this is the same area that saw major
issues with the college Lake Dam just a
few weeks ago so I know that is on the
forefront of everyone's mind in
Lynchburg with those mandatory
evacuations that they have they drained
the lake they cleaned some of the
sediment out tomorrow actually they're
closing down those areas from 7 a.m. to
7 p.m. we want to take you live to that
news conference now to provide a press
conference for you for a hurricane
preparation of hurricane in advance of
Hurricane Florence and unfortunately
we've been getting a little practice at
this recently and so you never want
these events to occur to have to
practice but we have met and our
emergency services team and personnel
and operations have been put in place
and so we are prepared as a city and we
want our residents to know that we are
prepared and we want to get our citizens
prepared and so we're asking citizens to
get ready we're asking them that through
the information that will be shared
today that they follow the advice of our
public service and our public safety and
our emergency services personnel heed
the warnings follow the advice we are
prepared and we want our residents to
get prepared so next I will bring to you
our city manager bonnie cybertek Thank
You mayor you're going to hear a lot of
redundant messages this morning but
first and foremost good morning given
the forecast I am declaring a local
state of emergency this will give us the
ability to access resources outside of
the city if needed and funding
opportunities should we have to go down
that road this morning we have brief
reports regarding our preparation for
hurricane Florence latest projections
are that the hurricane will make
landfall on Friday so it's moved about a
day out from yesterday's projections and
again we ask that you prepare you and
your family for the worst and hope and
pray that Florence takes a big right
turn back into the ocean we will begin
our reports with fire
Greig worms are followed by interim
police chief Brian's uttama and then I
will come back at the end chief thank
you ma'am
so we want to remind folks to really
start preparing now you have several
days to get prepare to make sure that
you have things in order in your home we
want to remind folks that when you call
9-1-1 during the height of the storm we
will make every effort to get to you as
quickly as possible and we will triage
all of those calls to 911 the order of
priority we have up staffed our
department and we'll be working extra
shifts and have added staff beginning on
Friday so we were prepared to answer
those calls we really prefer you all to
stay at home that's the safest place for
you to be and not be out on the roads
potentially putting yourself in harm's
way or some of our first responders
additionally we want our folks to know
that if you do have a flooded basement
that's something unfortunately if the
fire department cannot help you with
however we would ask that as water
approaches outlets and other electrical
things in your home that you would take
a moment to turn the power off at your
electrical panel that's the safest thing
for you to do and then we would
certainly want you to report that at a
later date but that's not something that
needs immediate attention through the
911 one service finally make sure that
you check on your neighbors and be
patient that's probably the two most
important things to remember
city staff care about each of you and we
want to make sure that we provide you
the safest possible most effective
service that we can during the height of
the storm and with that I'll turn it
over to acting police chief Ryan Zuma
good morning again please please please
plan early for this we have several days
as the fire chief said and now is the
time to start doing that making
preparations
making sure loved ones are taken care of
Thursday and Friday is not the time to
be doing that people are already looking
to gather up any resources they can from
local stores which is water food
generators things like that so if you
are in need of any of those things
Friday's not the time to go looking for
them this has the potential to be as you
are well aware a very significant
weather event we need to treat it as
such with that being said please please
please stay indoors it's somewhere that
is safe unless it is a true emergency
and you need to be out when you get out
in the public and you're on the roadways
and dealing with things that you think
are neat to do maybe to go video
something or see something and see how
high the water may be somewhere what
you're doing is jeopardizing your safety
the safety of first responders out there
and quite bluntly you are hindering our
ability of police fire Public Works to
get things taken care of to bring the
city back to as normal as we can get it
so unless you absolutely need to be out
there and it's an absolute emergency we
ask people to stay somewhere where they
are safe stay off the roadways and so we
can do our jobs and be out there and
take care of the citizens there are
going to be barricades out the roadway
we say this every time we have a weather
event and for some reason we still don't
always get people to quite understand it
so I'll say it very clearly the
barricades are in a roadway they are
there for a reason that means do not go
around them do not get out of your car
and do not move them we have people do
that and unfortunately they put
themselves at risk and people that come
behind them at risk
it is a offence under the code for you
to move a barricade out of the roadways
so please don't do that they're there
for your safety there's gonna be
potential for power to be out if that is
the case if you get to an intersection
there's a signalized intersection and
there's no power there treat that like a
four-way stop that is what you need to
do just like there were four stop signs
there at any other roadway obviously
should go without saying but do not
drive through standing water on the road
you don't know what's under there what
might have been a roadway a week ago or
even two hours ago very well could have
been washed away under there so please
don't drive through any standing water
in the roadway same thing with power
lines we want folks to make sure they
stay away from them just because a line
is down doesn't mean it's not energized
and just because it may be
cable line doesn't mean that there isn't
a power line somewhere down the road
that's crossed it and has energized that
line so please stay away from that we'd
encourage you as you get to
intersections or anywhere that you see
officers please slow down they're out
there to direct traffic and to keep you
safe we had an officer actually struck
by a car or last weather event was still
recovering from his injuries so we'd ask
you please heed those officers
directions slow down and follow whatever
they tell you to do as far as moving
around the city in terms of vehicular
last there may be evacuations that are
ordered depending on how this storm
comes into the city we strongly
encourage people to comply with that
evacuation understanding that if you
choose not to comply with an evacuation
order we may or may not be able to
provide you emergency services okay
obviously we'll do everything we can to
keep you safe but if we ask you to
evacuate that's for a good reason
and if you choose not to heed that
evacuation warning we may not be able to
provide you services in a timely manner
well obviously monitor if you evacuate
your house we'll certainly during the
weekend staffing permits to monitor that
to ensure people aren't there doing
things they shouldn't be doing
we have extra staff on patrol to handle
this over the weekend just like the fire
department and many other city
departments do and we encourage you is
you need information in this storm if
it's a true emergency absolutely call
9-1-1 if it is not an emergency we ask
you call 2-1-1 for non-emergency
information related to this storm their
people it'll be Manning those phones
we'll be able to provide information and
help guide you to the correct resources
you may need at this time I'll introduce
Jeff Martin who's the assistant director
for the Department of Water Resources
the Portland water resources as with
firing police and other departments we
are adjusting the scheduling of our
staff starting Friday morning this
afternoon they'll be told what that is
to keep our folks here to deal with this
calls that comes from citizens question
that we're looking at that everybody
seems to be asking is the situation
regards to College Lake Dam
the temporary repairs at Cottage Lake
Dam have been other than a few minor
items basically completed and over a
week ago we were able to reopen Lakeside
Drive we will be closing Lakeside Drive
tomorrow just for the day to remove some
debris from the intake pipe for the lake
and this is just some work to do and
prep and preparation for the rainfall
totals that are predicted at this point
in time we expect that to be done
tomorrow by the end of the day and then
Lakeside Drive will reopen as we get
into this weather event we will be
monitoring it we'll have staff out there
almost all the time watching the
additions and what were you looking at
the amount of rain the volume of rain
that's coming in a time that it's coming
in and watching that situation
communicating with fire and police that
emergency services and if we get to the
point that we have to evacuate below the
dam again we'll work with emergency
services to notify those residents and
go through that process we're just like
everybody else watching the weather the
weather can impact what happens storm
changes direction may not be as bad so
we'll just hope for the best and go from
there now I'll introduce getting a heart
director the Department of Public Works
preparation for the hurricane Public
Works has been making additional
barricades to block streets and to block
any down trees that come down during the
storm
we're going to pre position some
barricades in places that we know
routinely flood in just about every rain
event we know they'll probably flood now
so we plan to pre position some
barricades to lock those streets we have
been preparing our equipment in
particular chainsaws and all the safety
equipment related to that as well as all
of our other critical equipment we have
topped off with the generators and
ensured that they are running for all of
our critical facilities such as Public
Safety Public Works that are fueling
Center in places like that we're
prepared to deal with downed trees we
expect to have some downed trees however
we will be coordinating those efforts
with aapko Appalachian power we will not
attempt to remove a tree that has down
powerlines for our safety so we'll be
coordinating that effort with
Appalachian power we also are going to
be moving to 12-hour shifts like we do
for every emergency so we will have
people on on duty for 24 hours until we
see the impacts of this storm with that
alternate over to Tamara rosser's
director of human Human Services good
morning in the event that we will have
to open the shelter the shelter will be
located at the Salvation Army
22:15 Park Avenue for the citizens of
Lynchburg we are preparing for the
shelter ash as we speak right now the
American Red Cross van is parked outside
the Salvation Army we are working with
our shelter teams getting prepared in
the event that we have to open the
shelter once that decision has been made
announcement will be made to the public
given them all the information in the
details regarding the shelter I do want
to reiterate that at this point in an
official announcement regarding the
opening of the shelter has not been made
once that is made we will become
informed with another announcement
regarding the opening of the shelter but
we are partnering right now with Red
Cross getting our staff ready and we
will let the public know once that
shelter is opened so at this time I want
to call Michelle McCormack who is
director of our local Red Cross who
would talk to you about further being
prepared for the storm
good morning / afternoon I echo city
manager Bonnie that we are very prepared
as a city your partners as you can see
up here have been preparing and so now
we ask his Red Cross and you guys to
prepare yourselves your families your
co-workers your friends it is very
important right now as we watch what
happens with the weather nobody really
knows what's going on as far as what to
expect
other than weather but it is important
that we get our kits supply our supplies
your kits whatever you may need in your
homes that's batteries flashlights pet
food if you have infants I know a lot of
people worry about their babies and
small ones make sure that you have
enough supplies for them as well due to
power outages anything else that may
arise come from the storm know that Red
Cross is actively watching all our
evacuations not just here locally but
statewide and also on the other states
affected if you have family and friends
in those areas know that you can call
1-800 Red Cross or red cross.org to get
some information about shelters in those
affected areas also and that we are a
local resource along with those that you
see behind me and your other resources
in the area so again we really recommend
that you get kits prepared your
emergency kits at home do what you can
with the water your non-perishable food
make sure that your family is safe I
echo I believe it was Greg worm sir who
said we want to make sure that you guys
are safe and prepared and if you need
any information our website redcross.org
does have some of those comfort
emergency kits and what you may need to
really sustain for the few days after
the storm so I thank you for your time
and bring Bonnie thanks Michelle
I can't emphasize enough the potential
severity of this event yesterday on a
local officials briefing with the
governor and senior state officials the
words catastrophic and deadly were used
those words bring chills up my spine so
please know as you have heard from from
our team we are here to warn you to do
our very best to get information out to
you please take please exercise common
sense and good judgment that really is
the bottom line here along with
preparation pre pre preparation
Lynchburg Alert Lynchburg alerts the
city's website and city's social media
channels will be great sources of
information for you if you have not
subscribed to Lynchburg Alerts yet
please take the time now while we still
have or while we have time and resources
take the time now to subscribe to
Lynchburg alerts by going to Lynchburg
VA gov we are now happy to entertain any
questions that the media may have
we've had bridge inspectors take a look
at those bridges we've done some
clearing of debris from both of those
bridges I believe it was early this week
late last week we had started on the one
an Old Forest and we have also removed
debris at the Holland's Mill bridge so
they are as of right now all these are
as far as those specific streets
I can't specifically answer to those
streets but what I will tell you is we
are using a list of streets that was
created during the last storm
August 2nd and August 3rd where we had
flooding in that storm we're using that
to decide on pre positioning barricades
it is unlikely that I can pre position
enough bear taste to close everything
and so you know we'll do our very best
to close what we think is going to be
the most critical or potentially could
flood over the quickest you have just
been listening to a news conference out
of Lynchburg as everyone is getting
ready for hurricane Florence and again
the big take away make sure you and your
pets are ready to live for 3 to 4 days
without help