Good afternoon, thank you all for being here this afternoon for this press briefing. We gathered on the 12th anniversary of hurricane katrina. Currently harvey, remains a Tropical Storm. It is strengthening slightly. If its not going to turn swack into a hurricane. The winds are picking up a little bit. Most concerning aspect the gulf the moisture will pick up. Thats what we dont want is anymore rain that is necessary. This is going to contue to be a heavy rain and flood event. I dont want people to total discount what can happen because of the winds. The ground is very saturated. It has been for a long time. The wind has not been blowing far long time. That means trees certainly can be uprooted. You will see more outages in terms of electricity. We are starting to see that across all southern louisiana including in southeast louisiana. Thats because of those winds. We dont have watch outages yet. We do anticipate over the next 24 hours southwest louisiana will see additional 10 to 24 inches of rain. This is in concert with a storm surge that remains in the one to two feet above ground level. Which will prevent the rivers om draining as we would want them to. Which would flooding problems. The storm will make landfall some time tomorrow morning to leave tomorrow. It will be a Tropical Storm then it will track back and across louisiana from southwest louisiana up through the northeast corner. We do have tremendous support from our federal partners including i was able to speak with President Trump again. He did announce that theres an intention. He would visit our state on saturday. That the communication and the partnership that weve got with our partners are excellent. The state continues to lean forward in working with our local first respoers. Certainly we have assets spread strategically across the state of louisiana in terms of Law Enforcement folks, fire marshals and wildlife officials and Louisiana ArmyNational Guard and high water vehicles could be compared for whatever might come our way from harvey. At the moment, we have 671 louisiana National Guards rking harvey operations. National guard with both high water vehicles and boats in conjunction with the state Fire Marshals Office did assist local First Responders last night with views in three different locations starting about 6 00 last night and finishing up about 1 00 or 2 00 this morning. Making about 500 rcues. We have 15 louisiana National Guard soldiers that are assisting by monitoring and reporting on the status of the various pumps and operation there. Last night, 269 individuals across louisiana. 200 of those were people rescued last night as well. Cajun navy as you all know, deployed to assist and search and rescue. Has been producing tremendous results in the houston area. Earlier today i authorized the state to provide food for them at the louisianatexas border so they wouldnt have to continue to search for food and ta no time out of their operations that is absolutely necessary. Four teams from losiana wildlife and fishery, thats about 40 individuals with trucks and boats remain in the houston area. Partnered up with counterparts in texas with search and rescue. Today there were 17 state Office Closures and added to that list today the state of louisiana is tracking the parishes as they declare emergencies and as they suspend school, the commissioner of administration, is making decision about the state office to send those particular parishes. The storm will play out over the next 48 to 72 hours. It has tremendous potential to continue to drop heavy amounts of water and to prevent people from going about their normal daily business. Especially danger imposed by the highways on the road. I would encourage people not to drive through water. If you dont know that its safe to do so. Also i would ask peoplto stay informed as it relates to road closures. 511l. A. Org. You can go to louisiana. Gov for provide assistance to neighbors in texas. For Additional Information about the disaster and our response, you can go to emergency. La. Gov. I will be followed here by lieutent governor. I want to thank him for being here. He will be followed by fema. I will come back up if you want to ask questions. Thank you governor. We were getting a lot of calls om citizens of louisiana that want to volunteer and also donate stuff. As governor said volunteerlouisiana. Gov. It will take you to the site where theyre accepting donations. On our website, you can find out what they will accept. Obviously there will be a time and place to ship that stuff to texas. They are limiting things they will accept. Well be adding locations around across our corridor to make it more convenient to make donations as time goes on. If youre look to volunteer, you can sign up on the website as well. We will need volunteers both here and louisiana help those families that are flooded as well as texas. Thank you governor. As governor said our hearts go out to the folks in texas. We have robust capability with fema there supporting state and local Emergency Managers and search and rescue and activities go on there. Blue that does diminish what we have in louisiana. Fema as Management Team here as well as prestaged equipment across louisiana, baton rouge and alexandria. Still a dangerous storm. Can bring flooding tornadic weather. Were not out the woods yet. Listen to your local officials and weather warnings and watches and maintain vigilance. We appreciate partnership with the state. Its not their first rodeo. Its not ours. Were here for the duration. Thank you sir. Thank you bill. What questions do you have . Speaking this is not the first rodeo. We know that last year, fema, no offense, did not Fund Louisiana this coming on the anniversary of katrina and with everything thats going on. What are we doing about Mental Health abilities for First Responders and residents to be able to have someone to talk to as fear and flash backs come in. I can tell you that dr. Gee as Louisiana Department of health is working with all the various Human Services authorities. To make sure that those services are available as possible. One of the good things thats happened this isnt the answer for everyone the Medicaid Expansion covered about 434,000 louisianians over the last year and a half. Theres a Mental Health component to that. Treatment options are available to those individuals. Whether its through the expansion or traditional medicaid population. Thats a benefit administered by the managed care organizations. Were going to continue to work with fema and the federal government about funding for opportunities going forward. I can tell you that when comes to funding based on the enormity of this disaster and the cost that are accumulating not just respect to the response but the transition response to recovery then recovery itself. You heard the president say yesterday, he anticipates bipartisan effort in Congress Soon to make sure that funding is available for in particular disaster. While he was particularly talking about the effort as it relates to texas, i expect well get our share of that funding as well here in louisiana. [inaudible]. What the state is doing for the cajun navy . I dont want to over state it. We had to have someone designated what would interact and community with the cajun navy. So we would know what their plans were. But also to coordinate it so they didnt just show up in texas in place that wasnt expecting them or they can get the best routes into texas. He has been doing that. We were actually able to i was able to talk directly with the individual cajun navy this morning. Thats when they requested we made food available to them. Well do that through a fuel truck that will be made available through the department of agriculture and forestry. I got commissioner here. They both dont get in the way. But also so they can do it good. By our reports they are performing very well. Their services are invaluable with the rescues theyve been making. Folks in texas both government officials and individuals in texas very thankful for them being there. If you stem want still want to talk to the secretary or to the commissioner, we can do that that. You you mentioned yesterday there were few texas residents staying overnight in shelters in louisiana. Any developments on that as far as whether theres more any plans . We have one family. What i can tell you, we have offered to stand up shelters specifically for individuals who would be transported out of texas. So they could be housed in shellers shelters in louisiana. I know that request is being consider considered by the authorities in texas. We expect the decision on that in the next 24 to 48 hours. They will. It will be able to execute that mission should they choose to take advantage of that opportunity. [inaudible] its too early to know. Were not talking about damage were seeing because of harvey. Youre talking about previous damage. Any time this is historically how it worked in the past. Any time you have an appropriation by congress for disaster assistance, for example through the cdbg program administered by hud. Whatever that need has been demonstrated to hud that they accept is taken into consideration in that next appropriation. To the extent that we have a documented unmet need, that hud agrees with, that will likely taken into consideration out of whatever appropriation is made next. Were working with them as we have been now for well over a year. Documenting and ensuring louisiana what that unmet need is as it relates to housing and also as it relates to business loss and to infrastructure enhancement. [inaudible] vast majorities had to do with sandbag and those sandbags being delivered and used as muted. I was talking to the manager down this morning. He was telling me that the sandbags had been well used down there and protected a number of businesses and houses. The biggest request for assistance up until now has been prestaging of assets and people. Having high vehicles and having boats close enough where we anticipated they will be needed has been the biggest request up until now. Now, however, we gotten into the actual search and rescue boat last night anticipating some additional need for that. Well talk to local First Responders and these emergency preparedness, the sheriff and other Law Enforcement and agencies southwest louisiana. I think well be invaluable. Thats why im taking Leadership Team with me. Governor you talked about the shelters being available. With the storm expected to cross from southwest louisiana to northeast louisiana, you do anticipate those shelters will be needed for our own residents. Lt maille tas noancitee ul texas. Understand that we have this additional capacity. They likely have the need were going to make that meeting tomorrow at 1100 hours. It will be followed by another press conference. Thank you