Your questions. Secretary duke. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for being here with us today. I want to start today by thanking Governor Abbott and his team for hosting president trump, the first lady and members of the cabinet yesterday on our visit Corpus Christi and austin, texas. We heard firsthand the experience of the First Responders and the volunteers that are helping in the texas area. We met with state and local officials to continue coordinating our response and identifying opportunities for closer collaboration. This was a importan important f visit to the area. I also want to reinforce for the president s message from our trip yesterday. We expect a many year recovery in texas and the federal government is in this for the long haul. We will continue to support the people of texas as long as it is necessary. The president reiterated this again, both publicly and behind closed doors yesterday. The initial word we got, people first, is continuing through our response. While we continue to monitor the storm as it heads to louisiana. We remain concerned about houston where catastrophic flooding is likely to persist days after the rain stops. This cooperation between fema, the other federal agencies and state and local officials, has been outstanding. And we are collectively focused on rescuing those in danger and providing housing and Immediate Care for those who are displaced. Resources from across the country have been dispatched to the area, to aid in response and recovery. Finally, the local officials in texas, Governor Abbott, mayor turner, judge emmitt. Chief acevedo and the others are doing a tremendous job under considerable strain. What we must do in the federal government is to continue to support them and their teams. I want to also thank the men and women who are putting their lives on line to help the people of texas. Their heroism is truly humbling. Homeland securitys own customs and border protection, u. S. Coast guard and others are working with the National Guard and local First Responders, and have saved countless lives. Yesterday, we tragically lost one of these local heroes. Houston Police Sergeant steve perez. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and for those who have lost loved ones in this terrible storm. And while focusing understandably on texas, were working with the state of louisiana as the storm moves through their state. To the people in texas and louisiana, please continue to listen to your local officials and heed warnings. We expect the storm to continue and our number one priority is everyones safety. Well continue with the Life Sustaining, lifesaving missions for the next few days and then move into recovery for the area and the officials with me here today will tell you more about that. Ill turn it over to the commandant now to talk about our continuing lifesaving missions. Were still very much in the Emergency Response stage of this historic storm. Number one priority right now is recovering survivors. Over thousands yesterday, but these arent numbers, these are people. And i just want to, you know, put myself in the shoes of these Community Members whose lives have really been turned upsidedown, so we will be there as long as it takes. The storm is starting to shift in the east, we will be able to shift our resources to the east as well. So, we will be able to stay in front of this. Were getting great support from the National Guard, from the state of texas, the entire First Response community. This has truly been a unified effort and i cant emphasize enough the great work that our Good Samaritans are doing as well. Back at our coast guard headquarters. I have 32 watch standers, around the clock. Because 911 calls have inundated call centers down in texas. Were taking that overflow and receiving over a thousand calls per hour. We are not out of this by any long stretch yet and we should be as we continue to watch this storm move on and as we move on the long road to recovery. Thank you very much. So the whole community continues to descend upon texas. Weve amassed quite the federal Government Support over 12,000 staff members, its going to continue to grow. Not only are we pushing people forward through the dhs search capacity, that secretary duke put into place and the commandant. And were asking the state support to come down and theyre continuing to amass in texas. The operation is very clear. Were still in lifesaving, Life Sustaining mode. Not only that, but through the u. S. Coast guard. The safety measures. We have over 230 shelters operating in texas with over 30,000 people, but i dont want to get fixated on numbers, theyre going to change in the next 30 minutes. To let the people of texas know were supporting efforts to provide mass care, not only mass care about you medical care to those who have been displaced and we understand that this is going to be a frustrating and painful process, but were trying to do everything we can to alleviate the situation. Overnight, you know, the areas of moment and port arthur got hit and slammed with 20 inches of rainfall, so, while were focused a lot of the effort on houston, we have to understand that there are multiple counties, over 50 counties impacted now and were continuing to watch the situation develop and citizens of louisiana are not in the clear. You know, youre still under some evacuation warning orders, please make sure youre heeding the warnings from the parish president. And weve turned on individual assistance and some of the most Important Information youll hear about today is from our recovery director, and were providing a central commodity distribution. What that means is were already providing points of distribution and sustaining Life Sustaining commodities in areas not impacted by rainfall. For example, weve been down in rockport, for the aransas where the rain has stopped, but sustained category 4 winds and storm surge, we are supporting those folks down there with lifesaving commodities. Power restoration is ongoing. Were very concerned about the infrastructure, obviously. Infrastructure is the key to restoring routine to daily lives. Well try to help the Power Companies bring the power back on as quickly as we can. Right now many areas in texas arent out of the area of the threat ongoing. Weve amassed quite a bit of federal Law Enforcement out of the homeland security. Down to our state and local partners again, working in conjunction with over 12,000 National Guard members deployed pie the National Guard in texas as well as, you know, the true First Responders at the local level. Again, were supporting medical support, secretary price is highly engaged, you know, were constantly watching the hospital situations and being able to weve evacuated several hospitals and trying to sustain hospitals to make sure theyre up and operational and providing a standard of care that everybody deserves. With that, what i would like to do is continue to ask people to find ways to volunteer, you know, when it comes to basically going through the state of texass organizations to be able to organize the volunteer effort. The need to volunteer is going to take place over the next couple years. Okay . And the need to volunteer is in, let me remind you, 50 counties right now. Not just in houston, but everywhere, so that mission is going to continue to expand. Right now, what i would really like to concentrate on is how we get disaster survivors, you know, to start activating assistance for those that qualify. So, the director is going to give critical information. George. So as of this morning we had over 195,000 registrations of individuals asking for assistance, weve provided over 35 million in Financial Assistance to those that have registered. And so, our message is clear, if you have impact from damage and impact and find yourself in a shelter, First Contact your insurance company, file your claim and immediately after that go to disaster. Gov and sign up for Financial Assistance from fema. Whats important to understand, our system is not designed to make you whole, which is important to first register to your insurance company. Its also important that you provide us your location where youre at during the registration process, so we can provide you with immediate assistance. We also have the Transitional Shelter Assistance Programs over 1700 families last night and in over 2000 rooms, in five different states that were providing assistance to. So, after you register, youll be assigned an inspector. That inspector will contact you to come out and view your damages. Due to the volume, we are prioritizing inspections, based off of the greatest amount of damage and we will be in contact with you throughout this process. And so, just make sure that fema assistance can provide some rental assistance. We can also provide some assistance for care. We can provide assistance for personal property, but its important that when you register, your address, your current location, how we can contact you. What kind of damage you have sustained, the insurance that you have. Stay in contact with us. Go to disaster assistance. Gov. The work were doing to provide those in shelters and into an about et better place, and working with our government organizations, in support of the state of texas, these organizations like american red cross, salvation army, southern bath. Weve seen these increase larger than ever before and so have the registrations and were in the long haul to provide assistance to every disaster survivor we can. Thank you. Take some questions at this point, if any. From reuters, do you have any estimate how many total homes have been flooded and how many people will need assistance . Right now, its a dynamic situation, we dont have an accurate number. I could try to put you a number out there, i can tell new 30 minutes it will be wrong. We try to use the best mapping capabilities when it comes to understanding the flood zones and the mapping that we have. But the best indicator of individual assistance is what alex was saying nearly 200,000 people registered. That number is going to climb. We know it. Its going to continue to project and we have to be ready to support it. Looking at some of the decisions the Administration Made ahead of the disaster, proposed budget, that would cut some fema grants and some other Agency Programs that are involved in this effort, or rolling back the last administrations standard, understanding that that did not impact what were seeing right now. How is that playing in the administration looking at how you appropriate for these disasters Going Forward and reconsidering some of the decisions proposed to be made. Right now, were focusing on this specific disaster and assuring we have the appropriate funding and programs in place. He think that the planning that the communities do has grown over the years and were looking at having Grant Programs that are appropriate to have them continue their planning. But you know, many of these communities, including texas, have made extraordinary progress in planning for disasters. This particular storm was unprecedented in terms of volume of rain and thats what were focusing on now. What does the temporary shelter look like . Is it going to include trailers . What are the options that youre considering . So very simply, the goal is to sustain life. So weve already turned on whats called Transitional Shelter Assistance Program basically getting people into hotel, motels, getting them out of the shelters. Shelters obviously are not ideal and unfortunately, people are going to be there for quite some time, as were trying to mobilize people into hotels. How many have we moved . About 1800. About 1800 have been placed in hotels and motels, understand the vacancies that are there. The next goal is housing. As the water starts to recede, this is where the volunteers are needed, help the people get the carpet out and make simple repairs to help people get in the house at a baseline level and sustain them there. And finally, you know, the fema manufactured housing, travel trailers, weve pulled the trigger. Weve a limited amount. We have the Defense Production Agency to buy, buy these, this capability, but also, it takes time to produce those. Slowly, we start to bring those in. And its a sizable mission. So what we have on the ground right now is what we call Disaster Housing Assistance teams. This is a coordinated effort between not only fema, but hud, its also sba and you know, the most important piece is working with our state and local partners and those counterparts through to make sure we put together a comprehensive plan to make sure we know how the system works. Sir. Jeffrey cook. The president said yesterday probably there hasnt been anything so never been anything this historic and is that true or [inaudible] you cant do a point by point comparison about the storm. What is unique of the storm is area of devastation and also the amount of rainfall which is now measures in some places over 50 inches which is more than the annual rainfall. And also how long had it been. So, weve been experiencing this rainfall over a long period of time, even though the initial winds subsided. So the duration and we expect the flood waters not to crest for another couple of days. Those are some of the unique things that were behind the president s comments yesterday. And i also think its important to point out that this is going to be an incredibly large disaster for the country. Its going to help to reshape how to do business and go on. Its important to recognize the cost of this disaster, the economic cost, to measure the disaster versus our physical cost as the federal government family, were not going to know a true cost for many, many years to come as we Work Together to understand what the communities are entitled to from public assistance or Hud Community block grants or reimbursement cost. It takes a long time to understand the true cost of this disaster, but its going a huge one. Thank you. Are there areas in houston catherine herridge, fox news, are there some individuals that are trapped and not able to communicate an emergency situation . You want to talk about the weve been able to use google heat maps, if you will, and where the concentration of where the calls are coming from, even if someone cant communicate we have 11 fixed wing airplanes that are doing surveillance as well. So we have a pretty good idea where the concentration of those who are still in high water, and at the same time, more moderate rain as you heard from the administrator, the heavy rainfall that occurred in port arthur and beaumont as well. This isnt quite fiveyearold where everyone is looking across one point. Were looking across the metropolitan area to make sure weve got resourced allocated and its well gorcoordinated an National Guard. And can you be more specific about the clusters of areas, and how many areas in houston, still . Were talking square miles. Yeah, were not down to blocks. So were talking entire houston metropolitan areas. Others more impacted than others, but were seeing an awful lot to the west and southwest of the center of houston proper itself. Can you tell when the infrastructure will be up and running, the railroad, and also the Chemical Plant that had to be evacuated. The Chemical Plant were able to restore electricity and the refrigerated tankers, and were looking at reopening the ports. Right now its too rough for ships to embark. Were looking at army corps of engineers with noaa, and Corpus Christi, the interwater ways. And it will take several days before those facility workers to get back to work. When you can fire up those refineries. When pilots can actually safely get to the boats and continue business as usual. We want to make sure the ports are open well in advance of the workers show up. I can speak for the maritime, but yeah, so we are in Constant Contact with all the Critical Infrastructure sectors in the area. Secretary perry is leading us from the cabinet on the energy sector. There are two pieces to that we have to keep in mind in recovery, one is getting distribution out and second is getting power to individual residents and homes. Thats going to be challenging. The high level of flooding requires quite a bit of preparation to make sure that its safe, as the Electric Company connect their Distribution Systems to it, to specific points of system delivery. Additionally, were tracking the refineries and other gas and oil in the area. The very good news is weve seen no Environmental Issues at this point. Because that Critical Infrastructure did act practicically in shutting down. So were looking at getting those up and running in keeping Oil Refinement and production going. Its still a safety concern and they will be up as soon as possible. If i may, you know, Emergency Managers around the country realize that restoring routine is the number one goal in recovery as well. Its not just keeping up the Critical Infrastructure, but we also activate whats called business eocs or business Emergency Operations center, we have one at the National Level and typically all states have them at the state level to understand as well when the private industries are coming back jn online. If we can get the roads open and routines, as well as the schools, well be, you know the department of homeland security, also and fema will be working to help figure out how we are pea going to do schools. The schools have been totally damaged and different things, well have to set up a capability. And thats on your mind, getting the lights back up, bringing up private industry. Bringing up private industry is the most important thing. With the associated press. One of the keys to getting routine back is getting people back in their homes. The raw numbers, about 9 fewer people have Flood Insurance in however than five years ago. Do you understand whats behind that decline . And because the flood is so much far past where they have Flood Insurance, the home owners with Flood Insurance out there. Simply put, those that have Flood Insurance need to be activating those policies. Those who dont, are looking at Small Business association and looking at low interest loans. They have a disaster declaration. If youre uninsured, the next likely is Small Business administration. Whats behind the decline of numbers of people in houston who have Flood Insurance . I dont know any of that at this point . Im sorry, im not familiar with that localized issue. Last question. Is there any update on the country of mexico offered to citizens in terms of offering the United States i dont have an update on that at this time. We are working with both mexico and canada to take advantage of their offers of support. How about the airports. Any idea when the airports will be open. The iah, there is one local airport that is open, but they did cancel their flight for today. And we have not heard when theyre opening. We expect the rainfall to continue for another 24 to probably 36 hours. And then it will take a while after that for the rain to and thats the local decision. And we expect the airports to remain closed. Thank you. Wrapping up here, you can see this briefing with fema