The gulf and massive wind and you may be able to hear the heavy winds in the background through the window. We are pretty safe in the distant this is a historic event for us. We are told that it is tied for the worst hurricane that has ever hit our state in recorded history. Its pretty massive, the damage is widespread. We dont have many fatalities, if any yet area if any yet. This is a big one. We prepared as best we could, but there will be damage and things to recover from for quite some time. Host how is the district responding . Rep. Johnson what i always say about folks in louisiana is we are a tough and resilient people and we do Disaster Recovery well. One is extraordinary. We had calls with fema and the National Hurricane center and they projected yesterday that we would have thousands of homes and businesses destroyed in our area by today, because they were measuring waves as high as 40 in the gulf and massive wind and rain. Hotels were set up statewide to accommodate the evacuees and we have done about as well as we could. Fema has worked to deliver resources and Emergency Response teams, search and rescue, power restoration resources. We are looking at Power Outages exceeding 90 for about a third of the state land areas. It is a broad event. I am in the northwest corner of the state, my district runs north and south along the west border of the state area my home is in benton, louisiana almost on the Arkansas State line. We have wind bending the tree in half. It will be still going on for some time. Host have most people listened and evacuated . Rep. Johnson yes. I would say federal, state, and local officials all did a great job communicating and coordinating the necessity of evacuating. We are accustomed to storm warnings and we see them on the coastal areas and sometimes people have a tendency to brush them off. When we heard this would be the scope of katrina and rita it got everyones attention. I think most people got out of harms way and that accounts for the lack of fatalities we have been blessed to have so far. Host what is the plan to keep those that have evacuated safe from the pandemic and spreading the coronavirus . Rep. Johnson its been a real challenge. On one Conference Call yesterday we asked to the fema director and the other personnel on the phone, if needed, could we have congregant shelters . Thats what we are typically accustomed to having, you have large gymnasiums set up to accommodate big groups of people. We did not do that this time largely because of covid and the precautions needed there securing hotel rooms across the region that were out of harms way. So far it seems that has done the trick. They are prepared to open congregant shelters if needed, but so far we are hoping to avoid that. Host what are the plans for fema after the storm is over to come in . What sort of resources are they planning to put in place, and money, etc. . We are grateful the president early on declared a disaster, that helps us assist with getting the necessary resources we will need from the federal government and elsewhere. Fema has done a good job. They have coordinated with the people on the ground. Has all beentance essential parts of response to an event of this scope area they have worked they worked in advance. Yesterday they brought half a million meals and bottles of water to many areas in proximity of the storm. Those things are being moved around. The sun has cup here the sun has come up here about half an hour ago, we are assessing damage throughout the remainder of the day. Host how are you able to talk to us during the storm . Rep. Johnson we will be traveling the district today, but what we do in louisiana pretty well is we know how to handle these storms because we are accustomed to them. My wife and four children are here, my daughters came from college to hunker down together. It looks like we will get through with some downed power lines and trees but without a lot of loss in our district. Appreciate your time on your top issues for campaign 2020. Another congressman joining us on the phone. Randy weber who represents the 14th district in the Galveston Area 14th district of texas. I want to show our viewers where galveston his on the golf. Gulf. We were talking to mike johnson from the shreveport area. Us ssman weber, show what has been the impact of this hurricane . Rep. Weber it has not been so terribly bad in texas as it has been in louisiana. Louisiana my district is the first three coastal county starting at the louisiana