 Good morning, everyone. Last week we announced the $20 million business recovery grant program. We're rolling out. As a reminder, the goal is to help businesses and nonprofits to suffer physical damages from flooding. The full guidance can now be found on the ACCD website. accd.fermont.gov The full guidance can now be found again through the Agency of Commerce and Community Development and this application will go live on Thursday. There will also be an informational webinar hosted by ACCD tomorrow and you can register for that at accd.fermont.gov Again, we know this won't be near enough to fill all the need out there, but I believe it's important for the state to step up. Do what we can to help businesses reopen and keep Vermonters working. Next, over the next two weeks as we transition to recovery, we need to continue helping Vermonters get rid of debris. Commissioner Morrison and Secretary Moore will have more on that in a few minutes. This weekend, we're also working with Sir Vermont on efforts to help rural areas of the state with debris. If you're available, we could sure use your help. So you can sign up at vermont.gov volunteer. Lastly, we know charitable donations for flood victims already plays an important role in helping people and small businesses recover. And I also know there's been a lot of interest in bringing back the Vermont Strong plates. So I'm happy to show you the new versions which will go on sale in the coming weeks. Anything raised will support those impacted by flooding. Now, we decided to keep the design similar to the one used after Irene with a few minor tweaks. First, we want to make sure it was clear we are all in this together. Time and time again, Vermonters have shown their willingness to step up to help their neighbors and unite for a common cause. That's why I thought it was important to change. I am Vermont Strong to we are Vermont Strong. And as I traveled the state of the last few weeks, it's clear Vermonters is showing that strength. But through the resilience, so many have shown from Irene to the pandemic to this year's never-ending rainstorms. It's clear we're more than just Vermont Strong. We're tough too. So we have a second option people can choose because the folks from Darren Tough reached out and want to help. I'll show you these first. So this is the new version of the original one. And this is the one with the addition of Tough 2. So again, we'll have more information on how to purchase plates and socks to support those impacted by the floods soon. But for now, because of the interest, we at least want to show you the new design. So with that, I'll turn it over to Commissioner Morrison. Thank you, Governor. Good morning. I will start my remarks this morning by stating what the media has already reported. We have had our second flood related death confirmed. 67-year-old Robert Kerker of New York State drowned in the swollen waters of Stony Brook near Stockbridge while hiking the Appalachian Trail. Our condolences go out to all of Mr. Kerker's family and friends. I'd like to take a minute to talk about 2-1-1, specifically about Addison County. If you experienced any damage to your home, property, place of business, or farm, or anything related to the flooding and ongoing rains in July, please report it to Vermont211.org or by calling 2-1-1. Even if you've fixed the damage yourself or brushed it off as a nuisance, please report it. Your report will help the state get an accurate accounting of the scope of damage. As of last night, 2-1-1 has received 4,694 reports of damage to residences and 865 businesses. Speaking of debris, as the Governor mentioned that I would provide a little more info on that, as of yesterday, nearly 3,000 tons of debris had been removed under the state contract. This is on top of all the debris removal coordinated at the local level. We are making significant headway, but we know there's more debris to be picked up and disposed of. There will be a large push to get debris to the curb this weekend and it will be fueled by volunteers. More information on this volunteer surge should be available from voluntary organizations active in disaster or VOAD later today. Another update relative to volunteers. Within the next couple of days, we expect to add the ability to register teams of volunteers on our site from businesses, nonprofits, sports teams, clubs, neighborhoods, and others. And we will also continue to collect the names of individual volunteers. Please check Vermont.gov forward slash volunteer for that option in the coming days. This will provide more options for matching volunteers to open requests for assistance. And with that, I will turn things over to Federal Coordinating Officer Roy. Thank you, Commissioner. Good morning. The Major Disaster Declaration for Vermont Storms authorizes funding for nine counties for individual assistance and 11 counties for public assistance and hazard mitigation statewide. So what does that mean? For public assistance, FEMA can reimburse state and local governments for eligible work that they have already completed, as well as provide funding for permanent work that needs to be completed. We are currently working with the state as we assist towns, cities, and private nonprofits with their applications for public assistance. For individual assistance, FEMA provides several types of financial and direct assistance to eligible individuals and families. To be clear, FEMA assistance is not meant to bring residents back to their pre-disaster condition. It is designed to meet their immediate needs after a disaster. FEMA can provide rental assistance if residents have been displaced from their homes, as well as funding to make their homes safe, sanitary, and functional. FEMA can also provide assistance to underinsured or uninsured residents with disaster-related expenses such as personal property losses. As of today, we have approved over $8 million in assistance to Vermont residents impacted by these storms. If you have not yet registered, please do so by going to DisasterAssistance.gov or calling us at 1-800-621-3362 or visiting us at one of our Disaster Recovery Centers. We have five centers open today at the Armory and Waterbury, at the Flood Brook School in London Dairy, at Twinfield Union High School in Plainfield, at the Berry Auditorium, and at the Asa Bloomer Building in Rutland. And two more centers will open this week, one at the Barton Memorial Building on 17 Village Square in Barton, and one at the Springfield Health Center at 100 River Street in Springfield. If you've applied for assistance from FEMA and your circumstances have changed, please contact us as you may be eligible for additional assistance. If you have applied for assistance and have questions about your application, please call us or visit us at one of those Disaster Recovery Centers. I'd like to provide some updates on information on our operations. As of this morning, we have more than 450 FEMA personnel deployed here to Vermont. Disaster Survivor Assistance Teams have visited over 12,000 homes and 700 businesses, and 19 of those teams are going door-to-door today. 3907 residents have applied for individual assistance, and we've approved $8.5 million in individual assistance. And of that, $7.5 million has already been dispersed and in their accounts. Over 2,722 home inspections have been requested, and we've completed 2,200 of those. Lastly, the U.S. Small Business Administration has approved over $3 million for a total of 73 loans to homeowners, renters, and businesses. Thank you, and I'll be followed by Secretary Moore. Thank you, General Roy. Good afternoon, everyone. I know there have been a growing number of questions about how best to approach the management of flood-related debris, both in and along our rivers and streams. And so today I wanted to provide some advice and resources regarding debris management, and then also touch briefly on a couple of other A&R-related issues. But starting with debris, in having been to a number of flood-impacted areas, I'm continually astounded by the amount of sediment and debris, both natural and anti-human-made, that the flood waters left behind. As part of the flood recovery, I know that there is a lot of interest in trying to put things back to how they were prior to the flood, and so I want to provide a bit of guidance on how to best manage this debris. Any human-made debris, things like construction materials from damaged buildings, lumber, roofing materials, metal, as well as building contents, such as appliances and furniture, is rightly considered solid waste, and there are no restrictions for manually removing these materials from rivers and streams and riparian areas as part of flood cleanup. As far as natural debris, meaning things like sediment, rocks, logs and branches, removal does need to be approached somewhat more thoughtfully. There are absolutely locations where flooding deposited excess sediment and rock in the stream channel, in a manner that now diverts stream flow towards homes, businesses and other buildings, that will necessitate work within rivers and streams to protect public safety and this existing infrastructure. Another very typical situation is where some amount of removal is needed at a location where downed trees or maybe other woody material came to rest near a bridge or culvert and risk plugging that bridge or culvert during future high flows. If the conditions caused by natural debris are creating an immediate risk, for example, there is wood, boulders or debris changing or redirecting the flow of a river that immediately threatens your home or business, emergency work to remove the material can proceed under town authority, so long as the Agency of Natural Resources is notified of the work within 72 hours. With authorization from the town, individuals can hire a contractor to do work to stabilize the river as an emergency protective measure. Alternatively, towns have the authority to implement emergency protective measures to protect public infrastructure and public safety, and there are a number of targeted locations across Vermont where this sort of work is well underway at this point. If the removal of natural material is considered necessary, but not an emergency, A&R's river management engineer should be contacted. They'll schedule a site visit to provide technical assistance and help ensure that the work to solve one problem does not further destabilize the river or impact adjacent infrastructure. This is important because the most common issue after the flood is over is overdregging of river bottoms, excessive stream bank filling, and the unnecessary removal of natural debris. While we know that limited excavation and stream bank stabilization is often needed to maintain river channel capacity and protect nearby roads and buildings, overdregging or over filling can create an unstable river. And unstable rivers have significant ongoing adverse impacts on fish and other aquatic organisms in the near term and can actually do more damage to adjacent properties and infrastructures during the next high flow event. As we have seen this month, rivers have a lot of energy, and one of the ways they consume that energy is by tossing logs and boulders and flood flows and accessing flood plains where they can spread out and dissipate. So to the extent flood deposited natural debris is not creating a specific hazard. It's really best to leave it where the river dropped it off. The most important thing to know is that before starting any in-stream work, you should check with your town or the DEC river management engineer to get site specific advice. One way to do that is by calling the agency of natural resources at 802-828-1115. We also have compiled all of our flood recovery resources on the agency's home page. I want to take a moment to also offer a gentle reminder to Vermont's municipalities, many of whom I know are out straight right now, that while there are multiple teams who have spread out across the state to assess flood damage for disaster aid as General Roy just spoke to, Vermont communities may need to follow additional requirements if they participate in FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program. Specifically, communities participating in FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program do need to assess flood damage buildings that are in mapped flood hazard areas for substantial damage and then track and permit post-flood repairs for those buildings. This tracking is different than FEMA's public assistance tracking and towns must complete the required work to ensure flood insurance is possible for public and private residences and buildings in these mapped flood hazard areas. And just a quick comment on flood damage buildings. It is important not to rush to demolition of buildings if there is a potential to seek federal funding for buyouts as premature demolition may negatively impact eligibility for funding. Please consult the state hazard mitigation officer at Vermont emergency management prior to demolishing any buildings that may have been damaged extensively or destroyed by the flood. Speaking about debris, I would be remiss if I also didn't touch on household hazardous waste. These are products that are often labeled caution, toxic, danger, hazard, warning, poisonous, reactive, corrosive or flammable. They also tend to be very common. There are things you purchase at the hardware store, the automotive store, the grocery store like paint, charcoal lighter, oven cleaner, pesticides and propane and gas cylinders. As flood impacted verminers are removing damaged materials from their homes and buildings, we strongly encourage you to keep household hazardous waste separate. Currently, residents can bring their flood related hazardous materials to the state hazardous materials collection site which is located at the former Middlesex police barracks which is at 1078 U.S. Route 2 in Middlesex. There will be other collection locations and events around the state later this summer. Businesses are also eligible to bring hazardous materials to this site. Up to 10 five gallon containers of flood related hazardous materials can be disposed of at the Middlesex facility. I strongly encourage anyone with flood related hazardous materials to handle these chemicals with care and to please take advantage of this collection site which is currently open Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Again at the former Middlesex police barracks at 1078 U.S. Route 2 in Middlesex. If you have specific questions about dealing with hazardous materials impacted by the flood, you can also call 802-828-1138 for assistance. And a final piece of flood related advice from A&R and our partners at the Department of Health. If flood waters happen to reach your private well or spring, you should have your well tested as soon as possible to ensure it is safe. The Vermont Department of Health Laboratory is giving free drinking water test kits to people with private wells and springs that were affected by flooding. There are three ways to get a free test kit. The first is to call the health department and they will mail it to you. They can be reached at 802-338-4724. Kits are also available at your local health office as well as the flood resource center or marks that are listed online. To date, almost 3,000 kits have gone out but only about 10% of those have been returned. Please make sure you return your test kits to your local health office. This is really important because of those roughly 300 test kits that have come back close to half have tested positive for types of bacteria that can cause stomach upset and gastrointestinal illness. There are two bottles in each one of these test kits so be sure to fill both. And there are some video resources available online on the health department website that walk you through exactly how to take these water samples. Again, for anyone who may have questions or need additional help, all of these resources are compiled and available on the agency of natural resources flood recovery page which is anr.vermont.gov. And with that, I will turn it over to Commissioner Hanford. Thank you. I wanted to share some information about mobile home parks otherwise known as manufactured home communities. Some of them have had significant impacts from the flooding and individual homeowners and park owners have specific recovery challenges and many questions. Over the last few weeks, we at DHCD and Division of Fire Safety along with municipalities have been communicating this information with mobile home park owners directly and executing on a process I'm about to describe. We want to make sure this message is reaching everyone who may be impacted. So we'll share this information with you today and hope you'll spread the word. If your manufactured or mobile home was impacted by July flooding, make sure you take the following steps to report your damages. Register with 211. The state is collecting this information about damages to residences and businesses and we need all residents of Vermont that had any damage to report it. These forms are used to show FEMA that we have damaged counties, especially counties that maybe haven't been declared yet. If we don't know about the damage to your mobile home or mobile home park, we can't get you the help you need. Next, register with FEMA. Ask for an inspection of your damaged home and apply for the individual assistance available. If your mobile home received substantial damage and is not habitable, ask for a certification of condemnation from your municipality. A law enacted from lessons learned after trouble to store an Irene makes this process to condemn a flood damaged mobile home quicker and more streamlined. Upon the declaration of the governor of a disaster or emergency, a municipal building inspector, municipal health officer, a fire marshal, or a zoning administrator can complete this process and municipalities can reach out to the division of fire safety for help, which they've done and they've helped in Berlin at both mobile home parks. Why is this so important? If your mobile home receives significant damage beyond a reasonable cost to repair, a certificate of condemnation will increase the likelihood you receive the maximum eligible award from FEMA. I understand that highlighting a process that more efficiently confirms your home is a total loss is hardly something to celebrate, but we want folks to get as much assistance and as quickly as possible. Also, file a claim with your insurance company. If you have homeowners or rent or insurance, you should file a claim as soon as possible. By law, FEMA cannot duplicate the benefit and losses covered by your insurance. If you are uninsured or underinsured, you may be eligible for the federal assistance FEMA provides. The other issue is be patient. Don't remove your home too quickly. The state is recommending the individual's weight to remove their condemned homes from their sites until your FEMA application has been approved and your award you believe is accurate. Removing a home before FEMA's award process is complete could void your FEMA award. So we want folks to be very careful. We understand that there is desire and need to remove these homes. The governor has also instructed DHCD to explore all options, including working with housing partners, flood relief charitable funds, construction companies, waste haulers, and FEMA to develop a process that removes and disposes of mobile homes that were condemned, much like the governor organized after Irene when he was lieutenant governor. Our goal here is to make this low or no cost to homeowners who lost everything. We want them to use their FEMA award to help secure new housing and not pay thousands of dollars to remove their destroyed home. More information, more help is available at flood, vermont flood, vermont.gov slash flood, the department of housing community development website, and partners that work in mobile home communities such as the mobile home program at the San Plain office of economic opportunity. Happy to answer any further questions. Thank you, commissioner. We'll now open up to questions. Governor, now that you have dug out from under the backlog of 2-1-1 calls, as commissioner Morrison mentioned last week, you're out from under that backlog. What are your thoughts about how well vermont 2-1-1 performed? There's been some criticism leveled against it at the legislature as they start to look into how things went. Well, it was admittedly overwhelmed in the beginning. I think back about how the UI situation during the pandemic was overwhelmed, and we found the same situation here. We rectified that in the midst of this, and we learned from it. So we're better at the end than the beginning or during the initial crisis, but it'll be another lesson learned. The website for vermont 2-1-1 indicates that it works closely with the state to make sure that it is capable of handling a to respond to sustained spikes in call volume during disasters and by all accounts, that didn't happen. So if you had a chance to sort of understand why it was that the 2-1-1 was not able to expand from the handful of people working there to what it needed to do to respond to disaster like this. I think from our standpoint, we weren't given that information from 2-1-1 on the ground. So we rectified that as soon as we understood what the problem was that they were being overwhelmed, then we rectified the situation. Some lawmakers are saying that it seems as though maybe the vermont 2-1-1 was underfunded in this year's budget. They had cutbacks just a few days before the storm hit. They needed to cut their staff. Do you remember how your administration has advocated for the staffing of vermont 2-1-1 over the year? Well again, we can't fix a problem unless we know about it. So in this situation, had we known about it sooner, we would have been able to rectify the situation, put more people on in order to take all the calls and not have all that build up over time. So again, I don't believe it was a funding issue. It was a communication issue. Mr. Roy, I had a question for you and I think it also goes to Mr. Hanford as well, that you said FEMA's situation is not to restore the house the way that it was, but to take care of the immediate needs to make it safe and habitable. So in that regard, is that why the maximum count is what, $41,000? Yes, sir. So just so people know, homeowners, people who have suffered enormous damages, best case scenario for them for FEMA is $41,000. That is a very correct statement, sir. The first thing we look at is insurance to determine how much insurance will pay the homeowner and then that will play into how much money they'll receive from FEMA. So if you have insurance, you have to make your application and then we have to see what the insurance payments were and then if there's any residual there, we can work with the applicant to see if there's FEMA funding available. Is this also true for the mobile home? Yes, sir. If it's owned. Yes, sir. If it's owned. So you've got people who have lost mobile homes, I don't know exactly what they cost, but several hundred thousand dollars their damage destroyed and being taken away and best case scenario is they're going to get $41,000. Yes, sir. And I think you have to remember what the FEMA funding is for from from the Congress, right, is to help people to kick start their recovery after disaster, right? But if the federal government made, you know, was responsible for this, there wouldn't be any insurance, right? There wouldn't be a requirement for insurance, right? So we all have to take responsibility for our properties. So the, you know, the funding that FEMA gets from Congress is to help kick start that recovery process. So far, what is the average payout to homeowners? Either the cap of $41,000 or $46,000. What's the average? I don't have that readily available. We can get it to you. You know, it's difficult because you could have somebody who just received, you know, money for clean and sanitize and another person get $41,000. So by giving you an average, it I don't think it would really be, you know, information that is of huge value because that's for I'm sorry. We can certainly take a look at the data and provide to you what we have. Do I understand correctly, FEMA's budget needs to be restored, continued? Is FEMA about to run out of money? No, sir. FEMA's financial office has stated that we have enough funding in our accounts to be able to deal with the current disasters we have. But we all recognize that the disaster funding comes from Congress. And as we enter hurricane season, they continue to work, administration works with Congress on the anticipated funding they need to support states, territories, tribes, should they be impacted by a storm. But right now there is no issue whatsoever for the funding to support Vermont. Any updates about, you know, verified number of homes and mobile homes that have been definitely destroyed? We don't have definitive information. We have information from people who have reached out. We have information from inspectors to look at them, but it is a little bit longer process as we take a look at the substantial damage assessments. Last week, the governor said 65 or 70-ish homes, mobile homes or otherwise have been red-tagged. Can we have an update on how many are unlivable right now? I can give you an update on the mobile homes. 61 is the total that I have been made aware from fire safety and mobile home park owners of homes that have been deemed uninhabitable. All 61 of those I don't believe have all received a condemnation letter yet. I know 31 have and there's a process underway with the park in Johnson and in Lovemore. What are your thoughts about moving forward and whether a lot of these mobile home parks had similar damage back in our area, I remember correctly? How much sense does it make to rebuild these parks where they are and what are your options for having alternatives? Yes, great question. It's hard at the moment to make a definitive one-way or another answer on that for some of these park owners and residents. I will tell you after Irene there were a couple mobile home parks that were bought out no longer. It's park land and there were several that raised their lots and did mitigation measures. Some of those parks that had mitigation, flood mitigation measures put in place did not receive the type of flooding and extensive damage that these four parks did. There's primarily four parks, two in Berlin, one in Lotto and one in Johnson that received the most damage. It'll be a process for the owners to determine what they would like to do, how they'd like to proceed. It's not something that I'm aware that the state will force upon them one way or another, but certainly looking at what options exist from FEMA down the road for buyout or other federal funds and then individual mobile home owners choosing to go back to that park or not is obviously a serious consideration they need to make. If I could add to the challenge that we have in that situation, FEMA does have a program where they have units that are available that we could lease in the interim because we may not be able to find replacement homes for many, but FEMA won't allow those to go back into a floodway. So some of the parks that are available that might have lots available because all the homes were destroyed would not be viable for this option that we have. So again, we are considering everything at this point in time and no decisions have been made, but I think in the future we're going to have to really think about where these manufactured home plots are located. This would be true regular residents as well. Do you see the state having a role of saying you got to do things differently? You can't go back to where it was. The danger is too great. I think we're going to have to have a balance in some respects. We're going to have to, that's why I keep leaning on our congressional delegation for a supplemental bill because I think there are going to have to be some buyouts of mobile home park owners as well as finding suitable lots for those who have been displaced. So again, it's hand in hand. We're all in this together and we're not going to force anybody to do anything, but we want to assist them in making the right decisions and have the resources available to do that. Carries about damage to on-farm housing, either for Secretary Tevitz or Governor Zuckerman. Is there any sense of the extent of damage to housing that's on-farm premises and what's being done to help the workers who are there? Are you talking about their residents or the maybe some other homes? Well, I know a lot of Vermont farms have housing that are on the farms where hired workers live and I would imagine a fair number of them are fairly near the fields and in the floodplains. So I'm just wondering if there's any sense. I'm not aware of any damage to those units, but Secretary Tevitz, do you want to add something? Hi, I'm Anthony Tevitz, Agency of Agriculture. I have not heard of any that does not mean there has not been some, but I have not received any reports of farm worker housing that have come into today's agency. Anson, you mentioned last week that you had some hope that some of the corn crop was going to survive and a corn is something that can survive being underwater for a couple of days, but you were concerned about contamination and you needed to test things. Can you give us any further update on what you think the state of the similar corn crop is? Yeah, we've been talking with farmers, but also U of M Extension, their agronomist team has been out checking the fields. I think our hope was a lot of it could be saved that was underwater and maybe it would come back. I think it's gone the other way. I think there's a lot of corn that for livestock feed is not doing as well as we had hoped it would, so I think a lot of that is damaged. And there's also the, Secretary Moore talked about debris. There's a lot of debris in a lot of fields as well. And the big risk, a lot of farmers are very concerned about putting their equipment into a corn field and trying to harvest it or hay because it could severely damage the equipment. So I think there's going to be a lot of issues related to the corn making it through. Some will, but I think a lot of it is probably not going to make it that was underwater. Governor, when you look at rebuilding yesterday, the e-board proved up to 10 million in funding with efficiency Vermont grants. Can you give a bit of your reaction to that approval as well as you've talked about climate change impacting flooding before? Can you talk a bit about rebuilding through a more efficient lens? Yeah, and I was part of them. I chair the emergency board. So we made that decision yesterday and this will assist in anyone who has to replace their systems and give them some financial assistance to do that. I might refer to Secretary or Commissioner Tierney on that issue as well because she's going to be implementing that program. Thank you, Governor. We were very pleased that a consensus view was developed at the emergency board to allow this to go forward. It represents a shift for the moments from funding weatherization for low and middle income volunteers, which is a very important issue in climate change to trying to get to the source of some of the emissions that we've been trying to reduce as a result of our policies. So the idea is to help folks make the transition to cleaner means of heating and try to buy down the cost through this funding, notwithstanding that it takes some money away from the very important work of weatherization as well. But it's the right thing to do right now because winter is coming and folks are going to need to eat. They're going to need to cook. They're going to need to refrigerate as well. So this is in the mason stage, but the hope is that we can do this fairly quickly. And right now the target launch date for the program is September 1. We will be working with hand-in-hand with efficiency remote to get this done. And I really have to commend all the folks who participated in this, the leadership of efficiency remote, the leadership from the governor and his staff, the leadership and the legislature and then my folks as well. A lot of hard work was done very quickly to get this done and I think it was done well. It exemplifies what we do well at Vermont. Thank you, Governor. Governor, can you talk a little bit more about FEMA trailers? As you mentioned, we can't place them in the floodplains. Does the state have any other plans to place them in any other locations? We're exploring all options there and that's challenging because if you might have a piece of land but then you need all the utilities, you need the water and sewer and the storm and electrical and so forth. And so it's not in then the road infrastructure as well. So it's not as easy as just finding a piece of land to put these into even on a temporary basis. But we're exploring all the options we have. There are a number of lots that have been identified that are open. Unfortunately, they're not all in the central Vermont region where we need them. Many in Bennington and so forth. So again, we're looking at all the lots open to us here in the region first and then looking for other opportunities as well. Does the state order those trailers and how many? Again, I just received the information on that with will on this initiative. And I don't have all the details at this point. He could probably answer questions about the viability or how long it takes to get. But as the governor said, it's not as easy as just bring them in and plop them down, right? You have to be able to connect for electricity. You have to have septic. You have to have running water. So finding a suitable location to do that. And it's the questions to how many. I think that's the challenge we're looking at right now across the board is how many people who have been displaced are actually going to require this capability to help them while their permanent residents is restored. And so it's a mixed bag. We do have a number of options on the table to assist. For instance, we can do direct versus a mobile home. We can do directly. If there's capability in the area that we can actually direct lease properties so people can live there while they restore their homes for up to 18 months. If it makes sense for a mobile home unit to be placed by their home and it's not in a flood plain, that is an option that's on the table again. We have contracts in place that will be able to put in the utilities for it. But it's not fast. And that's the problem, right? Because it's getting the local jurisdictions approval for it and then ensuring the site is viable for placing it. So it's rather complicated, but obviously something we do all over the U.S. when there's a need. What we do find is that because of the time that it takes and it takes a while, many of the people who thought that was going to be a solution for them by the time it's ready to go have found another solution, a solution that works better for them. I mean, I can escape. The state apparently suspended Medicaid cutoffs in July following the flood. Is that going to be extended through August? Secretary Sam Wilson, are you on the line? I am on the line. I'll have to get back to you on that one. Okay. About the date, what I'll give back to you specifically is the date that I'll extend it through. Okay. So it will be extended, but waiting for the date. I assume so, but... Okay. Another couple quick follow-ups at Katie Hartnett. Is there an update about whether or not her death is still being investigated as a potentially flood-related death? I don't know, so the investigation is complete with the I's and the T's dotted, but the preliminary assessment from the evidence on scene was that it was not flood-related. A question about, could I have a little bit more detail about the Vermont TUS license plate? I guess, what is our TUS role in this? Again, we're working out the details, but they'd like to produce socks and bundle this together and raise money. Going back to displacements, especially for families, if school is right around the corner, is there any concern about kids being able to be physically in the classroom if they're not able to stay in their homes? Yeah, we are doing our very best to make sure that they're not displaced, that they're able to go back to the school where they went previously, but that is a concern of ours and we're working on that as we speak. Are there any plans for online learning like we saw in the pandemic? None that I'm aware of. We've found during the pandemic that that didn't get us the outcomes we'd hoped and actually put people and kids, students behind, so we're going to make every effort to make sure they're back in the classroom. Do you know how many kids have been affected? I don't know, I don't know if there's any kids, unless I want to be clear about that. We are assessing that as we speak. You know, it's been terribly three weeks, feels like three years since this one. That is true. You had your initial administrative reaction to it, helping people, getting people safe, starting a recovery process. Now that we're three weeks into this, what do you see is the big challenges of let's say the next three weeks? Yeah, I think again with this is trying to find a path to getting people housed, right? We saw in this event, as opposed to Irene, there are many more displaced, particularly in the Barry Washington County area, and that's going to be a major area of concern for us with all the mobile home, manufactured homes in many of these locations. That is, that has our attention and that's something we're working on. Governor, other than when you think about flood resiliency for the state as a whole, right, I'm hearing about the need to buy more homes out so that they're not in danger, and beyond that, what are you thinking about when it comes to making the state more flood resilient for future floods? Obviously about upgrading culverts and such and urges and all that, we understand, but we wrote a story about dams and there's a lot of people suggesting that perhaps the waterways of the state of Vermont are clogged with too many of these old dams that maybe need to be removed to make the flood channels better, more efficient, getting that water out of the state as quickly as possible. Yeah, it's all the above. Again, removing obstructions, upgrading culverts, doing things differently, moving housing to locations of higher elevation within the communities that we have, or raising foundations as well. I mean, all of that can be done and all that should be done, but there's not one single answer. But when you look at the aerial pictures of the area of Montpelier, I mean, that's only going to go so far in higher capital underwater during this flood. So what's the thinking about how to make a city like Montpelier more resilient to a flood that's got three feet of water in its downtown? Raise the businesses to the second floor? Well, not every event would cause the damage that we saw. It depends on where the blockage happens and the intensity of the storm in that area. It's just, in this situation, we had so much rain over a period of days, not just a period of hours. So again, we're going to do the very best we can, life and safety first, homes come first, and we'll do the best we can. But some of it is raising, I think the city of Montpelier has identified this. Some of it is, you know, you can't, you may not be able to prevent water in certain situations, but you can keep some of the infrastructure out of the water. So you have to raise that up. Some of the mechanical issues, the electrical boxes and furnaces and so forth need to be up to prevent the damage that is associated with the flooding. Sure, not every event is going to result in three feet of downtown Montpelier, but every climate scientist agrees that these sorts of events are going to happen more often. You know, Montpelier was hit hard in 2011. Before that, it was hit hard in 1992. You know, now it's 2023. It's pretty relatively safe to assume it. We can anticipate catastrophic events happening on a much more frequent basis. So I mean, do we not need to be thinking about some pretty bold changes about the way that we settle the government plan? Yeah, I think some of these are long-term or maybe shorter-term solutions, but they all have to be on the table and we have to work with the municipalities and local officials to determine what's best. Again, life and safety first, making sure that we protect those homeowners and keep them out of harm's way. But some of the practical issues, like I said, raising some of the utilities, some of the electrical infrastructure, some of the furnaces and so forth, the HVAC, raising them up will create an opportunity so you can withstand some of the storms, not putting everything in the basement and raising things up a bit, natural without actually raising the foundations, but moving things around a bit will help. And some of the other upgrading, a lot of the culverts and removing some of the dams and so forth and so on will help. We saw it in Brandon, as I've mentioned in a previous press conference. So they were able to withstand the latest storm. So some of this has proven to work. We just have to keep focusing on that because, as you said, it will happen again. There's no doubt about that. Governor, we saw a lot of, heard a lot of gas-powered generators on the sidewalks in La Puglia and Derry. My administration is apparently considering or actually has proposed banning the sale of new gas-powered generators. I realize you're probably a little hesitant to say anything critical to federal government right now, but what do you think of that? Well, I think in emergency situations you need to take steps such as a gas generator in order to protect life and safety. So I think we'll see generators around for quite some time in these situations. Not long-term, but we need them. They're there for a purpose. Can I go to the phones? What are your thoughts on the state's economic forecast that was released yesterday, and do you think that outlook will change in a couple of next months with flooding recovery and damage? Well, again, let's remember this was great news in some respects, a $78 million upgrade for the next fiscal or this coming fiscal year. So that's good news. But over 80% of that was interest income, and that's all because of the money that we received from the federal government that we is allocated but not spent. So we have it in the bank. We're collecting interest on it at a time when they're raising interest rates. So we're benefiting from that. But this is one-time money, one-time event. We've allocated all of this money for projects and infrastructure and so forth in the future. So this isn't going to continue. This is just a blip in the screen. So if you take that out, we're either flat or you could make the argument that the revenues are maybe declining a bit. And if something happens in the future, we have a recession that's going to be even more problematic. Chris Roy, Newport Valley Express. Yes, thank you, Governor. Good afternoon. Could you talk a little bit more about the license plate? Where are they going to be sold? Where the proceeds are going to go and how much of the proceeds are actually going to that? And I think I'm just wondering how much of cost to produce the license plate. Thank you. Yeah, we'll get back to you in the next couple of weeks on those specifics. We haven't worked out all the details at this point in time, but it'll be somewhat similar to before. And we'll be working to make sure that the vast majority of our monitors are covered in some respect from whatever this brings about. But I think, again, we'll have more details in the next couple of weeks. Okay, thank you. Tim and Quiston, Vermont Business Magazine. Thank you, Governor. Following up on the economic conference yesterday, some of the revenues also generated by tax changes on the corporate and, as you well know, transportation. Any reaction to that going forward? Are you going to deal with that? Well, on the corporate tax income, good news. That means that businesses are doing well at this point in time. We've worked fairly hard on that, making sure that they're viable and we're developing new business entities and welcoming people into the state as much as possible. But as you well know, Tim, that can change depending on what happens on the federal level and whether there is a recession or not, so that we can't count on that in perpetuity. But it helps for us to diversify and bring as many businesses in and bring more revenue in as much as we can. So that was the other piece, you know, like I said, about 80% of the upgrade was over 80% was due to interest income as a result of all the federal money we have sitting in the bank collecting drawing interest. It's like a savings account in some respects, but knowing that we're going to have to spend in the future. The other was the corporate tax. And there was an upgrade of a few million dollars over the next couple of years. And that was all attributable to the 20% increase in DMV fees that the legislature imposed. How about the economists were also a little nervy about the prospect of a recession? Do you have the same feeling? Well, I think they're always concerned about a recession. I think that's historic. But again, we don't have a lot of control of that here in this state. I think it could come at any time. I've been concerned about that over the last couple of years, but thus far it hasn't. The federal government has been monitoring that, raising rates in order to slow the economy down just a little bit so that inflation just doesn't take over completely. And so thus far they've done a fairly good job of monitoring that and keeping us from going into a recession, but that can change very quickly. It's another concern of mine. We've talked about our workforce challenges, lack of workers, lack of youth in the state. We're an aging demographic and our focus on the trades has been something I've been talking about for a number of years. So it is a concern. It's all hands on deck. All contractors are busy at this point in time. We're doing whatever we can to make sure that we prioritize projects to get the ones that have to be completed done, and it would be the same here. We want to make sure that people get back into homes that we're building our housing infrastructure and we don't lose sight of the fact that we have another crisis on our hands has been identified by many of the legislature included that this is a housing crisis that we face. So again, we have a number of crises on the table and we'll manage them to the best of our ability, but there is an abundant supply of contractors out there and we have them. I think everyone has them all working at this point in time. Governor, after Irene, you have appointed a recovery czar. Are you thinking of doing the same thing here? Yes, we will have one. How's the process going and what the person looks for? It's going well. And close to making a decision on that? Yes. What do you expect that person to do? Just control the influx of opportunity, whether it be financial resources and everything, just somebody monitoring the financial aspect of this. You mentioned the $78 million upgrade in the state's revenue picture. Did you say all that money basically is already accounted for in terms of being spent? No, the savings account that we have, that the $78 million was derived from, interest, all that money is allocated. So for those who think this $78 million is going to continue, we're spending that down. So it's not going to be available for all that interest that we've benefited from. Are you considering asking the legislature to take this $78 million in one-time money and use it for business grants or presidential grants? We are going to, I mean, that money is probably well-timed in some respects, but because don't forget, with the FEMA money that we receive and we're very fortunate to have that at our for public assistance and so forth, some of it comes with a match. I would say a lot of it comes with a match. So this money is probably already spent just in terms of FEMA match. And when you think about, we just brought Peter to pay Paul with the $20 million for business grants that we took out of the broadband, but we have to put that back. So there's $20 million right there. So pretty soon, 78 million sounds like a lot until you start getting into all the infrastructure damage we have here and all the business opportunities and homeowner opportunities and everything else that we have on our plate right now. And if you look at all the options that the administration has to provide financial assistance, are these on the, I'm wondering if it's on the table to say to the legislature, we know you wanted to start this program now. But we need that money for this emergency situation. Is that part of the discussion that's going on? We will continue to determine until we get a full picture of what our challenge is, it's going to be difficult to answer that question, right? We don't know the magnitude of this. There's still a lot of pieces and that's one area that our czar will be on the point on and determining just exactly what is our exposure? What do we have to do and prioritize that? It's our raising taxes for flood relief on the table. Last resort as far as I'm concerned, raising taxes is always the last resort. I think the legislature did enough of that last session. Mike Smith, see who these are. There's a lot of Mike Smiths out there. I just have a question for Lieutenant Governor. I mean, we talked a little bit about agriculture here. We talked about corn and dairy, but Vermont's agriculture industry is farming industry is much more diverse than that. Can you give us a sense of either how your farm fared or how your understanding of the other farms in the state that are non-dairy? Guy made a really good point that a lot of these farms are in low-lying areas. What's your sense of the damage to the personal or to the agriculture industry in the state general? Well, I know a lot of farms have suffered just from the persistent rains, and I learned this last weekend from some congressional staffers that actually those of us that have suffered added diseases or crop losses, not necessarily from floodwater inundation, but just from continuous rains that we should be reporting that to FSA. Ensign can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe they're tallying that information as well, which actually my farm still needs to do, because farms are still trying to get the crops they can from the weakened plants. We do know it was an answer about 9,000 acres of flooded farms so far. Obviously, a lot of that is hay and cornland, but many of the diversified farms have also utilized those kinds of lands, whether it was the intervail or my farm used to be and was flooded twice before we moved out, but all along lots of other riverways, dog river farm, and you can name dozens of farms that have lost their crops under water. And so us in just social media been communicating about the two-edged double-edged sword of floodlands. They're some of the best land for agricultural crops, whether it's traditional dairy or diversified farm, but as we're seeing, as was mentioned earlier, increased intense storms how much longer folks are going to stay there. So we've talked about people moving out of manufactured home parks that might be in line with these waters. I think a lot of farmers are questioning how long they can stay in some of those areas as well. Okay, I have a meeting I'm late for, so thank you all very much for coming in. And again, to remind everyone, we only have a short time left to make sure that Addison County reports any damage to 211 so that we can get that individual assistance is going to be so important for them because again, it'll help your neighbor. Thank you all very much.