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14 <br /> 1 Commissioner Portie-Ascott asked if any misinformation was happening during Tropical <br /> 2 Storm Chantal that impacted their work. <br /> 3 Chief Potter said it didn't necessarily impact their work, but there was a lot of confusion. <br /> 4 He said people were scared and they saw a roller coaster of emotions. He said there was some <br /> 5 misinformation, but county and town staff did a great job of providing updated and accurate <br /> 6 information to residents. <br /> 7 Kirby Saunders said there was misinformation, but that is normal in disasters. He said <br /> 8 there was no purposeful disinformation that he is aware of. He commended Community Relations <br /> 9 and communicators across the county for addressing misinformation and putting out accurate <br /> 10 information. <br /> 11 Commissioner Fowler said the Board is extremely grateful for the heroic actions of first <br /> 12 responders. She shared her experience with the weather returning home that day from the <br /> 13 Western part of the state. She asked if they are working more formally to make connections with <br /> 14 neighboring counties for aid in case of future emergencies. <br /> 15 Chief Potter explained that there is a statewide emergency mutual aid agreement that <br /> 16 allows for the assistance received from other jurisdictions across the state. He reiterated the <br /> 17 unprecedented impact of Tropical Storm Chantal in this area. <br /> 18 Kirby Saunders said there is a lot of opportunity to improve the emergency action planning <br /> 19 and invest in technology with better measuring capability, especially of critical infrastructure, but <br /> 20 there will always be an unknown. He expressed kudos to the fire department personnel for always <br /> 21 being prepared and having a plan B and a plan C and a plan D when plan A doesn't always work <br /> 22 out. He shared that of the almost 8,000 9-1-1 calls, 3,000 were received within one hour. In <br /> 23 addition to the sheer magnitude of what was happening, he said not only did they risk their lives <br /> 24 going into harm's way, they did so with very little support from Emergency Services because they <br /> 25 had lost the capability to provide the support that they normally depend on every day. He said <br /> 26 their response was an impressive team effort. <br /> 27 Commissioner Fowler asked if other counties answer calls when there is an increase like <br /> 28 there was that night. <br /> 29 Kirby Saunders said yes. He explained that there is a national effort to implement the <br /> 30 coordination that allows for this in North Carolina. <br /> 31 Chief Potter said they have had extensive conversations about what happened and what <br /> 32 they can do with the ultimate understanding that there are some situations they simply can't <br /> 33 anticipate. He said with flooding, there are so many different variables. <br /> 34 Chief Cabe said in addition to the calls received in the 9-1-1 center, they were coming <br /> 35 across others in need while responding to other calls. He said the only way to tell what really <br /> 36 happened is to look at all the fire and EMS reports from that night because even the call volume <br /> 37 doesn't capture all the responses. <br /> 38 Chief Kevin Brooks agreed that responses were higher than the calls. <br /> 39 Chief Mauzy said this was not an isolated incident, so all departments were impacted and <br /> 40 responding to their maximum capacity. To add to Commissioner Fowler's question, he said they <br /> 41 rely heavily on professional weather forecasters, and based their anticipated response on the <br /> 42 forecasted 5-7-inch worst-case scenario, when in reality it was much worse and worsened so <br /> 43 quickly. He explained that it was difficult to call staff back in and difficult to call for mutual aid <br /> 44 quickly because of that. <br /> 45 <br /> 46 <br />