it helps everyone, it helps your neighbors. So please do that. And remember, this is damage to personal property, so it includes homes, garages, equipment, vehicles. It's pretty broad. And this reporting will help FEMA make its determinations about whether a county is eligible for individual assistance. So if there's one takeaway from this meeting, it's that we need your help to report your damage or help others do the same. So go to vermont211.org or just call 211. And I know you're getting a lot of information today, but here's the bottom line. We're all in this together. And it's going to take all of us pulling the same correction to see this through. Just like Irene the pandemic, we've seen Vermonters stepping up, neighbors helping neighbors donating to recovery funds and so much more. This is the Vermont watch. And it's why I know we'll get through this. And once again, show why we're Vermont strong and tough too. So thanks very much, Senator. I'll turn it back over to you. Thank you very much, Governor. Katie, did you want to jump in and tell folks how they will be able to ask a question? Yes, thanks very much, Senator. We are already taking calls and appreciate those of you who have already pressed star three to ask a question. Those who have yet to get this instruction, you can press star three on your phone at any time during this conversation to ask a question. Thank you, Senator. Thanks, Katie. Thanks, Katie. Now we're going to jump to some of our panelists who are in Vermont representing federal agencies. We're going to begin with Will Roy, who is the FEMA Federal Coordinating Officer for Vermont. Will, thanks a lot for being with us. Senator Sanders, thank you so very much. Senator Welch and Congressman Owen Ballant, thank you so much for opportunity to brief this evening. I'll give a quick overview. The original major disaster declaration that was issued by the president on the 14th of July has been amended five times. Since the original declaration, we've added two additional counties for individual assistance, Caledonia and Orange, and our Orleans is still under review, and 11 counties have been added for public assistance, meaning assistance to help rebuild the infrastructure, roads, bridges, buildings, et cetera. And also 100% of funding has been provided to the state for emergency protected measures for 30 days, meaning those activities that were took place for life-saving or life-sustaining activities. And I'll repeat a couple of numbers that Senator Sanders put out, but I think it's important to note that we have 464 people in Vermont right now helping. We have disaster survivor assistance teams that have visited over 6,800 homes, up all over 7,000 today, because this is as of yesterday, and 350 businesses. And in fact, we were able to surge to 19 communities today. We have seven of our mobile intake registration centers where people can go up to sign for assistance. We have, we're supporting two of the state's multi-agency resource centers. We have opened three disaster recovery centers in Waterbury, Barrie, and Rutland where people can go to sign up and also receive assistance if they're having difficulties with their application. We have, as of last evening, 3,074 residents have applied for individual assistance, and as the senator said, $4.7 million has been approved, and $4.2 million is in the bank account of individuals who have applied. We've also had over 2,000 homes inspected for damages, and over a thousand of those have been completed, and eight residents have received the maximum grant possible of $41,000. Some key points I would like to make. First, if you live in a declared county for individual assistance and have damages to your home, or if you rent to the property and have not yet applied for assistance for FEMA, please call 1-800-621-3362. From 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily, or go to disasterassistance.gov. Second, if you've already received assistance and are experiencing life changes, like you have a living in a home that's starting to have mold, contact FEMA to update your status. If you need to move, we can assist. Lastly, if you've been notified that you are ineligible for assistance please read the document very carefully. As it may be a simple fix, we may be looking for something as simple as an insurance claim. Call us or come see us at the disaster recovery centers at the Waterbury Armory and Waterbury, the Auditorium in Barrie, or 88 Merchant Street in Rutland, and we'll be opening up five additional ones in the next week. That's what I have to offer. Thank you. Well, thank you very much. Our next panelist is Darcy Carter. District Director of the Small Business Administration, the SBA. Darcy, thanks for being with us. Thank you, Senator Sanders. I'm happy to be here. Hello, everyone. Darcy Carter. I'm the local district director for the local Vermont SBA office. We do have assistance available now and we have been improving loans already. We've got some late-breaking information, Senator. Sorry I couldn't provide that sooner. We have approved 25 home loans, disaster loans for $1.275 million, and we have received overall 215 applications. So we know no one wants a loan. We totally get that, believe me. So we are working as hard as we can to make sure we are helping with the gap that's not going to be served by other programs. So we are working with all the other programs. We want you to know that. So Vermont is able to offer through SBA disaster assistance to homeowners, renters, businesses, private nonprofits, and that's to cover that uninsured loss that's not covered by any other sources such as insurance or grants, things like that. And this is, of course, due to the flood disaster. So our assistance, it is in the form of loans, not grants. These are very low interest loans. There's no payment the whole first year. No interest is accrued for the first year. So that gives you some time to consider other options. So we really strongly recommend that you take a look at the option of applying by the deadline because you can always decline the loan, but you can't apply after the deadline. So for physical disaster loans for all of those homeowners, renters, businesses, private nonprofits, it's September 12th of this year. So it's coming up pretty quickly. So we're here to help you. Like FEMA, we follow their lead. We are at the disaster centers. We have three business recovery centers. You can meet in person with people to go over the application and there is some foreign language assistance also available. We just heard through the FEMA assistance. So we encourage you to call us right 802-828-4422. Again, 828-4422, the local SBA office, and we will get you where you need to go to get the right assistance. Just briefly, just wanted to mention for homeowners, you can get up to 200,000 on the real estate damage, 40,000 for personal property, and that can include automobiles. The rate is 2.5% and terms can be as long as 30 years for businesses, private nonprofits, small agricultural co-ops. We have two types of disaster loans, the disaster physical loan for that damage and also economic injury to help you meet your financial obligations and operating expenses due to the business interruption. Those rates are also low, 4%. While the Journal of Prime just went up, I know these rates don't sound great, but they still are below market. And again, terms up to 30 years, so it does provide a low payment. We will work with your insurance, so don't wait on that to apply. You can apply at SBA.gov or slash disaster. Again, give us a call and we'll get you to one of the centers closest to you if that works better. So 802-828-4422. We're ready to help and we know how much you're suffering. So just don't be shy. Give us a call here locally and we'll get you to the right folks. Thank you. Thank you very much, Darcy. Our next panelist is Sarah Waring, who is the State Director of the USDA Rural Development Program. Sarah. Thank you, Senator. Good evening, everyone. Thanks so much for making this happen. Thanks to Governor Scott and Senator Sanders, Senator Welch, Representative Ballant and our amazing teams for getting out to help Vermonters from day one. I want to start by saying I spent the day-to-day in Rutland at the FEMA Disaster Recovery Center, and I met with folks like Jackie and Catherine and Mike and Eve, all of whom were impacted by flood and storm water damage. Here's the most important part of what I have to say this evening. All of my local staff in Vermont and New Hampshire are going to be rotating through the FEMA Disaster Recovery Centers throughout the coming weeks. So everything I talk about tonight, you'll be able to learn about and talk to a real person by visiting one of those centers or calling our phone number, which I'll share at the end. Now, USDA is huge, right? But Rural Development supports rural housing, business, community facilities and infrastructure. We are helpful right now, but we are also going to be helpful for the long-term recovery for public assistance in wastewater, storm water, community infrastructure, and community facilities repair over the long term. During a disaster, we start with our individual assistance with homeowners, and we are generally working with three groups of people. If you are a renter and you have been displaced, you may be eligible to move into a government-subsidized, multi-family housing facility that has vacancies. Some of these are in Vermont, and there are a lot in other states. Our teams can help you find that place and get you connected to that landlord or property manager. If you are a very low-income homeowner, and if you own your own home and there was storm damage, we have grant funding that can be up to $40,675. It would come after insurance and any FEMA benefits. It can help you repair your home due to the flood damage you've experienced. And then finally, if you are a current homeowner who has a mortgage with us, we have a few options for you to waive late fees, extend payment assistance options, and even do a payment moratorium for six months if you need. Most of our assistance is income-eligible. It is for the most vulnerable Vermonters, so you do have to qualify for our funding with your income by household. Now, our Vermont Montpelier State Office has been flooded, just like many of you, and we are a two-state jurisdiction. So the number I'm going to give you tonight is direct to our housing team. The program director sits in New Hampshire. So 603-223-6035 is the number I want you to call if you are one of those three kinds of people. Or you can email housingvt.nh at usda.gov. Or you can visit a FEMA Recovery Center, and our staff will be there, or we'll be coming through on rotation. And thank you all for coming this evening. Thank you very much, Sarah. Our next panelist is John Roberts, who is the State Executive Director of the USDA Farm Service Agency, the FSA. John, thanks for being with us. Thank you, Senator, and thank you very much to Senator Welsh and Congresswoman Ballant and the Governor, Governor Scott. The Farm Service Agency deals specifically with farms, and we deal with crops, livestock, land erosion, and also types of crop insurance. We have a number of programs, a great number of programs that are in effect now. They are not contingent on a either presidential or secretarial declaration of disaster. However, I would love to reiterate what the Governor said. We need farmers and producers to report their losses. To their local county FSA offices. If you are not sure where your county FSA office is, and we have nine of them around the state, they can be found by looking on our website, which is fsa.usda.gov. Forward slash state office is forward slash Vermont, and you can find them there, or you can call the State Office of FSA, which is 802-658-2803. So 802-658-2803. We work very closely with our partners in the Natural Resource Conservation Service on assessing damage and needs, and we have very parallel programs that can help in this situation. One quick thing about a secretarial declaration, and we need, again, farmers to report. We can report to USDA in Washington the level of damage. Again, as Governor Scott said, even if you do not want the help, or don't think you deserve the help, this all helps us report accurate numbers for Washington. A secretarial declaration will enable us to have low-interest loans, which not farmers don't really want, but they're below present normal rates of interest, and they enable farmers to actually refinance existing operating loans to get a better lower rate and free up some of their hard-earned cash. John, why don't you give us your number one more time, and then we're going to get to our callers. John, what is your number there, USDA? 802-658-2803. John, thank you very, very much. Now we're ready to take some calls. Katie, are we ready to go? We're ready to go. As a reminder for folks, Star 3 is the way you ask a question. So if you have a question for our members of Congress, our governor and our panelists this evening, you can press Star 3. We also have some additional folks on the line who are going to help answer some technical questions for us. And Senator, if I can, before I begin taking a question, I just want to underscore what John and the governor have said about reporting your damage. Since this call has begun this evening, we just got notification that Orleans County now qualifies for individual assistance. So that is what reporting your damage can help do for your fellow Vermonters. So with that, I'm going to take our first question. Our first question is going to come from Jessica in Berlin, and Jessica has a question about assistance for renters. Jessica, you are now live on the call. Hi. Yes, so I own a rental property in the Berlin mobile home park that was condemned today. And we have been denied FEMA. We unfortunately did not have health insurance. We're a one income family. Where should I turn to next to get help to just demolish the trailer? Okay. Do you want to probably go to Will Roy, right? Yes, sir. Will Roy on the phone. Yes, ma'am. Yes, please, please go to one of our disaster recovery centers where we have applicants specialists to be able to assist you. We have them at the Armory and Waterbury. We have them at the auditorium in Berry. And they are also at 88 merchants row in Rutland. You can also call. Jessica, let me just stop it. It sounds to me it'd probably be best off to head to Berry. Is that something you can do? Yeah, I just need to know the hour. They're open from seven eight a.m. to seven p.m. Good. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Senator. Thank you, Will. Okay, our next caller is going to be Chris from as extension. And Chris has a question about what we can do to get ahead of future disasters. Chris, you are now live on the call. Yeah, thank you very much. I hope you can hear me. I'm sure looking back, everyone here would rather have prevented the loss that they've experienced due to in large part climate change rather than, you know, cleaning up all this difficulty cleaning up the damage afterwards. Nature is so big compared to the resources that we have. There's several companies around the world that have that are developing carbon removal, atmosphere carbon removal. And in fact, the US government, the DOE has started a program called carbon negative shot. Providing grants under the Department of Energy. But their funding is very, very small. We can actually remove enough carbon from the atmosphere. Chris, let me jump in. I don't mean to be rude. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Questions. So can you summarize what your question is? Yes, yes. Is it possible to look into legislation to fully fund what the DOE is calling the carbon negative shot program? All right, let me just jump in. And, you know, you've raised a very important question. And the issue here, I'd like to hear from other people on the phone, you know, Peter, Governor Becker. Here is the crisis that we face. Nobody thinks that it makes sense to do the same thing that we did, you know, during Irene, we do it now in five years from now. We're going to have another disaster. Climate change is real. Everything being equal unless we get our act together. And some of us, you know, your federal delegation is working really hard to try to address this problem. But we don't want to do the same thing. It goes through the same process time and time again. But, you know, in my view, we need to be extraordinarily bold working with China, working with the major emitter in the world of COVID, working with other countries. And we also have to do a lot of thinking. Where do we rebuild? Do we rebuild in the same places that have been hit time and time again? All right, that's my two cents on that. Peter, Governor Becker, jump in if you want to hit anything. No, I'm good with that, Ernie. Governor, any thoughts on that? Well, again, I think we have to take two approaches. We're not going to, we have to transition to a carbonless society. We know that it's going to take some time. We have to make sure that we have the grid capacity to go to electrification. That will help. But none of this, anything that we do isn't instantaneous. So at the same time we're doing that, we've got to increase, we have to use mitigation measures. We have to do things like we did after Irene, which are very helpful in up-sizing carbon and making sure we're doing the right thing there. So it's like, you know, to pass, we have to go on simultaneously to get to where we need to be. Becker, do you want to jump in? Just briefly, I know that there were incredible investments made in the 117th through the Inflation Reduction Act, really looking to building back more resilience. And this is something that we also learned from Irene. A lot of the changes that were made in culverts in Vermont because of us looking ahead to how these storms would become more deadly. And so we have made changes. We're going to continue to do that. But of course we do have to reduce our carbon emissions, as the others have said. Okay. Well, Katie, let's get some more questions. Okay, great. The next question we're actually going to take from our registration page, Matt from Johnson says, I am a business owner and I lost three days of work for me and my eight employees. Is there any funding available to help me with those income losses? Okay, good question. Who wants to? From Vermont unemployment who can help speak to that question. Good. Good evening. This is Michael Harrington, commissioner for the Vermont Department of Labor. Thank you for the question out of Johnson. Individuals, including business owners who have lost work are eligible either for regular unemployment insurance or they may also be eligible for disaster unemployment assistance. The first thing that anybody needs to do in order to see whether they're eligible for benefits is to open an initial claim for regular unemployment insurance. And they can do that at our website, labor.vermont.gov. Once they file a claim, the department will determine if they are eligible for regular unemployment insurance and if they are not eligible for regular unemployment insurance, but their claim is specific to the disaster. We will reach out to them directly and help them file a disaster unemployment. Good. Mike, thank you very much. Katie. Thank you, senator. Thank you, Mike. Our next question is going to come from Debra, who lives in Ferry. And Debra has a question about how it works to apply for FEMA as well as dealing with your insurance coverage. So Debra from Ferry, you are now live on the call. Hi. Thank you. Yeah, I'm concerned because even though they say they don't, when you apply, when you're applying for FEMA, they ask for your insurance information and you have to go through them first. But as we all know, even though they say they don't, your insurance, they will jack up your rate. And that's long term. And who can afford that long term? Is there a way to apply for FEMA without having to do the insurance? Good question. Katie, who's going to answer that? Kevin Gaffney. Thank you, Kevin. Perfect. Kevin Gaffney. I'm the commissioner of the Department of Financial Regulation. Thank you for that question from Barry. I'll take the insurance part of that question. You should file a claim with your insurance company. That is part of the process. We've been emphasizing the 211 number and the FEMA registration, but you also have to file a claim with your insurance company. And what the department issued immediately after the disaster was an alert to the industry that they cannot rate, re-rate, cancel your policy due to the events of the storm. So we've issued that guidance to the industry. I believe the delegation actually sent a letter with us in part a similar message. And I, myself personally and our team have met with representatives of industry and they have affirmed compliance with that alert. So there's a number of other protections we've issued. So if you go to dfr.vermont.gov, there's resources there for consumers and you'll see that industry alert providing industry with the direction not to re-rate and to give consumers sufficient time to process their claims. Kevin, thanks very much. Katie. Great. Thank you very much. Thank you, Kevin. Our next caller here is coming from Woodbury. It's going to be Chris. Chris from Woodbury has a question about how the state will get help for rebuilding roads. So Chris from Woodbury, you're now live on the call. Hello. Thank you very much for taking my call. And Governor, I know that you came up, Read 14, towards Hardwick through Woodbury recently. So thank you for making the time to come up our way. My question is whether or not the state can help us with the specific resources we need and are in short supply of to rebuild, especially our class two and class three and class four roads at some point. That includes new culverts and new materials. Any assistance that you can give us with the direction we should be going into apply for funding or getting those resources directly would be greatly appreciated. Governor, do you want to respond to that? Yeah. Thanks very much, Chris. And I'm sure you've been in touch. I don't know if you're on the select board or just a citizen, they are a resident. But but we there is help available and we'll be receiving public assistance from FEMA in order to rebuild those roads, class two and class three roads as well due to damage from this event. So help is here. Give us a call at the SEOC or give your district coordinator from district six up there. But but just give us a call and we'll point you in the right direction and we should have help available and resources available for you. Thank you very much. Thanks, Chris. Katie. Okay. Thank you, Chris. Our next caller here is coming from. I'm sorry, we had a change in our system here. Our next caller is coming from London Dairy. It's going to be Patricia in London Dairy who has a question about how to get help for repairs to her driveway. Patricia, you're now on. Hello, both senators and governor and thank you so much and our representative. Thank you so much for having this to inform me for sure and others. I've already told about it as well. I live in London Dairy. I'm on the river. I didn't sustain in damage. I sustained garage damage, but my driveway got pretty much wiped out. And I've already had to hire men the first week to just to clear it so I get in and out. And I've had another gentleman, a local excavator. I'm sorry. I'm watching my granddaughter because her mother, their farmers, and they lost all their hay and they actually have to go across the state to pick hay up for their lives. So it's kind of a last minute thing. She's having that problem too. And that's a livestock issue. But so anyway, I did have an excavator come. He said if I don't get it repaired, it's going to happen again with the next, maybe not the next rainfall that we had or next Irene, but it's going. So he's suggesting that I do, I consider getting it done, which is certainly out of my budget. So I was wondering if there's any help for driveway, so, you know, going to your house for any kind of help for rebuilding them. Okay. Great question, Patricia. Katie, we got a will for that one. Sure, Will. Thank you. Katie, I'm going to actually turn to our subject matter expert out there, Chelsea Smith, who runs the IA program for this issue. Chelsea, are you on? I am on. Thank you so much, Will. So for the caller, thank you for your call. Please be sure to apply for FEMA assistance. FEMA may be able to look at that. It just depends on the situation, but private roads and bridges is something that we look at as it's the primary residence and there is an access issue. So please apply first. And give that telephone number again, please. Absolutely. You can go to disasterassistance.gov or call at 1-800-621-3362. Good. Thanks a lot, Patricia. Katie, next question. Hi, Bernie. Bernie, can I just say. Yeah, please. Just another example. Yeah, just another example of calling 2-1-1 as well. Report that damage because driveways should do qualify under the individual assistance, but that will help our overall total. Good point. Katie, next question. Thank you, Senator. Thank you, Governor. Our next caller is Cynthia, who's calling in from Williston. And Cynthia has a question about mental health resources available to people who have been feeling the stress this disaster. Cynthia, you're now live on the call. Hi, Nara, everyone. Thank you for having us tonight. And I guess my question is it's been a long journey even before this with folks in the state trying to get psychiatric help that's not available and psychiatrists who don't waiting lists. Excuse me. So I'm wondering what kind of resources do you anticipate that folks can access to get help through the stress and depression that we experience in times like this when there's no one to reach out to? Thank you. Cynthia, thank you very much for that question and you touch upon an issue that is that existed before the floods. It's been made worse by the disaster. So it's an excellent question and thanks for asking it. Katie, who do we have who can best answer Cynthia's question? So we have some folks from the Vermont Department of Health who can help and I think there are others in our congressional delegation may have thoughts on this as well. So we have someone from the Department of Health. Yes, good evening. This is Julia Rell, Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Health. There are resources at mentalhealth.vermont.gov but right off the top is the SAMHSA Disaster Distress Helpline which is at 1-800-985-990. The other place that's Julia, please repeat. Julia, if you could please repeat that number. Absolutely. It is 1-800-985-990. And you can talk or text that number. You can also call 988 which is the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline where you can chat at 988lifeline.org and they're available 24-7. There are resources. It's so important for people to reach out when they are experiencing mental health distress. So those are the numbers. You can find that information as well on our health department website at healthvermont.gov. Julia, thanks very much. Cynthia, thank you for that excellent question. Katie? Okay, thank you very much. Our next caller is coming from Lori in Johnson. Lori has a question here about the Army Corps of Engineers and how to help repair damage. Lori from Johnson, you're now live on the call. Hi, thanks for taking my call. Hi, Bernie. I'm just wondering if we can utilize some other resources like the Army Corps of Engineers to help rebuild the roads to enable the banks of the Lamoille and the Gion River to be secured better to be higher so that we don't experience the same flooding situations that we did in Johnson. This is the second time that I've been there for about 30 years, second time that the town has been totally devastated by floods, secondary to both of those rivers over flooding. And our roadways, obviously, and the bridges need to be attentive. So I didn't know if it's possible to utilize either the Army Corps of Engineers or some other government agency to help us for now and for the future. Lori, that's a great question. Katie, who do we have? Who could best answer it? So I'm going to turn it over to the FEMA team for that. Will? Yes, sure. Thank you very much. As part of the original declaration from the president, he authorized Hazard Mitigation statewide. So that is an avenue for the state to utilize to start building in resiliency, and it has. Vermont has a great Hazard Mitigation program. With regards to using other agencies, that certainly can be looked at. It depends upon the type of inch for structure and what is needed. FEMA has the ability to work with other government agencies. Like we have, you say it's in Puerto Rico is working very diligently on their electrical grid. This is something that obviously we would have to work with the governor and his staff to see what the requirements are and what the best avenue is to move forward with it. Governor, do you want to add anything to what Will said on mitigation? Well, again, I appreciate the question. I know a lot of folks go to that almost immediately after a flood that we should be dredging our streams and so forth and leaving some of the pressures in some of the towns. But a lot of what we're seeing is due to climate change who are incredible amounts, volumes of water that's coming in. And I'm not saying that we don't don't have to dredge some parts of our streams, but that's not the answer. We need storage capacity in order to do that because when you take in your town, for instance, Johnson, if you just harden your banks, raise the earth and even dredge, it's just going to impact Jacksonville and Cambridge because the water has to go somewhere. It's going to continue. So we have to provide resiliency mitigation measures and we're looking at all that after any of that like this. And we've been successful in some areas. Brandon, for instance, we upsize a major, major water corridor through the downtown. And that's held up really well and prevented some flooding. So we will be taking a look to see what we can do for Johnson and other communities, Rocklea and Barrie as well, a lot of others. It's a constant, constant effort. Laurie, thanks, Governor and Laurie, thanks very much for that excellent question. Katie. Thanks, Senator. Our next caller is by the name of Kate and Kate is a small independent farmer and has some questions about crop loss. Kate, keep your mouth on the line. Hi, Senator Sanders. I'm in Plainfield. I thought I was pretty fortunate this year with like restructuring my business and falling into a new model where I site directly to one restaurant group. I currently grow on about eight acres. And as produce becomes available, it then gets turned over to this restaurant group that then uses it in their mainstay dishes as well as packages it as part of like a pasta CSA. It's sort of time to farmer. I finally have like a stable, reliable income that I didn't have to choose business for. And I am directly one of those folks that's going to fall through the cracks. I'm in this weird hybrid model that hasn't necessarily been established or explored. Where do I go to apply? Okay. And it's a little bit more complicated because the restaurant group is in New Hampshire. So like I do sell across the street lines. Kate, thanks for the question. Katie, who's going to answer that one? John Roberts from Purvis. Do you want to take that one? Yes. Of course, very sorry to hear that. I don't know if you have dealt with FSA before. I would first of all urge you to call your local county office. And I am your, I believe, Plainfield is in Washington County. And your local direct office for Washington County is in Williston. And so the phone number there is 802-288-888. 8155. And they will be able to help you with finding out exactly your status and where you're at. I don't know how long you've been in business. There are some waivers for new farmers that is less than 10 years. Disadvantaged farmers. Do you have a number that Kate can call? The number again, Senator, is 802-288-8155. Great. Okay. Well, that's what Kate, thank you very much. Katie. Thank you, Kate. Thank you, Senator. And thank you, John. Our next question, Senator, is going to come from our registration question. This comes from Thomas, who's from South London Dairy. And Thomas wants to know, when will FEMA public assistance for towns be given the green light to start the process? This is assistance to town of London Dairy needs yesterday. Thomas says winter seems like a long way away. We have so much work to do before then. What can we expect? I guess, Will, you want to take a shot at that? Yes, sir. I will. Thank you very much. So fortunately, we've had 11 counties been declared for public assistance for all categories. And the state is executing their applicants brief to talk to applicants about how to move forward. The most important thing is towns are encouraged to begin work immediately. Don't wait on FEMA. Start doing the work immediately. And we have public assistance teams coming into Vermont to work with the towns on the FEMA program. But please, don't wait on FEMA to start. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Will. Katie. Thank you, Senator. Our next call is going to come from Gary, who lives in Berry, Vermont. He's calling for his daughter and has questions about her home and when they can expect to see money start to come in. So, Gary, who lives in Berry, you are now live on the call. Thank you, Governor, and Senators, and everybody else streaming and everything there. My question is, how long do we get the money after the final inspection because we know this house is going to be condemned after digging out the foundation tonight? And the other part of the question was, what percentage is she expecting to get what the home value is? Okay. Thank you. Excellent question. I guess, Will, you take a shot of that? Yes, sir. I will. I think there's two separate things going on, sir. First is you've applied for individual assistance. And it's a very quick process. And I'll punt to Chelsea on that. And the second thing is the condemning of the properties is actually part of the community's flood insurance program. And so it's really the community's decision on the value of the property. Chelsea, on the individual assistance timeline for assistance to you? Absolutely. Thank you, Will. So, for the individual assistance program, it would depend on how you elected to receive your funds, whether you signed up for an electronic funds transfer, or you requested a check to be sent in the mail. The electronic funds transfers can be fairly quick, as well as notification if you've signed up for an online account. If you did elect to go by mail, sometimes that can take a little bit longer because that's dependent on the post office service. All right. Gary, thanks for your question, Katie. Thank you, Senator. Thank you, Gary. Our next call is going to come from Peggy, who lives in North Clarendon. And Peggy has a call about grants for businesses and specifically asks when can we apply for the funds that Governor Scott mentioned. So Peggy, you are now live on the call. Hello there. And thank you for having this meeting. I worked for a small company. And we have a dam that we manufacture paper. And the dam was washed out. We had to rebuild the dam. And it's at a cost of $100,000. And we lost over 300,000 in production. Is there a help to regroup some of that? Katie, who's best to answer that? I think I'm going to start with Darcy Carter from SBA. But then Governor Scott, I may ask you to jump in to speak a little bit about what the state is doing around some grant support for businesses. Thank you, Katie and Senator Sanders. We would certainly take a look at an application from new Peggy. We don't have grants at SBA, but we do have assistance that businesses are eligible for. But definitely I know everyone's keen to see the governor's new program that's coming out. More details are going to be coming soon on that. And it's just sometimes it's a matter of piecing together several sources to cover the issue that you're dealing with. I'm so sorry to hear about that. But we would really encourage you to apply. And we do have a center in Ludlow. Also you can apply online. And if you would like to call our office again, it's 802-828-4422. Again, it's just keeping an option open, you know, go ahead and apply and or meet with someone in our center and talk about, you know, more of your specifics. Okay. Governor Peter or Becker, anyone want to respond to that? Yeah, why don't you let me go first here. Tomorrow, if you tune into our press conference, we'll be talking about the program that we promised we'd put together. We scraped together a somewhat robbing teeter to pay Paul and put together $20 million for this effort. And I just want to level-set expectations here. It's not enough. It's not going to come anywhere near what we need to help our businesses. We have businesses, one I looked at on Saturday, Ethan Allen, and they have millions of dollars with the damage there and over 200 employees. So this isn't going to cover everything, but it will be a bridge and some fairly immediate assistance. So tune in tomorrow. We'll have specifics on this and then we can describe where you go and how you apply for this funding. Peter and Becker and I have been talking about gaps and disaster relief in this country right now. Peter, do you want to jump in and some thoughts on where we might want to be going? Well, Bernie and Becker and the governor, we're out and everybody who's had a loss at their farm, at their home, at their business is very particular. And what can be really frustrating is you need help immediately. And there is some individual assistance that is available, but you have to go through the process. And, you know, that's an awful lot to ask of people when they've suffered such catastrophic loss, but we do have to go through it. And what we can do is try to be helpful. You know, Bernie, Becker and I are going to coordinate and casework. The governor, of course, is all in, and has been everywhere. And we appreciate Governor Scott's leadership here. And at a certain point, we're going to have to be asking for money to fund the relief people need. The real frustration is everybody needs help today. And whether we get that or not, each of us will do our level best to try to help Vermonters get through this. We will get through it. We did with Irene, but for the folks who are wondering where they're going to stay, I mean, I think of these grandparents who are raising their grandkids, and they needed stability for those children immediately. So we'll just be doing everything we can and cooperating together. And what I do have to say that's so wonderful is to be having the whole delegation and the whole state government under Governor Scott working together to try to be as responsive as we can and we're sensitive to the frustrations and challenges that folks have who suffered such a serious loss. Becca, do you want to jump in on that? Yes, briefly what I would add is one of the things I've been doing is reaching out to other members within Congress who have had natural disasters in their districts in the recent past and been getting insight from them as to where to go looking for additional funds and that has been fruitful. And I have been trying to chase down some things that we may not have on our radar screen yet. So we're just going to continue to do that. Okay, Katie back to you. Let's get some more questions. And Senator, we only have time for a couple more questions. So we're going to try to get two more in here. So our next caller and Senator Welch just mentioned grandparents who are helping grandchildren. Our next caller is a grandchild who's seven years old. Their name is Harper and they're calling for help for their grandmother who had a food truck that was destroyed. Harper, can you hear us? You're now on the call. Yeah, so I'm wondering how I could help to fix this stuff. Tell them what happened to it. We got flooded because we had a river, the rain and also there's a beaver dam where it's been walking up the water and it got into the farm stand and the trailer. Well Harper, thank you very much for that good question and thank you so much for helping your grandma. Katie, who wants to respond to Harper? So I'm going to turn it to our FEMA team and Will, whoever you want to kick it to, I will leave it to you. Oh, thank you very much. If it's the primary vehicle, please apply to FEMA, but I'm going to push the Chelsea for more detail information. That is correct. Will, thank you so much, Mrs. Chelsea. Harper, what courage it took to ask that question and so excited that you were looking for the help for your grandmother. That's wonderful. I would just say register, register, register. We can get that process going and look at and have an inspector come out and potentially look to see what is the damages and see what assistance might be available. And again, that number is 1-800-621-3362 or online at disasterassistance.gov. Thank you. Harper, good job. Thank you. Katie, more questions? Yep. So, Senator, with that, we're going to take one more question and we have had a number of questions tonight about buyouts. And so one of those questions is going to come tonight from Cindy in Morrisville. Cindy, you are now live on the call. Yes, hello and thank you for taking my call. My husband and I were hit really hard by the floods and right now we are just trying to figure out working with FEMA to see what can be covered and what can't be covered because our homeowner's insurance doesn't cover the flood damage, etc. And we're getting contractors in there to see if our home is salvageable at all. And I was notified that there was a possibility of buyouts from the flood resilient community fund. But I was told, and I'm just trying to validate that this is true or not, that those applications need to be received by July 31. And I'm just thinking that's not going to give us enough time to find out if a buyout is really what we want or if we have the possibility of being able to rebuild or something with our property for our home. Well, Cindy, thanks for that question. Katie, who do you think is best to answer it? So I'm going to take it one more time to our FEMA crew to talk about buyouts. Sure, thank you very much. I'm going to turn to Dick Vervo. I believe he's on the call. Dick? Yes, thank you, Will, and thanks for that question. So there are a couple of opportunities for residents to seek buyouts. What I would first do is contact your local emergency management director, and they will get in touch with a state hazard mitigation officer. I know the state of Vermont is soliciting communities for those that are interested in the buyout programs. And there's a couple of different programs that they are looking at, including the FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant program. So again, your best resource right now is your local emergency management director to get in touch with the Vermont State Hazard Mitigation Officer locating in the Vermont Emergency Management Agency. Do you have a phone number for Cindy? I do not directly have the Vermont Emergency Management phone number available. It was our town that told us the July 31st date, which is what I was trying to confirm. Is that true, guys? Dick? So I would say I don't know if there's any, there's no date set by FEMA at this time. I don't know if some of the programs that the state may be offering have a due date. So if there's anybody from the state on the line that can answer that, that would be extremely helpful. Sure, Senator, this is Jennifer Morrison. I'm the commissioner of public safety, which is the home of Vermont Emergency Management. And I am unaware of that due date. We do have, in addition to federal programs, we have a state funded program for floodplain resiliency. So there are multiple opportunities for us to engage with you and gather your information. And if you could, Senator, if you could send me this contact information, I will make a direct connection to the folks at Vermont Emergency Management for her. Commissioner, thank you very much, and we will do that. All right, I think we're going to have to wrap this up. Among other things, Peter and I are going to have to go down and vote. Let me just thank everybody who's on the line and people have asked the questions. And thank the governor and Peter and Becker and all of the folks at the federal and state agencies. The truth is during the last couple of weeks, all these people have been working tirelessly and doing a great job under very difficult conditions. So bottom line here is I think we're just going to have to all stick together, work together and get out of this crisis as best we can and as soon as we can. So with that, if the governor or Peter or Becker has any final words, I'd love to hear them. Governor? Again, thank you, Senator Sanders, for putting this together. Senator Welch, Congressman, woman in ballot, for all you've done for us already and what you're going to do. And all our, my team at the state government and all our federal and local partners for everything they're doing to help us with this emergency. And this is a message to you from honors. I know how hard this is for you and especially if you've lost your homes or seen your property damage, your business is lost or everything's on. But please note, we're going to do everything in our power to help you recover. Everything we can possibly do to help you get back on your feet and get a little bit black stronger. And I know we'll get through this, but just now we've got you covered as best we can here. Thank you. Thank you. Peter? Yeah, you know, I am so proud of Ramirez and I'm proud to be of Ramirez. You understand what I'm saying, you get to where you need to be in terms of legal operation and setting it and working together. And I just want to emphasize again that everybody who suffered any damage can do to be helpful to everyone else is to report it. That's the tool, the information that Bernie Becker and I need to be effective here to advocate for the funds that will help us recover. Thank you very much. Thank you, Peter. Becker? Last comment here for me is that I know that this disaster has brought up so many memories and trauma even from past emergencies as well. And this is the kind of suffering that sometimes people don't see right off the bat. If you are in crisis or you're feeling overwhelmed, please call one of those hotline numbers that we gave earlier, 1-800-985-599-0, 1-800-985-599-0 or 988, once again, 988. Vermonters have been great when they're out, digging each other's basins out and helping clear their driveways, but we also need to give each other patience and grace through this long recovery. It's going to be hard for a lot of people and we got to continue to support them emotionally as well. Thanks so much. Thank you, Becker. Once again, let me thank everybody for tuning in. Thank everybody at the state level, the federal level. Thank you very much.