Good afternoon. I'm Patrick Fuller, Director of Emergency Management here in Charlotte County. As we know, Charlotte County experienced extensive storm surge due to Hurricane Helines passage by our area yesterday. The unprecedented level of flooding due to the storm surge has begun to receive though the dangers still existed within our community. Avoid traveling in areas that have experienced extensive storm surge or have debris in the roadways. Numerous first response agencies began receiving calls for assistance in the overnight hours last night. Over 200 rescues were conducted as a result of those calls. Charlotte County continues to operate a shelter at the Harold Avenue Rec Center for residents that are displaced due to the impacts from Hurricane Helene. We cannot stress enough the need to remain safe during this aftermath of the storm. Charlotte County continues to coordinate closely with our state and regional partners in the response and recovery from Hurricane Helene. I stand ready for any questions. So, King's wife is closing now. King's wife is closing. Okay, and any update on deaths between when we spoke with him and now in our county? No confirmed deaths that have been reported yet. We've already seen it in the historic district. People starting to come up saying, no, I do this in that business. Warning to folks to not get scammed, not lose money after this kind of devastation. Unfortunately, after any type of disaster, there are individuals who will prey upon people in their recovery. It's very important that our residents remain alert to the potential for fraud or gouging. The Attorney General has a task force in place to ensure that people have resources and recourse if they do present that. The Sheriff's Office additionally is a resource if they find that they have been confronted with individuals who are trying to defraud them. How do you tell, you know, say Joe Shimo comes up to my house, I'm in historic district saying he's a drunk removal company or a drywall puller-outer. How do I know whether or not he's legit? It's very important to ensure that you see their license, their ability to actually operate as a business within the state of Florida. Their licensure under the Department of Business and Professional Regulation to do the work, the specific work that you're being they're being contracted to do. Do you have an estimate of how many homes have water damage. We're still working through the damage assessment, the urban search and rescue teams that were brought in to do the assessment, the initial assessment. They're still working in our area and look to complete here very shortly. In addition to that, county teams and the city teams will go in the process of assessing the level of damage. In those areas areas we do not have an exact number though it is extensive. Do you know what area saw the highest water I know you know in the city we just came from Guise River Wildlife Center they saw about three feet. What other areas outside of the city have gotten significant levels? I think the same areas that we had targeted for the evacuation certainly saw the highest levels. An exact height of the storm surge It will only be determined after an assessment by the National Hurricane Center and the National Weather Service Though it's those areas that that receive flooding for coastal events. This one happened to be far in excess of previous events here in our county But it is our barrier islands are low-lying areas such as El Jo bean Bayshore area, areas off-harb review, City of Ponygore, certainly Riverview, Charlotte Park, those areas that we had targeted before the storm as being vulnerable to these types of storm surge events. Last but not least, I have to part with good facts. Anything as, you know, we did see some good last night amongst all of the devastation, we saw people going out in their own boats to help other people and get them out of sticky situations. How does that make you feel knowing we've got each other's backs here? I think Charlotte County is an amazing place I grew up here. The sense of community that our residents have, the willingness to help each other and their times of need has always shown through. Whether that was Hurricane Charlie in 2004, Hurricane Ian, a couple years back, or Hurricane Lean here today, our community comes together when they need them most. Patrick, the county put out a way for residents to do assessments. After Ian, is that something that will the county is going to do this year? This time? Yes, we have made the self-assessment tool available to residents, so if they're able to safely go outside their home, take pictures of any damage they may have suffered on their homes. They can take those pictures. It's a very easy to use and intuitive application that you use on your phone. That has been made available. What we do with that information, we understand where the most impacted areas are of the county, we can focus our relief efforts to those areas. Patrick, if people have debris from the storm in the yards, are they gonna be put it out by the street? Like we did with Ian, the debris information that will come from our Department of Public Works, they will indicate exactly when and how to put your debris on the roadways. Those determinations have yet to been broadcast. I'm Chris Clingup.org I believe is going to be in our area and their request pictures. How do they use that information? That's an online tool that our nonprofit organizations can use. You simply register on there, your address, and it puts you in the queue for nonprofits to be able to engage with your case and do work to help you with your recovery. So they would come and do help clean up yard and that kind of stuff, or those some of the things that they do? It depends on what the nonprofit agencies specialty is, but it's things like mucking guts, it's things like helping you with debris. It really depends on what agencies are operating within our community. Patrick, how old the next tie tied? You still got a little bit of a breeze out there who's coming in from the south. How is the next high tide going to affect whether the water is going to be able to continue to drain or is it going to produce additional storm surge tonight? So we've been removed from the storm surge warning. That indicates and from our conversations the National Weather Service that our risk of storm surge has reduced. We've seen a relatively rapid recession of the water from our shorelines and we can continue to expect that. What we'll see in future high tides is our normal semi-dernal cycle with the potential of maybe some elevation but not anywhere near the elevations that we saw from the impacts of Helene. People say the seabed or word is to go out and be lucky lose. Is it okay to do that? Is it clear to do that? Is it clear to do that? What would you recommend? No, we weren't certainly worn against anybody going out and about and trying to see the level of damage to the areas of the county. This is not the time to go and be what they call disaster tourists and see what where there's major impacts. There are still hazardous conditions in our community. There's still water, elevated water in portions. There's debris in areas. Please, until conditions come back to a stable state, remain off the roads if at all possible. If you are are on the roads only in areas that do have not suffered damage. I have a question in terms of right on that. You know last night we were urging people to stay off the roads in general. Don't come in Charlotte County right now. Are we kind of having that same message during? Absolutely. If you have no reason to be, no critical reason to be on your roadways, like we say before every storm, or before every hurricane season, you know we ask that you prepare us to be on your own for five to seven days. If you've done that then you don't have an urgent need to be on the roadways. Obviously, if there's some urgent reason for you to be, you do so safely, stay well away from any areas that are hazardous.