 Appreciate y'all joining us here this morning for this absolutely exciting milestone in this recovery process. I'd like to open it up by welcoming Paradise Mayor Jody Jones up for welcome. Thank you. Good morning. It's a beautiful day, a great day to celebrate the end of the debris removal program. I want to welcome you all here this morning to our beautiful town that is free of debris. It's great to be able to say that. When this disaster happened, my only knowledge of federal and state disaster agencies was what I saw on TV after Hurricane Katrina. So I didn't know what to expect but both Cal OES and FEMA were waiting when I arrived at the at the Operations Center on Friday morning after the fire and they've been with us ever since. The partnership has been fabulous. This debris removal program I was told there was two and a half times the debris there was at the World Trade Center and it's in about nine months and there were a lot of rain delays and it's all gone. The efficiency, the partnership, the knowledge, and just the can-do spirit of Cal OES and FEMA in helping us to get this accomplished is phenomenal. This house that's behind me under construction, it wouldn't be there. My house is under construction as well as over 300 other homes across this town and that wouldn't have happened without this debris removal program and the expertise of Cal OES and FEMA and Cal Recycle. So I just want to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all of Paradise. And at this time I'd like to introduce our Assemblyman James Gallagher who's also been helping us with all kinds of things since the disaster and I appreciate him as well. James? Well thank you Jody and it's a pleasure to be here with everyone this morning. Thank you. Welcome to Paradise. You know this whole situation, the aftermath of the campfire is something that we would never want to happen and the devastation that we've seen and I remember in those early days as we were meeting in the emergency operations center and starting to discuss how do we help this town and this community in the other areas affected, Magalia, Kongkau, Yankee Hill, how do we help people recover? It seems so overwhelming and as we were talking to people in evacuation centers and dealing with the many different needs in the aftermath of that fire, we certainly just felt a deep sense of despair. But in those moments as we began to work together and as we started to outline all the things that needed to be done and started to work with our federal partners and our local partners, I was just amazed at how well everybody began to coordinate their efforts and how everybody be able to fill their role and this was a big part of it. Is this debris removal? I think when we first just looked at how much debris was going to have to be removed in order for this community to recover, it seemed insurmountable. But with this team that was working together here, FEMA, Cal OES, Cal Recycle and all and then the contractors who ultimately got the jobs, you saw that seamless organization begin to work and it wasn't without problems. We had, I was telling Director Fenton, we had our ups and downs. There were frustrations as there always is because nobody would ever want to have to deal with the situation of this type. We certainly didn't ask for it and there were those frustrations but we worked through them and as things came up as we were trying to help people recover, we were trying to deal with different issues that people might have had with their particular property, we worked together as a team. At times we had some arguments with each other but we didn't let that get in the way of the overall picture and this and certainly this team behind behind me kept our focus on kept their eye on the prize, kept our focus on the goal and it's amazing that we're standing here a little over a year later with all the debris removed. I think anybody that would have looked at this said, hey you're looking at least 18 months to two years and it's ahead of schedule and I and I and I give a lot of credit to Director Gilarducci, to FEMA and the team that worked on this. He would probably say he's had too much experience in this of late and certainly we've, as I said, none of us would have asked for this but I think that there's been lessons learned from other areas and it and it was brought to bear here as we've completed this project but the greater thing about all this is this giving people the opportunity to rebuild, a home being rebuilt behind me. We're seeing you know over 300 building permits moving forward by the end of the year maybe 500 building permits and you're seeing the strength of this town as it recovers and rises from the ashes stronger than ever before. So it's a pleasure to be part of that. I want to thank everyone that played the did the real hard work of making it happen each and every day and we are truly grateful and ready to move forward. Thank you and I'd like to invite up Director Mark Gilarducci from Cal OES. Well good morning everyone and so happy to be with you today and this very monumental accomplishment. You know a year ago as we approached responding to this fire and the enormity of the situation we look back and we think you know at the time such complexity such sense immense scope and scale to be able to have to respond to this how we we pull together an organization that could rapidly address the recovery because we know that recovering cleaning out the debris after these events and getting the community back in a place where it can effectively rebound and begin that recovery process is critical but it was a daunting task and look we had you know over 11,000 structures that needed to be removed and we had winter on our heels starting the process we were slowed by it seemed like one major storm after another snow rain and we're very very concerned that we were never going to be able to get and meet the metric but we we thought you know maybe a year and a half or two years before we could get this this cleaned up but I'm really happy today to talk about getting it done in a nine month time period less than a year from the time that the fire ravaged the community and it's been done by a team a team in California which is I'm always so amazed about the way we come together public private non-governmental and the community wrapping around together to be able to accomplish this task this wasn't done by one specific agency or one specific organization but about a collaborative effort of many with a common set of objectives and a metric that we were all going to very be very specific on on and focus on getting this community cleaned up and getting it ready to get rebuilt and seeing the rebuilding that's going on behind me and listening to some remember Gallagher talk about 300 500 in the next year building permits working on being able to address the ability to have better water systems better sewer systems these are all fantastic accomplishments that go along with the ability to one get the community cleaned up there are other parts of the country where they have had disasters that they're still working on getting their debris cleaned out still addressing their recovery priorities but here in Paradise and here in California and let me just say that while the recovery here was going on it's not like we haven't had plenty of other activities going on in California including additional multiple fires a major earthquake something called the PSPS that's affected all of us all of these things are happening in the backdrop but the focus of this community and the focus of this team has been to continue to get the community cleaned up and it's been a herculean effort and I want to thank specifically all of the contractors I want to thank the community the patients of the community the mayor the town manager our county elected leaders our recovery coordinator Cal recycle Cal EPA and the National Guard everyone coming together and of course our partners at FEMA who have navigated us together with this this graphic really shows an amazing amount of debris that was cleared out 59 trips to the moon that's pretty phenomenal right you know for Golden Gate Bridge is worth a debris it puts it in a context of how complicated this effort was and and so now we move from completing this and there's still a few little wrap-up things we need to do doing some waddling around properties and you know there's a few batements that need to be made but fall intent purposes the program has met its objective and met its goal and now we'll we'll look into the phase two and that is identifying those hazardous trees that need to be removed and it's another herculean effort quite frankly of bringing the same organization to bear and bringing that group together to be able to address those hazardous trees and get the trees out of the way so that the remaining building process can take place so with that I just want to thank the community for your patience I want to thank all of the partners and and just really you know I'm excited about paradise coming back as the paradise that it was but with that I'm going to turn it over to my partner from FEMA the Regional Director Bob Fenton I'm proud to stand here today to recognize the completion of the largest debris mission in recent California history I applaud as Mark did the planning the cooperation the hard work and the patients of the residents the local leaders the experts the operators and the many specialists that contribute to this mission we knew that the debris mission the 2017 fires would be the largest since the great San Francisco earthquake in 1906 but we did not expect in 2017 when we did that operation that we would have another post-wildfire debris mission nearly twice as large and tons of debris remove would be necessary the debris mission included the removal of fire debris tolling more than 3.6 million tons and over 11,000 parcels the debris was removed safely to a high local state and federal standard so that people air water would be safer in paradise and around butte County FEMA authorized the reimbursement for debris removal costs for prior property because the fire debris threatened the public health however we also know an additional benefit is coordinated debris removal facilities rebuilding and it's good this morning to see concrete lumber steel and other signs of construction I'm also happy to learn that the first 13 homes are complete and as the assemblymen talked about paradise has hundreds of permits already submitted for future rebuilding I applaud the local leaders the residents who are committed to staying in the community they love and are committed to ensuring the community is safe strong and resilient as you know well the recovery of paradise and other butte County communities will take years and we will stand with you with disaster assistance and mitigation programs with technical support and with the respect and the compassion for the losses suffered and the hopes that drive your efforts starting next month FEMA's long-term recovery efforts will run from an office in paradise and the staff in that office will work to implement the FEMA's programs with other federal state and local government programs along with nonprofit organizations businesses and the public to ensure what started with a successful debris removal effort transitions to success and other recovery priorities. Let me just end with saying I applaud the leadership of Cal us and my partner Mark Iliducci Cal recycle as they have shown again as fire debris experts the dedication of local officials throughout the months of debris removal and the persistence of survivors from all communities impacted by the campfire also I just want to recognize and thank us EPA and Cal EPA who at the beginning removed all the household hazardous waste and record time in order to allow us to allow Cal recycle and the operators to remove the debris and record time so with that thank you and next I'd like to introduce Ken de Rosa from Cal recycle. Good morning everyone I'm Ken de Rosa with Cal recycle you'll indulge me a moment I'm going to read this passage here and now the Sun with more effectual beams had cheered the face of earth and dried the wet from drooping plant or dropping tree the birds who all things now behold more fresh and green after a night of storms so ruinous cleared up their choices notes in bush and spray to rejoice the sweet return of morning. That's a passage from John Milton and Paradise regained. I want to amplify Bob's closing point and acknowledge the work of our partners at the Department of Toxic Substances control. In this process they are phase one they are the tip of the spear that sets the pace for this cleanup they come in and remove the gross hazards that are there moving us then to phase two. You're familiar with the numbers I'm not going to kind of go into a great level of detail about them because you've heard a lot about them but it is a significant effort and I think it's important again to amplify a point that was made just a moment ago. Yes we did finish this within nine months well ahead of schedule but in no way and at no time did we compromise the public health safety and environmental objectives that we use and that guide us through this process. We come in we remove the the metals the ash and debris we scrape the soil we test that soil we confirm that it is clean we leave a clean parcel that now a resident has the decision to make whether they return or whatever next choice they're going to make but we deliver that consistently every single time. I also want to talk about the compassion and the empathy demonstrated by the teams here today their commitment to getting this work done they cared about delivering this operation all of them public sector and private sector behind me I am joined by some of my very dear colleagues who have been part of this including Stephen Edo Lisa Garner Andy Merino Chris McSwain Jared Ramsey Lewis Todd Thalheimer Pauline Totten Anthony van der Schaaf Luke Wayne Scott Alan Zambuanga Candace Houghton and I also want to acknowledge Serena McIlwain from CalEPA is who are here today we couldn't have done done this without them and a couple dozen other people that are back of the house doing contract management invoice review it is a tribal effort to make this happen it is a community effort to make this happen I also need to acknowledge our private sector colleagues tetra tech ECC series SPSG and also our tribal monitors who were critical in ensuring cultural legacy and cultural heritage was protected throughout this all of them recognized what it meant to the community and what it meant to the individual residents and empathy and compassion aren't usually what one thinks about when one considers the government operation but these teams delivered that every day talking with homeowners talking with residents holding a hand from you know a crying individual who had lost every tangible possession could not be more proud of these colleagues lastly and and most importantly we want to thank the community we want to thank the people of paradise concaw Miguelia Yankee Hill Honey Run and others we want to thank you for your patience for your cooperation for your support this was not an easy operation there were challenges there were delays but you stood by us you believed in us and you trusted us we want to take today and thank you for that trust that belief in that support we're grateful we are humbled humbled by your trust and faith to get this done and your trust to clean up the remnants of your lost homes I had the opportunity to attend a few weekly all hands meetings and many of those are conducted in a local church and I often mentioned there that there was something fitting appropriate and profound about those all hands meetings happening inside a church that is a place where community gathers that is a place where community is built paradise and surrounding communities let us in to help prepare the damage you helped us to restore the landscape you helped us to rebuild this community and there are no words that can bring back those lost tangible memories that were lost in the fire there are no words that can see the pain and grieving of what happened here the pain and grieving of who was lost not just what was lost all we can offer our deeds that demonstrate faith in each other and faith in community a community that survived in a community once again rejoices the return of the morning so thank you all very much for being here today I'd like to turn it over now to Daniel Newsome from butte County thank you Ken that was beautiful Daniel Newsome with butte County you know the campfire burned 19,000 structures last November of which 13,000 of those were homes and businesses and it became necessary for the contaminated debris to be removed in a safe and healthy manner to keep our community safe and healthy and so I want to start off to just think all of our survivors of the campfire and each and every property owner who went down and visited a right of entry center or the disaster relief center mitigated their way through asked questions and started the process of completing their ROEs and finding their forms and making it possible for the state and all of our partners to clean the debris thank you similar to what you just said I want to thank you for your responsibility your trust your courage and your partnership throughout the process the county also would like to thank our state partners starting with Cal OAS and Cal Recycle Cal EPA DTSC and our federal partners FEMA Army Corp US EPA for successfully executing and partnering with us in this process for the largest debris removal mission that California has seen the county set up a right of entry center December 10th less than a month after the campfire event and from that day until this we've collected over 11,000 right of entry forms and all of the necessary materials for that and we've met with all of the survivors and heard their stories and that was a real important part of this process and we really appreciated that throughout the debris removal mission while we were doing all of the right things for all of the right reasons that we partnered with our survivors and our state partners to really make sure that we kept our eyes focused on being survivor sensitive and helping to everybody that has been affected by the campfire look forward to the future so this is a really significant moment for debris removal and all of the hard work and long days and long nights for everybody that it impacted because it signifies something very different for each individual but as a whole and throughout our communities it signifies another step through recovery and another step towards rebuilding and hopefully new beginnings it has been an honor to participate in debris removal with all of our state and federal partners as well as each of our campfire impacted thank you so the actual completion day was November the 6th what he said but so total with everybody involved close to five thousand yeah and it varied in times and that was for all the different agencies and private partnerships contractors across the board so you think about the enormity of this particular event starting with the fire itself the massive state and federal response to the fire suppressing the fire addressing all of that and then the the the next phase which was the recovery you know there was close to when we had the fire up here and there was several fires around the area close to 30,000 responders and and in fact we I think we moved the OES move 35,000 different fire responders or law enforcement through the mutual aid system for the fire itself and then you know five thousand or so on the scene here in the recovery probably another several thousand back again monumental effort by many many people focus on a set of objectives with very tight metrics and it really speaks to the ability that performance metrics and and a clear concise plan is very very important to be able to address these very complicated and you know enormous type situations there's always less is learned the you know I mean certainly we will we'll do an after-action sort of review on this and figure out where we can we can you know best stream by even further for the next one unfortunately there probably will be a next one just we have the nature of California and each one is has its own sort of unique signature fire debris is a little different than what we would maybe see in an earthquake with heavy concrete debris so or what we would see in a flood but the principles and the problem the way we approach these things are have commonality and you know we learned a lot from 2017 which was at the time the largest debris operation we ever done and we applied those lessons learned immediately in the 2018 which were which was a phenomenal step forward and so we'll learn from this as well and move forward in the next round I think we're looking at currently I think it's around 1.3 billion is the estimate that could be a little bit more could be a little bit less less than what we originally thought it thought I would just say that you know coming in under time and and what I think our original budget projections were is really good that also speaks to the efficiency of the overall effort yeah tree removal will begin in the January timeframe again we want to make sure that we are organizing in a effective way and sometimes you have to go a little bit slow to go fast in the long run and that's exactly what we're doing here different set of contractors different set of approaches we you know you have to determine which trees first of all need to be taken down and which ones don't so you need technical expertise arborist and other kinds of foresters and then of the trees that that are going to be taken down some are will be biomassed or put to some sort of that kind of use but some are viable to be able to be used as timber and and and so that that needs to be worked through in the process but our hopes that in January timeframe will begin that that tree removal process and that's probably going to take about you know I'm going to give a metric now nine months hopefully we'll get it done in six and and and we're talking about somewhere around you know 300 350,000 trees give or take a few well in 2017 in all of the fires that we've had over the course of the last several years there's been some level of trees that have to be removed but probably the biggest effort was after a fire was in 2017 in the North Bay fires but I will tell you that the state of California has been working diligently since the end well actually almost the middle of the drought so 2016 or so where we started to see massive tree die offs in the Sierra front some 250 million trees have died due to bark beetle and and all of the drought related impacts and we've we've had a very extensive tree removal operation that's been going on and that's been private contractors has been the Caltrans been Cal fire we've had folks from the you know private sector loggers everybody's been working on that on that effort as well so trees are you know it's a and and each one is unique the ones on the bug kill can't necessarily be used for building because of the what the bugs due to the trees but they can be used for other sources so we try to we try to leverage everything just like the debris here concrete was all recycled steel was all recycled happy to show you some phenomenal photos of the massive amounts of steel that was just recycled from this event thousands and thousands of cars etc all of that goes through recycling process it gets used as something different down the road so we're really happy and proud of that we do that here anything else okay thank you everyone thank you