Okay, just so we have it for the camera, could you spell your first and last name for me?
Sure, Cassandra Leibel, C-A-S-S-A-N-D-R-A, Leibel is L-I-B is in Boy-A-L.
What's your title?
Director of Office of Emergency Management from Milwaukee County.
How long have you had this position?
I've been with Milwaukee County since June of 2020.
So what are you out here doing today with FEMA and the other emergency response folks?
Milwaukee County's OEM has been working with all of our partners here just to kind of guide them around the community.
We're serving as their escorts around the community because we have familiarity with the landscape.
So that's our role today, but prior to this we've been working to coordinate all the information gathering from 211 reports
so that we can give that picture to them and to the FEMA representatives of the damage that we've experienced in the community.
What are your assessments?
What is the assessment process like for you all?
I know that there have been 16,000 reports to 211.
What is that assessment process like?
Really, it's just about documentation.
The assessment process is about contacting communities, whether they put their information into 11 or now that we're doing the door knocks,
getting the information, documenting what they're reporting that's damaged, taking pictures when appropriate,
and just putting that all together into one succinct package so that they can review it for the eligibility package.
What is the timeline for all of this?
That is very open.
To be honest, right now we are anticipating that FEMA will be on the ground through next early next week,
but it depends on how quickly we're inefficient.
We're able to get through a lot of these door knocks and information gathering.
If we're able to get through quicker, then we can move the process along just that slightly faster.
But then we move it on to the next level of the state and then the federal and then their timeline is unknown to us.
So I last saw that you all have done something like 3,500 assessments.
And then again, there's that 6,000 reported damage reports.
Do you all expect to close that entire gap and get apples to apples there number wise?
I think that what we're really just trying to get a snapshot.
The message I think that people need to understand is we don't have to see every damage.
We don't have to see every impacted property.
We just need to get a representative sample of what has happened across the county.
And so I don't want to get specific to the numbers because it really is about getting that representative sample.
So we are anticipating getting as many as we can and we think we have a valid enough argument to support our case.
And then I think that's when Fremont will be able to say we think you've met the threshold and we're going to move on to the next step of the process.
And then the federal government would?
The recommendation would be made.
And so they would process that information and then make their assessment and then they can make the recommendation and the president would make the final say.
And then money comes to Milwaukee for this, right?
Potentially, yes.
There's absolutely opportunities, but it can come in different formats.
There can be loans, there can be grants, there can be direct funds.
So it depends on what people qualify, the level of damage that they are determined to have based off of FEMA's determinations and then kind of where they fit within the parameters of the victims, so to speak.
So homeowners, business owners have different parameters.
So what people will receive will be based off of that threshold.
What have you seen personally?
What describes some of the damage you've seen?
What we've seen is just a lot of lost property.
You know, what we're seeing now, the large piles of garbage where people are losing their belongings, their memories, things in all those lines and just impacting on their data life.
We've seen people having to come into our shelters because they're unable to stay in their current locations, families with young children.
So that's some of the hardships that we've seen.
It's just the loss of significant property and then just that stability and housing that people are struggling with.
You mentioned kids, are some schools damaged as well?
Have you seen that?
We haven't got really, that's kind of morsel in the public assistance phase of things.
And so we're waiting for the municipalities to report out any of that damage.
Is there anything else that I didn't ask that's important?
I think the biggest thing I always want to highlight is just keeping up with the process and using credible sources, going through the county, looking at our websites.
We're going to keep as accurate an update information as possible and just protecting each other against any types of scams or untoward people that we want to make sure that people aren't getting taken advantage of.
So just try to make sure that we rely on reliable sources.
What are some of the scams that you've heard about?
Well, just we don't know on uninsured individuals who may want to come into your homes.
We don't know what they're who they're affiliated with or not.
They may not be locally affiliated and you may have them come in to do work, but they're uninsured or they don't have any local resources.
They don't have any local ties, so you can't go back.
So we just want to make sure that you're doing a better business.
When we get to that phase, you're doing a better business checks and that we're using those reliable contractors that are insured and things like that.
So I think we just want to make sure that people are not letting strangers into their homes and giving out information that can harm them in the future when it comes to identity.
Have you also heard about online scams of folks promising money and you have to sign up and you have to pay a fee and then get money back, that kind of thing?
I have not personally, but I'm sure like because of just the nature of disaster response, that is a thing.
So just like I said, being careful of getting information from reliable sources.
Thank you so much for your time.
Thank you.