Our email newsletter word for word office a a synopsis of the event. Sign up at cspan. Org connect. Coming up shortly, Texas Governor will give an update on the damage caused by hurricane laura and his live coverage here on cspan2. We are opening up the phoneh lines to get your top issue and campaign 2020 if youre supporting the president or joee biden. If youre undecided or thirdparty candidate. We will get to your calls in a minute but joining us on the boat is mike johnson of louisiana. You were expected to be in washington for the president s speech but youre staying there because of the hurricane. Whats the latest on the ground . You may be able to hear the heavy winds in the w background through the window here, we stayed here in the district because this is a historical event for us, is being registered, we are being told it could be the worst hurricane that ever hit our state and its pretty massive. The damage it wide spread, but god is spread grace, we dont have any fatalities. This is a big one. We prepare for it as b best we could but there will be damage and things to recover from first quite some time. Has the district responding . I always say, we are tough and resilient people and we do Disaster Recovery very well. W said we have so much experience with that but this was extraordinary. Yesterday called the Hurricane Center and they projected yesterday we have thousands upon thousands of businesses destroyed in our area today and because they were measuring, we issued operation orders and weve done about as well as we could. Response teams and search and rescue and resources, right now we are looking at Power Outages exceeding 90 for the states land area. It is broad event, im in the northwest corner of the state right now, the district runs north, south. My home is in louisiana, almost on the line. Bending the trees in half so is going to go on for some time. Have people listen to . Most people evacuated . Yes. I would say federal, state and local issues, everybody did a really great job communicating and coordinating the necessity of a back waiting. We are accustomed to storm warnings, particularly on the coastal areas and sometimes people have a tendency to brush them off but when they heard this would be at the scope of katrina and rita, a big hurricane so got everybodys attention. Most of the people got out of harms way, that probably accounts for the lack of fatalities we have so far. What is the plan to keep those out of evacuations into hotels and shelters safe from the virus in spreading the coronavirus . It is a challenge. I asked the fema directors and personnel on the phone, if needed, could we have congress shelters . Thats what we are typically accustomed to having natural disasters, accommodating big groups of people, we didnt do that this time largely because of covid and precautions needed there so theyve secured hotel rooms all over the region out of harms way and so far, it seems that stone the trick. They are prepared to open congress shelters if needed but so far, it looks as if we can avoid that. What is the plan 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 already declared disaster so that helps us assist with getting necessary resources we will need from the federal government and elsewhere but fema has done a really good job, they have coordinated with all the people on the ground, the federal assistance with the telecommunications and operational support, lifesupport, they are essential parts of a response so we are grateful. They worked in advance by yesterday, they had already moved into place halfmillion meals, 800,000 liters of water in the proximity of the storm. Those are being moved around. Everybody is surveying the damage. Wondering how you are staying safe, how are you able to talk to us during the storm . We will travel the today but what we do in the we as a pretty well, we know how to handle the storms because we are accustomed to them. My wife and four children are here, my daughter came from college junker down together but it looks like we will get through with downed power lines and trees but not a lot of lost lives. We appreciate your time this morning. Talking to us and giving us the latest from where you are, stay safe. Thanks. Lets turn our attention to campaign 2020. Your top issue for this race. Tara has been waiting, and independent. Thank you. Go ahead. Good morning. Id like to thank you for the previous speakers you had on as a woman who identifies as prochoice, catholic, hispanic, i feel the Trump Campaign is trying to reach out to voters like me but it also feels like they are talking out of both sides of their mouth, they want hispanic voters but then they vilify the way family came through immigration, i came through chain migration and they referred to it as a bogeyman scheme. Asylumseekers were here with legitimate concerns there being violence and they are told they cannot come in and i wonder what the greatest country on earth and yet, we dont allow people who have a right to be here to be here. The people who got here, criticize the way they got here so for me, i cant, in good faith, vote for trump. I wish them all the best, i wish they could work on their strategizing because it turns voters off, like me. A republican. Byron, your top issue in this campaign. The suburban women, how they can change their votes. The remote democrat partys new strategies that advertise on tv, if you look at the accusing women, probably 80 after the ads and democratic parties use the same strategy and while i find to understand these are advertisements and they need to set for themselves, men have been targeted as being eliminated. It just bothers me they would use a strategy such as advertisements that target a Certain Group of people to believe in their campaign. Its kind of a formal socialism, communism and my opinion. Okay, byron. More calls coming up on the top issues for campaign 2020. Churchill, randy recovered in texas represents the 14th district and i want to show you on a map for our viewers where galveston is, we are talking to mike johnson appear so congressman, as i show our viewers where you are at, what has been the impact of this hurricane . Its not been so terribly bad and texas as it has been in louisiana, louisiana being on the dirty side. My district 14 is the first three coastal counties starting at the louisiana border. Right now, ive been reaching out to mayors and judges in different counties, we hear the 46000 customers without power, downed trees, downed power lines, no flooding to date that we are aware of. Bear in mind that the district ground zero for flooding in 2017. Man, did we have flooding from hurricane harvey. But right now, texas is faring pretty well. We dodged a bullet. We are very grateful for that. Reached out to our friends in louisiana to see how we could help those offices but you know some of the companies, trucks and crews are headed that way to help them get back on their feet so all in all in texas, no lost lives we are aware of, no flooding we are aware of, just a lot of soon to be hot, sweaty people with power out at home. You know how long the power will stay out . It will depend on each individual case, its across the line, it didnt do damage to the polls but they have breakers on just like your home does. If you took the transfer offline, they can get that straightened up and get a break. We like people to be home so they can make sure everything is safe on the house. The wind just open up a gas line and somebodys got a stove, then they filled the house with gas. They like people to be home, they could give most of it because we get a lot hurricanes on the gulf coast. Most of it in a day or two, the major stuff were broke polls and took down power lines or blue out power lines. It might take a little longer but they are getting to it as quickly as they can. What you hear from your phone calls with those people, officials in louisiana about what they need . Explain how the federal government will respond versus state and local resources. I cant speak to louisiana but i will tell you this, ive been on more Conference Calls because of the pandemic in the last four or five months in the previous 66 years of my life. The coordination is gone really dear, here in texas, the last three or four days, we been monitoring this from the getgo but we were on Conference Calls with Texas Department of Emergency Management with the government office, fema, the counties and mayors, county officials and its not record you like but we have a record of being responsible because so many hurricanes on the gulf coast. I was thrilled fema was already on board, the governor was giving disaster declarations, the president was on standby so i was impressed to see the national, state and local coordination all these Conference Calls, zoom calls and whatever else has really gotten us where we can coordinate, communicate and all come together as quickly as possible so i think louisiana is probably the same but because theyve experienced a lot of hurricanes as well and being our neighbors to the east of us, the congressman in the district due east of mine, youre going to see the coordination and help slowing this way because texas, when we had hurricane harvey, louisiana came to our aid and they sent people left and right and i think