Dear Friends and Neighbors,

The severe windstorm that came through our state last week caused dangerous conditions for Utahns in many areas. The wind resulted in downed power lines, uprooted trees, debris and toppled semi-trucks.

Rocky Mountain Power crews have been working to restore service to Utahns who lost power because of the severe windstorm. Read more here.

During emergencies, exercise extreme caution and check on neighbors, friends and family to see if they need assistance. The following links will help you and your family stay informed and learn how to prepare for emergencies:

• UDPS Emergency Management

• National Weather Service

• Be Ready Utah

Here are some COVID-19 updates:

• As of September 10, at 1:00 p.m. Utah's private and public laboratories have administered 703,766 tests with 56,019 testing positive. There are currently 118 people hospitalized with COVID-19. There have been 430 fatalities, with an estimated 47,545 recovered. Additional information can be found here.

• The Utah Department of Workforce Services created the School Age Program Grant to provide eligible licensed centers with funds to increase school-age children's capacity. Learn more here.

• The state presented the Unified Response Scoreboard, a new data dashboard that shows how Utah will measure its progress toward public and economic health. The public health goal is to keep the case-fatality ratio less than 1 percent. The economic recovery goal is to maintain or lower the unemployment rate of 4.5 percent between now and the end of the calendar year. More information here.

• This week, the Utah Department of Workforce Services began to send the Lost Wage Assistance payments to eligible claimants for the weeks of August 1, 8 and 15. Eligible claimants will receive an additional $300 for each of these weeks. Learn more about the Lost Wages Assistance program here.

• Gov. Herbert issued an executive order declaring a state of emergency due to the severe windstorm that passed through our state Monday night and Tuesday morning. More information here.

• The number of new claims filed for unemployment benefits in Utah for August 20-September 5 was 4,536, and the combined weekly claims for all three programs was 54,661. Read the full report here.

This week is September interim. Here’s how you can stay involved. Due to COVID-19 health concerns, the Legislature will continue to hold interim committee meetings electronically and will take public comments remotely. However, a new process for public comment has been set in place. Now, members of the public may join the electronic meeting without providing notice and watch committee meetings live. Learn more about the new process here, and a step by step guide can be found here. View the meeting schedule here.

Kind regards,

Senator Ron Winterton