Gov. Abbott first i want to thank everybody for being here. Everythingk the people around me have been working on so very much. The chief, who has been one of the leaders in responding to covid19. We have the general who has done document is job in helping texas respond to covid19 and to instill a sense of safety and security in our communities to allow peaceful protests to occur. I want to point out in particular the director who has been involved across the entire state over the past week, making sure that our communities are as safe as possible. Also, all of these people behind the cameras who have been manning this Emergency Operations center, for everything you have been working on in the course of responding to covid19. In typical texas fashion, we are dealing with multiple challenges at one particular time. What we are here to talk about today is the status of this Tropical Storm. You can see the map of it behind me. I will be making reference to that map as we talk about the pathway of cristobal, where it is, where it is going, what the probabilities look like, and the preparation as we are speaking at this time. We had a briefing on the likely path of the storm, and you can see the tracking. The highest probability is that it will be crossing the gulf coast and hitting the state of louisiana. You can also see right now, even along its most highly probable course, that it will be affecting east texas in wide swaths, providing a tremendous amount of rainfall and potential flooding in east texas all the way from northern reaches of east texas all the way down to the gulf coast, stretching as far west as dallas, and that is based upon the current forecast. The concern we have is the potential that as the storm crosses the gulf coast, you can see even under current modeling, it begins to move toward the west before it reaches the shoreline. If that western trajectory begins earlier or becomes more pronounced, it means that texas will be a greater focal point for where that storm may come across the land. Right now, it is categorized as a likely Tropical Storm. There is a possibility that as it goes across the hot waters of the gulf coast, it could turn into a hurricane. That is not the current prognostication. It is a possibility of what could happen. Our goal is to deal with what is going to likely be a very heavy rain event in various regions of east texas and we want to make sure we are preparing for potential high wind, especially in the Southeast Texas region, the landfall we are expecting will be on sunday, of course, we will be monitoring this across the entire weekend to update that on when we do expect landfall and where we will expect landfall. Before coming out, i had the opportunity to have a briefing with the leaders from across the state of texas to make sure that we are prepared to respond to this. In addition to that, before visiting with these leaders, i had the opportunity to speak to local officials, to make sure local officials had access to all the resources they need to respond to a potential storm of whatever type of category. And to make sure we were working collaboratively together to help respond to the needs of their residents and citizens. The report for the National Guard is troops have been made available to deal especially with a potential flooding event. They are providing high water vehicles as well as rescue helicopters and planes as needed to make sure that any type of evacuation situation will be able to be handled. The Texas Department of Public Safety is providing tactical marine units to assist in searchandrescue operations. Texas task force 1 and 2 are involved in providing air assets as well as water assets to rescue as needed, including swift water rescue teams. Texas park and wildlife have a game warden Strikeforce Team that is prepared to respond as needed, especially with regard to any types of water rescues that may be necessary. The Texas Forest Service is involved in this situation because the areas where the storm is likely to strike or areas where we have the most dense forest in texas, they have their Incident Management Teams engaged. They have heavy equipment available to respond and assist in any way that could be necessary, as well as they have high water rescue vehicles that are available. They have chainsaw crews that could be needed because of however the storm may affect the timber areas. They are also coordinating with firefighters across that region. The Texas Department of transportation, they are working to be prepared to clear any type of debris that could accumulate along roadways to make sure we have clear and open roadways and a key thing they are prepared for is any type of flooding of roadways. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality have activated the offices to be prepared to respond in multiple regions from houston to beaumont and will be ready to deal with any of the environmental consequences of this storm. As the current forecast shows, this looks like it will be a rain event and nothing more. If that is the case, it will probably not be at least very few environmental based issues, but we always plan for the worst case scenario. The health and Human Services commission has done a tremendous job with helping respond to covid19 and they are applying that to our response to this storm and several things. One is they are focusing on the 211 call system, it coordinates with the local emergency responders. The point is if people have challenges that need to be met, they should be calling 211 and they are preparing Senior Centers for potential evacuation. We have dealt with countless Tropical Storms probably every year, and hurricanes frequently. This situation is different from other types of storms we have dealt with in the past because this is the first one that i am aware of where we had to deal with a storm while at the same time deal with a pandemic. We have to approach this with greater caution and greater response and one of the areas where that is particularly needed is in the nursing home setting. That is a setting that the health and Human Services commission is in charge of addressing. I want to emphasize that we have strategies in place already. In the event it is needed, to ensure that those in Nursing Homes in the affected area will be able to be moved safely what i mean safely, in the usual safe standards, but also safely as in covid19 safe, to make sure we are able to separate those who test positive and negative for covid19 and keep them separated, doing all we can to prevent any other type of protect thelso to health and safety of everyone who may currently have covid19. So that applies particularly with Senior Centers that health and Human Services commission is working on, but also applies generally in the response to this particular Tropical Storm event. As local officials go about their task of responding to this Tropical Storm challenge, they need to be cognizant constantly about the possibility that this could stoke people coming together in ways that could transmit covid19. One thing we are asking, as local officials go about the process of evacuation, if evacuation is needed, they adopt strategies here that are different than what their typical strategies may be. They utilize vehicles that will be more numerous in number so there can be greater spacing than is typically used. That they consider using locations to evacuate people to not Convention Center settings like they may have used in the past where you have a lot of people congregating together, but instead consider the availability of hotels or motels or other settings where family units would be able to be in a room by themselves without exposing themselves to others. Using those strategies that will always keep in mind the ongoing need to deal with the existence of covid19 in texas and understanding that as we respond to this Tropical Storm, we must respond in ways that continue to contain the spread of covid19. Another agency that is at the centerpiece of responding to covid19 is the department of state health services, and they are working to coordinate the covid19 response to this Tropical Storm with the populations most affected. Last is that we are urging residents in the most likely affected regions, residents who live within a 50 mile distance of the sabine river, to be prepared for evacuation. There could be rising water and there could be short notice for evacuation. We dont know right now what may be needed. The time to get ready for a quick evacuation would be now. Knowing that the time for that evacuation could be sunday or monday, but sunday or monday may be too late to prepare for what could be an oncoming evacuation. Along those lines, there are biases, as it usually is. Stay in Constant Contact from hearing from your local officials about what the likelihood may be for a potential evacuation. Prepare to respond swiftly and, for the residents, the residents of texas who have been focused on containing the spread of covid19, as you go through that evacuation process, maintain those safe standards to ensure that you are not exposing yourself to contracting covid19 or you may have covid19, make sure you are doing everything you can not to expose others to covid19. With that, i will pass it off to the chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management. Thank you. As cristobal appears to have its texans willsiana, need to keep their eyes turned to the gulf. I want to thank our local elected officials who in response to covid19 have been preparing their hurricane plans and evacuation plans. A lot of teamwork at the local level doing double duty in addition to the state agencies and the men and women to this room. The local partnership will be critical. It is our local elected officials who have the authority under state law to mandate evacuations. We want to make sure that through this Hurricane Season, we are maintaining that contact with them. We need our immediate partners to be paying attention to the weather as well and sharing that information with our citizens. We cannot have missteps in evacuation. We want safe evacuations. How we used to be able to put 50 people on a bus, that number may be down to 15. Working close with the comptroller and state Procurement Team to make sure the right resources and enough of those resources are available, but this will mean earlier evacuation than what we may have normally seen in the past. Frankly, it may mean evacuations for storms that we might not have evacuated in the past for. Our communication over this Hurricane Season will be extremely critical because of covid19. The state teams have done a remarkable job making sure we have plenty of personal protective equipment and cleaning supplies available. Our local partners are helping us with shelters. Federal partners are helping us with hotels and motels. And as people ready their preparedness kits this is a message of preparedness as you prepare your familys plan, think about your personal protective equipment, think about masks, think about hand sanitizer, all those things you would want to make sure the environment you are going into is as clean and safe as the environment you are coming from. Local officials will be key to this. Im grateful for their partnership. Gov. Abbott and now the general. Thank you. The Texas Military department is currently involved in multiple complex operations. However, Hurricane Season is never far from our minds. We have been preparing and are for this anticipated storm season. Annualntly conducted our rehearsal exercise in conjunction with the department of Emergency Management and other state agencies to review appropriate courses of action concerning equipment and personnel needed in a variety of given scenarios. For cristobal, as we do with every storm, we coordinated with the Texas Division of Emergency Management in developing operations in anticipation of landfall. We have identified available personnel and equipment that may be required and they will be positioned in a location to quickly deploy if needed. Our Mission Ready packages can be rapidly dispersed anywhere in the state. I assure you the Texas Military department, your texas National Guard and state guard, are ready and able to support the governor and citizens of texas. With a ready force that is equipped and trained for this mission. We are always ready, always there, we are texans serving texas. Gov. Abbott thank you. Now we will open up for a few questions. Alright, have a good day. [laughter] surely you got a question. [inaudible] you mentioned how difficult how this is so much different from other storms we have had. [inaudible] what is your message to them for protecting themselves . Gov. Abbott we spoke to local leaders and we have spoken to all the different groups that will be responding to this. A focal point that we wanted to remind them of is the potential for exposure to covid19. As they approach this particular response, they need to do so strategically, in ways to ensure that covid19 is not spread. This cannot be a type of event that will lead to a mass expansion of covid19 in texas, and the ability to contain that will be the way that the public responds to this particular storm. Are you worried . There is so much happening right now. Social unrest, the storm, covid19, you are trying to reopen up the state. Have you given any thoughts [inaudible] abbott i had the opportunity to speak with dr. Birx about this issue two does ago. As we talked about the potential for wider spread of covid19 coming from the large amount of protesters who are gathered so closely together, when you have that many people that close together for a long time, that is the type of situation that could lead to the spread of covid19. One of our responses to that is on we will be locating monday. Additional Testing Operations in areas where protests have taken place so that we can better assess the extent to which the protests may have led to an expansion of covid19. Separate from that of course we are dealing with potential evacuations and responses to this Tropical Storm, and so that accelerates the concerns about the concern for the spread of covid19. Bottom line is we just need to wait and see what the numbers look like. Our hope and focal point will be, everybody will be doing what is necessary to minimize the expansion of covid19 and allow us to continue to open texas for business. Governor, i know you have called [inaudible] but more broadly, what is your diagnosis why [inaudible] gov. Abbott the only point is not a broad point, a narrow point. The narrow point is this. That is the death of george floyd is a travesty and as a is a result of a criminal act, and it should not be the subject of any of these conspiracy theories, it is irresponsible for anyone to promote some Conspiracy Theory of what is otherwise a brutal act of police violence. Offtopic,e get anymore questions about the hurricane [inaudible] gov. Abbott so right now, at worst, it would be a minimal rain event. With the emphasis being right now. We will need to see which way it tracks. We will know more about that in 24 to 48 hours. [inaudible] shifts more towards some areas [inaudible] gov. Abbott the planners of that funeral would be in charge of that. [inaudible] you mentioned in regards to the evacuation [inaudible] what about Evacuation Centers that if not this storm, the next storm . [inaudible] gov. Abbott absolutely, and i really want to thank our federal partners at fema working with us and for the state Comptrollers Office for contracts and availability for hotels. A shelter that would have normally held 150 people may take 50 people right now. We used to use the footprint of 50 square feet per person, we are looking at 110 square feet per person. The Additional Centers we will need more of. Working with local partners to get those. We will also open hotels. In the past, hotels and motels were not used as congregant settings during an evacuation. We will have access to those earlier on. For people that can drive on their own, they will still go to a shelter reception hub and be given maps of the shelters or the hotels to go to. We are comfortable with those in their cars, it would be like driving through a drivethrough testing lane to get that testing and separate them out. The other thing, rudy, that we are working on in the shelters is additional cleaning teams and additional cleaning supplies and ppe for each of the shelters. Jason walker [inaudible] i imagine the Covid Response to a hurricane is much more expensive that . Like gov. Abbott we will have to see. We dont know how many storms we will have, so i cant give you some type of mathematical prediction to your question. All i can tell you is this, this team here and the larger team we had in the room earlier, they are prepared. They are prepared for a hurricane. They are prepared for the worst situation, so whatever nature may bring our way, we will be prepared to deal with it. [inaudible] thanks, guys. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] announcer 1 earlier today President Trump held a report with the economy, the coronavirus. We will show you the president s comments. You can watch it at 8 00 eastern on cspan. Floyd, george floyd announcer 1 with the recent tests, watch our unfiltered coverage with briefings from the white house, congress, governors and mayors from across the nation for addressing this. Efforts of the coronavirus pandemic and campaign 2020 as well. Join in the conversation every day on our live callin Program Washington journal. If you missed any coverage, watch at cspan. Org or listen on the go with the free cspan radio app. Announcer 2 earlier today Vice President mike pence met with faith and Community Leaders at Hope Christian church in beltsville, maryland. He talked about their thoughts on race in america. This is about an hour. [indiscernible] yes sir. Thank you for coming, young man. [indiscernible] still alive still. Good to see you. Vp pence thanks for having us. It is important. Thank you for taking the wetiative and i believe that are beginning to [indiscernible] to the nation. We are very thankful for that. A lot have been