Join the discussion with phone Facebook Messages and tweets. Jim morrill is a political reporter for the Charlotte Observer newspaper in north carolina. I want to thank everybody for being here. To thanklly want everything that the people around me have been working so much. Chief who has been one of the leaders in responding to covid19. General norris who has done a tremendous job in part helping to covid19 but also respond and instill a sense security in our communities to allow peaceful protests to occur. In particular out director mccraw who has been entire statess the over the past week making sure that our communities are as safe also all these people behind the cameras who emergencymanning this Operation Center for everything that youve been working on course of responding to covid19. In typical texas fashion, we are dealing with multiple challenges and whatrticular time we are here to talk about today status of this Tropical Storm. You can see the map of it behind me. Be making reference to that map at this time as we talk pathway of cristobal, where it is, where its going, what the probabilities look like and then what the preparation is as we are speaking at this time. A briefing upon the likely path of this storm and of itn see the tracking right now. The highest probability is that it will be crossing the gulf coast and hitting the state of louisiana. Also see from the screen right now even along its most highly probable course, that it will be affecting east texas in of east texas providing a tremendous amount of rainfall as well as potential flooding in east texas all the way from northern reaches of texas all the way down to the gulf coast, stretching potentially as far west as that is based upon the current prognosticated forecast. Have, of course, is the potential that as the storm the gulf coast, you can see, even under current begins to move a little bit 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 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, and the landfall we are expecting will be on sunday. Of course, we will be monitoring this across the entire weekend to update that on what we do expect landfall and where we will expect landfall. So 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 and in addition to that, before visiting with these leaders, i had the opportunity to speak with 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. The texas park and wildlife have a Strikeforce Team that is prepared to respond, especially with regard to any types of water rescues that may be necessary. The Texas Forest Service is particularly 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, and 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 that they are for is any type of flooding of roadways. Of Texas Commission environmental quality, they have activated offices to be prepared in multiple regions from houston to beaumont to tyler. And will be ready to deal with any of the environmental consequences of this storm. Again, 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 in several things. One is they are focusing on the 211 call system, that 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. So 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. So 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 and doing all we can to prevent any other type of thead, and also to protect 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 come not Convention Center settings like they may have used in the past where you have a lot of people congregating, 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, he 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, deep texas, 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 what might 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, and that his stay in Constant Contact from hearing from your local officials about what the likelihood may be for a potential evacuation. Prepared to respond swiftly and, for the residence, the residence of texas who have been focused on containing the spread of covid19, as you go through that evacuation process, maintaining 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. I will pass it off to the chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management. Thank you. As cristobal appears to have its eyes on the gulf, texans will need to keep their eyes turned to the gulf. This will have more of a wobble to the state of texas than currently predicted. I want to thank our local officials who in response to covid19 have been preparing their hurricane plans and evacuation plans. A lot of teamwork doing double duty in addition to the state agencies and the men and women in this room. The local partnership this 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 Media Partners to be paying attention to the weather as well and sharing that information with our citizens. We cannot have missteps in evacuation. As the governor mentioned, we want safe evacuations and how we used to be able to put 50 people on a bus, that number may be down to 15. We are working close with a comptroller and a 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 seen in the past and it may also mean evacuations for storms that we might not have evacuated in the past for. Our communication over this Hurricane Season will be 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 shelter, federal partners are helping us with hotels, and as people ready their preparedness kits this is a message of preparedness as you prepare your familys plan, think about her personal protective equipment, think about masks, 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 the partnership. Gov. Abbott and now the general. Thank you. The Texas Military department is involved in multiple complex , operations. However, Hurricane Season is never far from our minds. We have been preparing and are prepared for this storm season. We conducted our annual exercise hurricane 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 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 to respond and they will be positioned in a location to quickly deploy if needed. Packages caneady be dispersed readily in the state. The Texas Military department, your texas National Guard and state guard, are ready and able to support Governor Abbott 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. We will open up for a few questions. Alright, have a good day. [laughter] surely you got a question. [inaudible] this is so much different from other storms we have had. What have you personally said [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 we 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 massive expansion of covid19 in texas, the ability to contain that will be the way that the public response to this particular storm. [inaudible] there is so much right now, social unrest, the storm, covid19 you are trying to , reopen the state. [inaudible] gov. Abbott i had opportunities to speak with dr. Birx about this issue two does ago. Days ago. As we talked about the potential for wider spread of covid19 coming from the large amount of protesters who are gathered 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 monday, we will be locating additional Testing Operations in areas near and around those areas where protests have taken place so we can better assess the extent to which the protests may have led to an expansion of covid19. Separate from that, we are dealing with potential evacuations and responses to this Tropical Storm, so that accelerates the concerns about the concern for the spread of covid19. We 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. [inaudible] gov. Abbott the only point is not a broad point, a narrow point. That is, the death of george floyd is a travesty and as a result of a criminal act and should not be the subject of any of these conspiracy theories, it is irresponsible for anyone to promote a conspiracy. Of what is otherwise a brutal act of police violence. [inaudible] [inaudible] gov. Abbott 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] gov. Abbott the planners of that funeral would be in charge of that. [inaudible] [inaudible] gov. Abbott absolutely. I want to thank our federal partners at fema working with us for contracts and availability for hotels. A shelter that would have normally held 150 people may take 50 people right now. When we used to use the footprint of 50 square feet per person, we are looking at 110 squarefoot per person. The Additional Centers we will be working with local partners to get us. We will also open hotels and motels. In the past, hotels and motels were not used during an evacuation. We will have access to those earlier on. For people that can drive on their own, they will go to a shelter reception hub and be given maps of the shelters 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 we are working on in the shelters is additional cleaning teams and additional cleaning supplies and ppe for each of the shelters. [inaudible] if this turns out to be a busy Hurricane Season [inaudible] gov. Abbott we will have to see. We do not know how many storms we will have. I cant give you some type of mathematical prediction. All i can tell you is this, this team here and the larger team we had earlier, they are prepared for a hurricane, prepared for the worst situation, so whatever nature may bring our way, they will be prepared to deal with it. A lot of people have questions. [inaudible] [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] with the recent protests unfolding across the country, watch our live, unfiltered coverage of the governments response with briefings from the white house, congress, governors and mayors from across the nation. Efforts addressing the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and campaign 2020. Joining the conversation every day on our live callin Program Washington journal. If you missed any of our live