 Teresa Wilson City Manager, so we meet again unfortunately to discuss some pending threatening weather but we wanted to make sure that we at least touch base with the citizens of Columbia and Richland County and ensured the Midlands that again all of your partners in public safety and education and nonprofits are working together with the City of Columbia to provide real-time information on the pending weather for tomorrow and we really just want to do this to remind our citizens to stay vigilant. We know it gets a little unnerving every time we have these situations with the weather but it is so important to remember safety is first and to make sure that everything we do and are suggesting to you to do is out of an abundance of caution. So with that I'm going to turn it over to our Mayor Stephen K. Benjamin and he will take you through a few updates and will also entertain any updates from our partner agencies. Thank You Ms. Wilson and thank you to your incredible staff. We always appreciate our incredible city staff and our partners from the county and our school districts and all our partners but the in times like this we really see what incredible professionals they are. Well thank everyone for coming here and thank our friends in the media the Fourth Estate for the incredible work you do in helping us get important and relevant information out to our citizens who rely on us to share the information. We all know that Hurricane Michael is heading our way. We are currently under a tropical storm warning flash flood watch tonight 8 p.m. through Thursday night 11 p.m. is increased tornado threat to the Midlands of South Carolina high winds expect power outages rain three to five inches. Obviously as you all know if there's an emergency we want people to call 911 call 911 if there's an emergency if there's not an emergency recognize that the non-emergency number to contact is 803-545-3300 again 803-545-3300 we want to assure our citizens that we're all working together all of our friends and partners surrounding us representing the business leadership civic leadership nonprofit leadership that serves the Midlands all so well together we have several our providers here from the Comet and we'll have an update from the Comet some of our representatives of our nonprofit partners who meet the needs of our unsheltered citizens and our homeless community working hard to make sure we meet the needs of the entire entirety of Columbia's citizens over the next few days under the Richmond County will announce that they're working closely with the Red Cross as they do each time there'll be a shelter open up tonight at Kilburn Park Baptist opening up at 8 p.m. and 4 to 205 Kilburn Road and we've had close communication obviously with Palmetto Health now part of Prisma they are prepared and fully staffed according to their leadership there prepared for any eventuality that might happen because of Hurricane Michael and of course chief overall reference close and constant contact with the sheriff of Richland County he and Sheriff lot work very closely along with Chief Jenkins to make sure that we're providing a appropriate public safety response do want to make one statement then we're going to step aside and let our subject matter experts and partners speak I know that we all not just in the Carolinas but certainly all along the East Coast suffering from a bit of hurricane fatigue and we hurricane malaise and believe that it puts us in a position where we can very easily and dangerously fall into fall into the idea that we don't need to prepare as much because this is just another storm this is a major storm this is a dangerous storm let's make sure that we're preparing for any and every eventuality encourage everyone to visit our website at some point of Columbia C. net and it's also I guess Columbia C. gov as well will also take you there and our staff is worth a pull together a bit of information from the web just reminding us what to do before during and after a hurricane some very basic things that we've all learned living here in Hurricane Alley over the last several years but it's important to remind ourselves that we must be vigilant we must be prepared for anything to make sure we protect ourselves and our families and our property as much as we can possibly do be some simple things making a plan making disaster kit making sure you fill your gas tanks making sure that if you can stay home that you stay home that you stay off the roads if you stay off the roads increases the possibility of you being safe and also increases the possibility of our first responders being able to respond to those who may need their assistance also recognizing the importance that the fact that more deaths and injury occur after a hurricane hits than during a hurricane some very simple basic points that it'd be worth having a refresher class at home with your family this evening making sure we're costing our teas and dot and eyes to make sure we all come out on the other side of Hurricane Michael safe and sound we will continue to share as much information as we have it closely working with our not just our friends here regionally but also with our state and our federal partners and we will push out as much information as open and transparent as we possibly can make sure you're prepared to do the things that you need to do to protect you and your families so thank you for again for being here thank you to our citizens for continuing to share the good word let's continue to be Columbia strong and South Carolina strong let's take care of each other we are brothers and our sisters keeper and we will make it through this together we're gonna pass along I think Chief Holbrook you're gonna have a word good afternoon the sheriff senses apologies he had another commitment I really want to just provide some some reassurance to our citizens our public safety efforts again as we state always and I think it's what we're most proud of is our seamless response in situations like this and our continued partnership and collaboration with the sheriff's department and in the fire department and really just a team approach to public safety to re-emphasize and restate what the mayor said really what is most critical to us as people stay off the roads and we couldn't be more proud of the citizens that he did that warning just a few weeks ago when there's an emergency it allows us to get get to you to help to save lives and prevent injury a lot of this storm is gonna hit tonight when people were asleep so you'll see upstaffing from the police department barricades are prepositioned in the areas that we expect water we again ask if you see water you need to turn around and don't ever attempt to drive through how water but we have how water vehicles are prepared to to respond at a moment's notice and again we asked our citizens to as a mayor said have a plan partner with us to keep everybody safe stay at home be sheltered while we weather this storm together tomorrow thank you thank you thank you all for being here just like Chief Holbrook stated we're gonna continue to work collaborative together in public safety to make sure that we're able to respond to any situation that anybody may be in so we're like I said we're gonna continue to work together we are gonna be upstaffed with our normal staffing and of course we got people on standby just in case we call more help in so we're we're sitting already just want to re-enter some safety stuff you know we may have some down power line so I just want to encourage the folks out there not to go near them power lines treat every down power line as if it's live and I know some people if they lose power gonna do one or two things either use a generator use counters my suggestions not to use counters because especially when these things occur late at night early in morning have a tendency to go to sleep with those counters on make sure you got a flashlight and also generators just make sure that you're not running in garages or in the house because you want to make sure you you're not getting overcome by the carbon dioxide so just a few safety tips and just hopefully we can get through this and just with everybody being safe we like you there thank you mayor good afternoon from my Columbia water perspective I want to assure our customers that that we are in a high state of readiness we have been preparing for several days and we are we are ready for the challenges that may face us with this storm we're anticipating high winds and potential power outages we've been prepositioning generators and testing making sure everything's ready to go we don't anticipate any water or sewer outages at service interruptions but if you do have any issue associated with the storm that's non-emergency as the mayor said please call our customer Caroline 803-545-3300 and our staff will respond as soon as it's safe for us to be out and to respond to restore service to you you may be wondering about the health of our canal and the condition of that and we are monitoring that very closely we are controlling the water levels we have shut a headgate to limit the inflow in case the river level does rise we're not expecting the type of rainfall event that would would impact the river level significantly or the level in our canal but but we're taking precautions just in case we have pumping and piping equipment on standby just in case something unexpected did occur so we're in a high state of readiness thank you Robert Anderson director of public works thank you from the public work staff we were also prepared we kind of kept ourselves a little bit ready from the last storm we know our storm rain system has been clean we've looked at it again made sure the flood prone areas are have been cleaned we've pre-placed pre-stage as the chief said our barricades in flood prone areas which allows the police department of the public work staff to close the street a little bit quicker we do not want you to drive in water that's over the road nobody ever knows how deep it is but we also don't want you to drive around the barricades the roads close for a reason generally our Forrester crews are on standby right now they'll be reporting to work about 5 a.m. in the morning for crews that we have any trees that come down we want to remind everybody as we did last storm don't grab a branch out of the road unless you look very carefully we just soon you not grab it because there could be a power line wrapped up in that is still energized we would rather you leave that to the individuals that know what they're doing the one change we have this time is our solid waste collection through some thought processes to make sure our crews stay safe with the wind speeds we are cancelling all solid waste operations tomorrow we will resume them Friday so if your garbage collection schedule or recycling collection schedule is on Thursday it will be on Friday now if it's on Friday it will be on Saturday so we'll resume our regular collections next week after that thank you maybe some updates on our partner agencies how about you start with this one good afternoon Craig with a spoon richland school district one for us and for the districts the concern tomorrow especially in the morning will be wind when wind speed speeds get at sustained winds around 30 or above it becomes an issue for our buses the majority of students in our district they do ride buses and knowing what's anticipated in that morning time frame we did see a prudent to council school tomorrow again because of that time frame when the majority of our buses would be out and about and as has been indicated by other staff possibility of down trees and flooding and so forth so over an abundance of caution we have council school tomorrow will continue to monitor certainly tomorrow afternoon if the storm holds true to some of the predictions tomorrow afternoon might be cleared we'll check schools and those types of things that make a determination for Friday but school district will be closed tomorrow Dr. Marshall and Franklin and Richland School District to recognize the fact they've commissioner and they uh well a Mackie good evening we appreciate our parents flexibility and understanding regarding the cancellation of school in Richland School District to tomorrow the forecast at high winds flash flooding and possible tornadoes make traveling conditions unsafe for our students our parents as well as our school buses district officials will assess the conditions of our roads and campuses after the storm passes tomorrow evening and will communicate with parents and employees there after regarding the schedule of school for Friday again thank you for understanding and please be safe Franklin John and with the comment good evening John and from the comment for the present time the comment is running regular service we are monitoring conditions we do encourage our customers to call 803-255-7118 for our inclement weather hotline to get up to the minute updates on any changes to the common fixed route and dark paratransit service if we do make any revisions we will notify the public as soon as reasonably possible the of course I did also want to recognize the fact that we have coming councilman Norman Jackson coming councilman Jim Manning both here with us and obviously if you there's report you want to make this is also your your floor okay please if you don't want to it's okay well no I like back to thank the city of Columbia mayor and city manager for the work and the partnership you have developer with richam county and for the unincorporated areas falling trees is is one of the most risk we have so we're asking all residents in the unincorporated area to be mindful of falling trees and not to go around it and for example those who use wells with electricity they may be out so maybe could store proper water for maybe may take away they are too afraid of falling trees so I'm just reminding the folks in unincorporated area to be mindful and vigilant thank you thank you of course mayor pro tem divine and and councilman Howard Duvall here we've been blessed to have incredible support leadership from our federal partners as well I have senator Graham's district representative here event have Dalton treasurer from congressman Clarence office here we have incredible nonprofit partners here met earlier with the obviously the executive director of transitions and we had the CEO of the United Ways here a faucet here and our chief business leader the CEO of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce Carl Blackstone here with us as well now Harry always tries not to speak at these events and this you thank you for being here with John as well but Harry always have something worth sharing is that me ring I think thank you thank you for not going to my back pocket I appreciate that Harry anything you want to share that we may have missed thank you mayor just from the office of emergency management here in Columbia we're communicating with Richland County the emergency operations center there our state partners state emergency management so we're in constant coordination if we need we have any I'm at knees or our partners here we'll be doing that we'll be working ready to go what I would say is that we need our actions and your actions to be spot on and what we mean by that is that everybody said here we want to stay informed prepare outreach to your family friends and neighbors think safety and on a moment's notice be able to activate your plan and make sure that you can follow the instructions of local officials thank you and I all right well I'm as as obviously can tell we try our best to be as inclusive as possible everyone here got the same notice that you guys got so very short notice I'm thankful that as we prepare for each of these storms or potential storms that we've had robust participation from members of Richland County Council from our city council every member city council our school district elected representatives and all of our partners as well so be happy to try and answer any questions you all have we got the whole team back here ready to answer questions so you can look at me but I might pass it off to someone else what we do is we go out and check the storm rating system we pull the grades we make sure that anything that's obstructing a great is cleaned out we actually go into the creeks make sure that there's nothing blocking the bridges and if they are we also remove them solid great waste crews were out yesterday actually raking storm rains along with the street division to keep them free and clear some of you some of us know exactly where some of the more flood prone streets are in the city intersections that we should avoid for some of us who are more auditory learners main and waley streets Jervay and Lawrence Street Blossom and Henderson Blossom and Saluda Harden and Santy Monroe and Maple Wheaton Amherst Adger and divine Wheaton Sumter Wheaton Pickens Hayward and Ravenel Streets Pickens between Wheat and Green Streets Barnwell and Pendleton Streets Harden and Reed Streets Harden and Calhoun Streets Franklin and Marion Streets Franklin and Sumter Streets Columbia College at North Main Bull and Laurel Streets probably a perfect opportunity of course to remind the citizens of the city and the region that we were making significant investments in our stormwater infrastructure that City Council voted just over two years ago unanimously on a very first stormwater bond that we have three projects or four projects clean under construction now with another close to 10 under design that we believe will be the right amount of investment in hard infrastructure and green infrastructure to help mitigate the effects of storms in in the future another King Park is under construction right now one on Bow Street in North Columbia and Harlem Heights community is as well so we're starting to see the benefits of some of those investments already but for posterity these will be significant investments that were newer to the benefit of people across Columbia Richland County and Lexington County for years to come we also have a very first green bond being issued by the city in December again another investment in resiliency and green infrastructure obviously who whispered that just now Howard Howard he wanted me to think that was my subliminal thinking and he was actually whispering to me you know obviously we believe that the folks all the folks are standing around us have been duly representing the interests of the people of the city and the region working hard together to address the significant needs some of those needs are obviously meant to be met locally and almost a hundred million dollars dedicated to stormwater improvements the aggressive investments and clean water 2020 have been have been I think revolutionary we were talking about by the time we're done close to three over three quarters of a billion dollars invested in our water sewer infrastructure some of the investments that still need to be made and and restoring our streams and riparian waterways across the state are still very real and certainly we believe we continue to advocate particularly with the assistance of our of our federal legislators for increased investment from the federal government particularly through FEMA in mitigating some of the effects of Hurricane Joaquin the restoration the full restoration of the canal and investing in resilient infrastructure so that that canal which was first dug by Irish indentured servants to almost 200 years ago and stood the test of time needs to be built and rebuilt to the standards that will help it stand another 200 years that is an exception that we believe that we prepare for in these these unique times that that's when the federal government steps in and takes our collective wealth that we send the Washington DC every April 15th and sends it back home repatriates back home for these significant projects but the things that we're supposed to be doing here locally I feel very strongly that all the few people around here are stepping up and making some things happen that's an answer public about the dams and of course we want to continue to work with state government on this but the dams that are in the city limits we do proactively work for them to be lowered so late Catherine and Southeast Lake were lowered as well Councilman Jim Manning a lot of the dams that broke Warlong Gills Creek that went up through Richland County District five six and eight and those dams have been rebuilt they were old dams that weren't up to standards the new dams are been out there and those lake levels have been lowered in preparation for this so what was a great cause of one dam breaking another dam breaking another dam that has all been attended to since that time well I think that's and I got no one passes a hard copies of paper anymore but let's make sure the members of the media get that thank you the councilman the always a high level of concern I think I think you prepare for the worst and you hope for the best and it's so important that again we do not let storm or hurricane malaise take over we've got to remain engaged if we prepare and prepare and over prepare and it saves one life it was worth it it was worth every hour and minute spent so still greatly concerned this is a this is a massive storm this is a massive storm and while we're all we're all blessed but but the Midlands was particularly fortunate with Hurricane Florence we don't want people believing that this is a non-event this this is a big deal and we need to prepare for it accordingly so greatly concerned is a fair assessment what we passed out again is a hard copy of the do's and don'ts how do you prepare for a hurricane we're gonna again posted on our website we're gonna tweet it and retweet it if you're not following us on on Twitter at city of Columbia I would encourage you to do so spend some time with your family tonight over dinner as you're watching the news and just read over some some little things that you can do some that you don't have to leave your house just to be prepared for any eventuality let's just make sure we come out of this on the other side the way we all want to safe and sound happy and together