Alright. Well thank you guys
for joining us this morning.
Just excited to have director Stallings
with Georgia Emergency Management
Agency and his team with us today.
Want to thank the local Emergency Management
partners that we have all across the state.
We have Commissioner McMurray and the
dot folks obviously Colonel Wright,
State Patrol, Department of Public Safety,
our hard working troopers that are
out there and their support staff,
Deputy Commissioner Raven.
With the DNR team who's standing by as well,
and those two who are throughout the
state preparing their communities
for this historic cold weather
that we're about to experience in
the early morning hours on Friday,
temperatures as we know are
going to plummet statewide.
Thankfully,
we're hoping that we won't see
much participation with that,
though North Georgia will get some
rain and potential snowfall as possible
in the Blue Ridge Mountain counties.
But anytime that we're talking
about temperatures this low,
we need to be on the lookout
for black ice always.
Commissioner McMurray will speak
to the brining and Rd treatments
that will help us mitigate that,
but we also need to warn everyone that
wind chills will be near 0 or in the
negative digits by midday on Friday.
Temperatures as we know,
likely won't reach 40 degrees across
Georgia until Monday afternoon.
Communities across the state are
about to see temperatures that they
haven't experienced in a decade or
more and we just want to urge all
Georgians to be ready and certainly
that goes for our teams and we
are working on that as we speak.
Director Stallings is going to share what
the local folks are doing to prepare,
have available resources and steps that's.
Ordinance can take to get ready.
Jim is a continuing to be in
constant contact with the local
Emergency Management agencies.
Local warming stations will be activated
obviously commercial McMurray will
talk about the treating of roads.
Gemma has also been working with
the Department of Public Health to
ensure nursing homes know who to
call if they potentially lose power.
And we're in communication with
utility providers so that they have
what they need in case of power loss.
We have, as always,
our Department of Natural resource
chainsaw crews on the ready if needed in a,
you know, Windy storm event,
trees down, power lines affected,
roads affected and in other things.
And with that I'll be declaring
the state of emergency.
This will help us ensure
that essential supplies,
especially propane,
can be delivered for both commercial
and residential needs.
And now I'm going to call on
director Stallings to come up
and give us a GMA update.
And he'll be followed by
Commissioner McMurray at Georgia
Department of Transportation.
And the rest of our partners and myself
will take questions when we get done.
Chris, thank you.
First
of all, thank you governor for your
support and allowing us to get resources.
Already the the state is ready
and we're just challenging you
now to make sure you're ready.
It's extremely important that in
any weather event you think about
the needs for that specific event.
For this type of weather event,
we're more concerned about the
wind and the cold for our side.
On the wind, the power loss
is going to be a concern.
So when you're making ready a
ready kit that can sustain you.
For three days is going to be
important with these type of
temperatures and the wind.
As always,
anytime we have a wind event it's
it's difficult for power crews
to get up and bucket trucks in
sustained wind to recover power.
So while creating and updating your
kit keep in mind some specific
needs for those that are in your
household battery operated devices,
flashlights, things of that nature.
Make sure you've got those
ready first aid kits,
extra medicine should you
have to leave your home,
have those on the ready and.
Certainly special items for
infants and pets as well.
Plan to check on elderly and
disabled relatives and neighbors.
It's going to be extremely important
to make sure we keep our critical.
Friends and neighbors in mind,
these cold temperatures are
extremely difficult on our elder,
our elderly and disabled
population stay hydrated.
A lot of times you don't think
about the wind events and the cold,
it will pull the moisture out of
you much faster than a hot event.
So make sure you're staying
hydrated and you and your children,
anyone who go outside,
they need to be hydrated and
and well covered.
Plan on bringing your pets
inside during this event.
Our pets aren't ready for this
type of this type of event.
Also,
make sure your home is being
insulated that your weather stripping
around your doors and window seals,
you need to just check on
those going into it.
Have some towels available to
cover those cracks under the door
and things like that to help keep
those out your outdoor pipes.
A lot of our homes haven't seen these
temperatures in a very long time,
so it'd be a good time to make sure
you put something with Styrofoam over it.
It's it's not a good idea to wrap
it just in something to insulate it,
unfortunately if you wrap it in
some type of cloth or something
that can absorb water.
It's going to get wet and then
that is itself is going to freeze.
So it's going to make the
situation even more damaging.
Open up cabinet doors inside the house.
Let that for those houses that
your kitchen is on an exterior
wall or a lot of your plumbing
is on an exterior wall.
Open up those cabinet doors and let
that heat circulate under there.
That will help get some heat
through the wall into those pipes.
And allow your faucets to drip a
little bit through the cold weather.
It's important that while
you're heating your home,
keep space heater safety in mind.
Don't just plug in one and get close to it.
Keep some distance between
you and those space heaters.
Make sure they have tip
sensors if they fall over.
A pet knocks it over that you're
aware that we don't have a house fire.
Keep it away from your drapes and furnitures.
Never use a generator, camp stove,
charcoal, or gas grill to heat your home.
Unfortunately that's going to happen and
we do not need that happening on our watch.
We need you to be a weather wise.
And keep all your generators at least 20
feet away from any of your doors, windows,
or any outlets that will pull in fresh air.
In case of power loss.
This is where our concern is,
is that in the event of power laws,
make sure you've got some alternate
heating sources available to you.
Now, a lot of times we think
about creating heat,
but make sure you thought ahead.
Have your blankets out,
your cold weather gear.
If you've got some old winter
jackets or some coats,
go ahead and get those out now
before the weather turns and you're
trying to find them in the dark.
Make sure you've got your batteries
and your flashlights ready.
Plan ahead.
Have at least one of the following
heat sources that we just
discussed readily available.
If you have medical equipment
that operates on a battery backup,
make sure you have that charge
and and options about that.
Notify someone if these issues
arise regarding your heat.
Now,
our local emails are going to be
working to have heat sources available,
but our partners with DNR also
have warming shelters available.
You can find out where those are at
gastateparks.org back slash alerts.
So if you go to there,
they'll have a list of all their state
warming stations that they have available.
And then if you have any
further questions about that,
your local OEM's are also
working on on this problem.
And finally, health concerns.
Watch out for frostbite.
If you do have to go outside,
frostbite is going to possibly happen.
Some of the warning signs
are white or grayish.
Yellowing of the skin,
numbness of the skin that
feels unusually firmer, waxy.
If this happens,
frostbite areas are typically numb.
Do not put them near a heat
source to try to warm them.
You will not feel the damage you're
doing to the body because it's warm.
So if you do experience some numbness,
wrap yourself in some type of blanket,
try to sip on something warm and
start warming the core temperatures
and finally hypothermia.
It will happen if the body drops
below 95 degrees and in these temps,
if you're out for a long periods of time,
it can happen. Make sure you use those.
Same precautions when you come
in warm non alcoholic beverages
are the best options,
so make sure you're keeping wise.
And finally, my final point that I want
to make clear is if your power is out,
most likely your neighbors are too.
And in this type of event it's
important that we know we have one
another's back check on your neighbors,
check on your family and that we'll
get through all this together.
Commissioner McMurray.
Thank you, director stallins.
First, I want to just tell everybody again,
we are preparing for this
extreme cold weather event.
As the governor mentioned,
there will be precipitation Thursday
evening into early Friday morning.
And as the National Weather
Service has predicted,
there is a potential for flash freezing
for the moisture that remains on any of
the roadways and bridges across Georgia.
Therefore, out of the abundance of caution,
the Department of Transportation is
moving forward today with Pretreating.
Roads and bridges on state routes and
interstates such to try to get an onset
to keep that precipitation from freezing
as this Arctic blast moves through,
the Department of Transportation will treat
basically from a line north of Columbus
to Augusta and everything north of there,
as well as I-75 from Macon to the
Tennessee border and everything in between.
That is some 21,000 miles of roadways
that will need to be treated.
This afternoon we will start treating
the roads, not the interstates,
but the roads in Northwest
Georgia and northeast Georgia,
as well as this evening,
the roads in the South metro area.
That would be the state routes
but not the interstates.
Tomorrow morning at 7:00 AM,
we will begin to treat the interstates
from that boundary of Columbus all the
way over to Augusta and Macon North.
This will be working for 12 hour shifts
until we have everything treated and
trying to have everything treated before
the onset of the freezing temperatures
in the wee hours of Friday morning.
And we were confident that we can have
that first application of Brian across
all the state routes and interstates.
And so that's what we'll be
doing starting this afternoon,
in this evening and then
the interstates tomorrow.
I would like to highlight that tomorrow
we ask for your patience while you're.
Out and about.
In fact,
if you don't have to travel tomorrow,
we've suggest you stay home because we
will have to bring these roadways during
the day with over 21,000 miles of Rd.
It just takes that long to
brine that much area.
So we're asking for your cooperation.
If you don't have to be out tomorrow,
stay home and stay warm.
And certainly on Friday morning
we ask that you not get out if
you see a roadway that looks wet
on Friday morning or Friday.
Assume that it is frozen.
We will continue to spot,
treat any item,
any areas that have ice on them
or their black ice Friday and the
security until we get the all clear.
Now this is all hands effort with this
big geographic area that we're dealing
with and we'll continue to work so
that the roads are passable and acceptable.
I remind you all too that your local
roads and especially subdivision
or neighborhood streets are
likely not to be treated so again.
As we enter the holiday weekend,
please just stay home if you can,
and let's see how this really
cold Arctic snap may
have an effect on the roadways of Georgia.
And governor, I'll turn it
back to you. Thank you. Well,
thank you Commissioner and director
for those comments. We'll open
it up for any questions you got.
Well, we're working on
getting drafted right now.
So it'll be here pretty shortly.
And if it'll go through midnight,
midnight on Monday,
I think that's our thinking.
Probably go ahead and start it today.
Yeah, statewide.
Just to be clear. All state routes
north of the fall line and all
interstates north of the Fall
line are going to be treated.
That's correct. We will be treating
basically the fall line north
of state routes and interstates.
And one other thing I might add is
the express lanes on I-75 and 85 will
be closed Thursday around midnight.
And so we'll we'll wait and assess those
conditions into the weekend so we can
safely open those back up at a later point.
Governor, can you talk about
talking with the power of the EC's,
how prepared they are?
Are they bringing in crews
from out of state? Well, yeah,
I'll, I'll let director
Stalins speak to that.
You know, my biggest concern,
just a couple of things besides
what the team's been dealing with.
We've been talking to the
propane folks out there.
So, you know, a lot of the chicken houses
across state are warmed by propane.
Obviously a lot of residential homes are.
So they just want to make
sure that they can serve.
Our people in in our industry that's out
there and our our farmers and business folks.
And so that's one of the main
reasons for the state of emergency.
But also we just want to be prepared,
we want people to think about if
they're leaving town this afternoon
and it's still above freezing to remind
them that it's going to be very cold.
So you know the things that
Director Stallings was saying,
opening cabinet doors,
prepare for your travel,
if you were to get stranded,
you know in an out of way place
in 10 degree weather.
To have supplies to get you through
those kind of things to you know,
not completely cut your head off when
you leave to prevent frozen pipes
and just be aware of of the potential
for the forecast and heavy winds
and extremely cold temperatures.
It may be very hard to get the
crews to fix the down power outage
until it's safe to do so.
So we just want people to be thinking
about that and be prepared because we
know obviously with Christmas right
around the corner and the rest of the
holidays that are going on weather.
Is is not of the forefront of people's minds,
even though I think when the winds
pick up like they did this morning,
the temperatures drop.
It will be, it will be so very quickly.
So that's the the biggest things for
me and also just what Commissioner
McMurray said, just for people to be patient.
So our drivers, Brian,
Trucks and other public safety vehicles
we got on the roads helping with this,
just give them plenty of space,
be courteous,
let them do their work and just
let's not have any accidents or
loss of life because people get
impatient on our roadways.
But Chris,
do you want to speak to the utility partners?
So we have definitely been
in contact with our utility.
Partners some of the concerns of like
you mentioned everybody's dealing
with this cold snap, so we can't
bring in a lot of folks from outside.
So it's kind of an all hands approach.
Everybody's available.
Our main concerns as far as utilities go,
we want to make sure our
nursing homes are senior living,
assisted living places,
hospitals that they are certainly available.
But we will mention that not only with
the winds but these temperatures.
I don't know if you've ever had
to work hydraulic equipment,
it doesn't like cold temps and
so it it slows down response.
With these hydraulic lifts
and things of that nature,
whether it's just cold weather or not,
I mean wind or not,
the cold weather itself will slow that down.
And to the governor's point,
if you are going to travel and
make sure someone can get into your
home in the event of an emergency
for you trusted neighbor with a
key or an access code to a garage.
Because if a water main breaks and
you're a couple hours away visiting family,
someone needs to be able to get to
that water meter or that water main
inside your house to shut that down for you.
So make sure you do have those relationships.
Built in before you travel.
All right. Everybody good.
All right. Thank you, guys. Be safe.