Minutes 10-14-2025-Joint Meeting w/Fire Department

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