Governor John Bell Edward said the storm is the strongest to hit his statement did not sustain the catastrophic damage that had been forecast parties joined at the briefing by other state officials. Good afternoon and thank you for being here this afternoon. We have our usual lineup today the officials here today with m me. Chip klein is going to speak in just a moment. He is of course chairman of the cpra he will talk about coastal flooding we have secretary of department of transportation and development, shawn wilson who will speak in a little bit on roadways. And then we have fire Marshal Butch browning who is here to answer questions that you might have about the fire at the Chemical Plant and west lake. And obviously you can ask questions of any of the officials here. First of all it is clear that we did not sustain and suffer the absolute catastrophic damage that we thought was likely based on the forecast we had last night. But, we have sustained a tremendous amount of damage. We have thousands and thousands of our fellow citizens who lives or upside down. Because businesses and or their homes have been damaged. And we have lots of challenges around the state to say the least with a variety of things whether it is electrical power , water service, you name it. We have a lot of work to do. But we are in better shape today than might have been the case. So we have a lot to be thankful for as well. As you know by now, i am sure, hurricane laura made landfall as predicted last night. Or i should say this morning at 1 00 a. M. Very strong category four hurricane with sustained winds of 150 miles per hour. This was the most powerful form to ever make landfall in louisiana. And it is still a powerful storm that is in the state of louisiana. It is continuing to cause damage and lifethreatening conditions including further loss of electricity. Before i get more deeply into lauras impact in louisiana, we want to discuss in particular a gas chemical fire at the biolab and west lake. It results in us ending up to ask the citizens of westlake to be cognizant of what is going on and to shelter at home. And unfortunately, despite the heat that they are experiencing, shelter at home under those circumstances mean they need to be on the insight of their home with the doors and windows right in the air conditioning off if they are lucky enough to have electricity. Whether it is by generator or otherwise. Employees understand we are doing everything we can to get that situation under control without that buyer and stop any off premises migration. And again we have the state police and the Fire Marshals Office to answer specific questions about that. You may have seen some footage that shows the chemical fire and west lake that i just mentioned. From the perspective of the lake. And looking underneath the bridge. And if youve seen that he saw the isle of capri casino that is on the barge. That obviously came loose during the storm. And it is sort of wedged under the bridge. The bridge remains closed. That means hide tenth is right and that is until we can do an inspection to see what sort of damage, if any, was caused by that barge. Obviously there may be additional directives from officials in that area. We are encouraging everyone. First of all this goes for everyone across the state to follow the directions you are given by your local officials in office of emergency preparedness. But in the lake areas, Pay Attention to their direction as it relates to the chemical fire. Hurricane laura, which struck our state was recently downgraded. I think about 30 minutes or so ago to a Tropical Storm predissenter at that time was between shreveport and ruston. The track of the storm was just slightly east of what had been forecasted. And according to a conversation that i had with kim bram of the hurricane center, that is why we didnt get as much storm surge pushed up into lake charles. Because the eye of the storm never crossed over the ship channel. So that very strong north wind, i should say southwind, was never pushing that water up the ship channel. It had been forecasted to track further to the west. Which would have pushed much, much, much more water up. Whatever the reason is, we are very thankful. Because there is widespread and very significant damage because of the winds. In some because of the rain. We are thankful we did not get more storm surge than we did. Just about the entire state sought Tropical Storm force winds. Everything except for extreme Southeast Louisiana and the north shore. That is how big and powerful this storm was. After i finish the press conference, i will leave with many of the officials you see with you to join some local officials in lake charles. And then do an overflight over at least calcasieu, cameron, and we believe vermillion parishes so we can put eyes on the damag damage. Please understand that right now we continue to be in the Immediate Response mode. Which is about life saving. So search and rescue was ongoing right now. Not just in extreme Southeast Louisiana. But basically as that storm moved north, we were putting people and assets in behind that storm as soon it was safe to do so. To do search and rescue. We had 1500 individuals in the state standing by to do search and rescue. About 400 pieces of equipment, high water vehicles, votes, aircraft, you name it. All of that has been coordinated. That search and rescue his ongoing right now. So this, today is about saving lives, moving people out of their homes if their homes are no longer safe and inhabitable. Making sure that we get them taken care of. What that means in this covid environment is getting them into a non congregant shelter just as soon as possible. A hotel room or a motel room. That is what we will be working on until such time as that is done. And then we begot down to the Damage Assessment and so forth. So suffice it to say for now there is an awful lot of work being done by good, dedicated public servants. Weve our federal partners on the ground. We have people from other states who are here assisting in search and rescue. You know the array of state agencies that have been working at this. And obviously working with local first responders, sheriffs deputies, Fire Departments. You name it. I do want to point out that while we have about 600,000 Service Locations without electricity across the state of louisiana, i just mentioned where we saw Tropical Storm force winds and will be didnt. The outages are concentrated where we did. So baton rouge to new orleans, the north shore, not many outages. But just about the entire rest of the state is seeing significant outages. The good news is we have more line crews preposition in louisiana ahead of landfall than ever before. But that is not to say the restoration of power is going to be done very quickly. Because we believe there was tremendous damage done to the power infrastructure. And so it may take a while. We ask people to be just as patient as you can be an understanding but understand we have more people who are addressing the situation more quickly than ever before. And while they are out on the road restoring electricity. While we are doing search and rescue and other response related to the fire and Different Things we have seen. Now is not the time to go sightseeing. I am appealing to everybody in louisiana. Dont get out on the road unless it is absolutely necessary for you to do that. Please stay home and be safe. We still have an awful jet off a lot of places were trees are down and the road, electrical lines are down in the road and so forth. And we need to be moving our response vehicles to where they are needed. So please stay off the road. And speaking of roads and some that you cant get on even if you wanted to, im going to ask doctor shawn wilson to come now and give an update on the roads and highways of louisiana. Thank you governor. And good afternoon, good mornin morning. As most of you have probably seen on social media, the island of capri barge was dislodged from its dock. And connected itself to our bridge. I just got a text event, the barge has been removed. And we will commence the bridge inspection process via drone. And contingent upon the incident that is underway in the vicinity of the bridge we will then complete the inspection. Which requires our inspectors to actually put eyes on the bridge and ensure it is there. As he said before in unsafe bridges a closed bridge, we cannot express enough importance of staying off the interstate. In particularly the lake charles bridge. We also have live wires on it ten. As well as on i40 nine in alexandria louisiana. That is in addition to all of the debris, as well as vegetative land materials into the rightofway. All the teams in our districts are engaged in this process to clear and remove the debris. We are actually bringing about 75 individuals from Southeast Louisiana to southwest louisiana to assist that district that received personal family damage but to the facilities at the department. We have field teams all over the western portion of the state. From shreveport all the way down to lake charles and cameron. Weve also activated our debris contracts. As a private contract relationship that we are bringing 25 teams to bring debris off of state highway prayed that is about five crews. Parish in the immediate area. But we need that covering the entire state that will be in addition to which the staff is able to provide. Were also also seeing about 40 additional weatherrelated closures. I mention to the governor yesterday, blessed john bridges are blessing and a curse. Weve got quite a few of them and quite a few that are critical bridges that have to be inspected before we allow you to cross but it cannot stress enough before driving through standing water is never a good idea. But also driving through roads and bridges that have not been cleared by our staff yet can be very problematic. Both for you and the resources of state police and other Law Enforcement agencies. I remind all drivers to Pay Attention to 511 lao rg. Thats when youre going to get the greatest information on open highways and interstates pretty macy social media with cars passing. We do make provisions for entergy and other Energy Companies to get back and try to store electricity. So just because you see some movement doesnt mean its okay for you to drive. 511la. Org is the best place to do get that information. And finally we are still prepared to use our buses, our coaches to provide funds for folks in need medical assistance they have been evacuated to. In other places where we have had damage done to the state. So with that, governor albee questions at appropriate time. Thank you shawn. There are a couple of Silver Lining since morning that i think we can all be grateful fo for. The first is that the storm surge did not materialize to the degree that have been forecasted. Now 12 feet of storm surge is still a lot of storm surge. We have gauges and cameron, paris that actually failed after registering 12 feet. So we think there were some values higher than 12. Probably none higher than 15 feet. Thats a lot of storm surge. It was nothing 20 feet we were told. And also that was not the initial surge that came up the coast, the storm never tracked west across the ship channel. All those things helped tremendously. So the water damage was less than anticipated. Hopefully that means the homes that were damaged or made habitable and safe and secure much more quickly and should be than otherwise would be the case. And people have to shelter at all. And some dont have to shelter very long. Another peace of good news is that despite the strength and how long it lasted, we never lost communication with the affected parishes. That is the first time that ever happened. And i think that is a result of the investments we have made over the years. Really since Hurricane Katrina to make sure that with stateoftheart and Redundant Communications systems in place. Also made it much, not just easier but faster to discuss what was going on in the affected parishes and affecting their needs and directing the assistance, just as soon as it was safe to do that. Now look, we talked about how blessed we have been. And we have been in the grand scheme of things. But we have learned the four deaths in caused by the storm. All were related to trees falling on residences. Which is in line with this being a major wind event. And none of them were in extreme southwest louisiana. Obviously, i am asking that we all lift up these families in prayer. Im certainly as im concerned as we go out and do primary and secondary search and rescue, we are going to find more fatalities part i hope not, i pray not. But that is what we out and do the search and rescues. I would remind people that even though the storms are just less than anticipated, the southerly flow still continues. In fact that outer band reaches into Corpus Christi texas and makes a large counterclockwise rotation of pushing additional water still. We are getting reports now in vermilion parishes. That water continues to rise. No not as quickly as we had feared. But what im trying to tell people is in your particular area you may have not seen the water at the highest yet as it relates to laura. So be cognizant of that. But more information on water levels and what we are going to do to the water we can and need to, im going to ask chip klein of the cpr aid to come up and address you in on the backside of that, i will come finish the prepared remarks and then we will take your questions. Month and can governor. As a governor has alluded to in his opening comments, the storm did not bring the storm surge that was predicted. It would appear that most of the damage across Coastal Louisiana is going to because by wind. I think its very important for the public to understand that water levels across Coastal Louisiana are still very high levels. Particularly as the governor mentioned in vermillion parish, water levels continue to rise. Additionally is a very strong wind across south louisiana which, number one, does not allow for areas that experience heavy rainfall and heavy storm surge to drain quickly. Additionally strong southern wind of traditional water to continue to stack up across coastal regions of our state pushing water further inland. One of the lessons that was learned from Hurricane Katrina engine katrina, just because the storm passes not mean brown harms way. He remember the damage from the greater new orleans area happened after the storm. So those of us are constantly monitoring water to underwater levels will be performing assessments across Coastal Louisiana. Ross assessing the impact of the coastal shoreline. The governor also alluded to while this storm focused on southwest louisiana, some of the outer bands that are coming out of Corpus Christi, theyre coming across the gulf of mexico right now headed straight for Southeast Louisiana. So just because you did not see a storm surge or heavy rain phone Southeast Louisiana you need to be paying very close attention to the outer bands and the impacts that will continue to have on Southeast Louisiana. So we will continue to provide the coastal operation personality best available data that we have on water level projection so that they can fully inform coastal residents of the continued risk that they face across her coast periods thank you. And with those bands that chip was just talking about, we are much of louisiana i should say is under a Tornado Warning for the next couple of hours. This is something that has been playing out for about 24 hours but if you member in the Capital Region yesterday there were numerous warnings that went out. For potential tornadoes. I have to believe that we had some that probably formed and touched down overnight. But it was dark and how do you know tornado damage from hurricane damage . But it is something we need to be paying attention to today. I want to to know the National Guard is more than 5400 guardsmen activated. And that continues to build with the organization of a full guard activation. We will use the National Guard in a variety of ways. And just as soon as we possibly can be a going to reengage them on covid testing, community testing, surge like testing to work with our food banks as well as to continue to manage the warehouses for ppe and other materials. The National Guard has approximate 222 high water vehicles and 65 votes that are manned in southern louisiana, prepared to provide search and rescue support for it and again not just in southern louisiana. Their stage of fallen behind the storm as soon as it is safe to do so. In fact that is already occurred up the western side of louisian louisiana. Theyve got almost a million liters of water, 507,000 meals readytoeat. In those two are strategically placed throughout the state. And ready to support our citizens. The wildlife and fisheries has 170 agents in the votes for search and rescue operations they are engaged in that and speak as well. I did want to report that lesson secretary of health and Human Services signed a Public Health emergency board declaration for louisiana and for texas. But it provides greater flexibility to the medicare and Medicaid Programs that affect hospitals and Nursing Homes and other providers for it and it just allows us the flexibility that we need to better serve people under emergency conditions for these are very similar to waivers that we received back in 2016 prato we can request additional waivers if we decide that we need them. But this allows the providers who do what they need to do in order to meet the demands of emergency. But without worrying that they will be ineligible to receive reimbursement associated with the care that they are providing because they did not provided in the exact same way that they typically would. We do continue to encourage residents to call 211 with any storm related questions are medical needs. 211 is prepared to respond and direct residents to the right place depending upon what their needs are. Speaking of the Public Health emergency today, we did report 700 new cases. Twentythree additional deaths , again quite sadly. Think about that, we dont know the death toll from the storm, but thats what its for, today alone related to covid breed that should underscore but we all know. That may be lost sight of because of the hurricane. We are still in a covid environment. And we need people to play their role. Make sure they are wearing their masks, social distancing. Washing their hands frequently. Staying home when you are sick. And all that becomes more complicated when you are trying to recover from, respond to a storm. The good news is that hospitalizations across the state related to covid19 continue to decline today. And we are very thankful for that. My biggest concern right now on covid across the state right now that we need in order to know whether our positivity is inching up or if we had more cases and if so are they in the congregant setting, Community Setting . Are they related to education . Or so forth. We really need to back toward testing just as soon as we possibly can. I did want to give you an update on shelters. Right now we have more than 2100 individuals in shelters across the state. The overwhelming majority, more than 1900 of those are a non congregant shelters. Im im sorry hotel and motel rooms for the rest are in congregant shelters all being run by parishes. Some in coordination with the american red cross. For any of those individuals who need to remain in a shelter or for additional people whose homes are not inhabitable, safe and secure, we are working to get them into hotel motel rooms. We have approximately 804. Under contract primarily in the baton rouge and new orleans area. If we need more than that will find the space. Again we are in a covid environment. We want people to be as safe as possible. Not just from the storm but also from the virus. So if you need shelter please text l a shelter to 89211. L. A. Shelter 2898211. Will get the information about where to go. With respect to food. And i hesitate to do this. People are going to believe we have it available to us now. We do not. Well have to meet the threshold be approved for individual assistance before will be available. But that may well happen. What individuals can do now is turned on subsequently theyve always him what they need to do it order to qualify. And so, it is not yet available. I want to repeat that. It may take some time to turn it on. Im actually have to figure out who lost electricity and for how long. To determine who is eligible. I want you to know even if you preregister before in previous disasters you need to register again . Because the department of Human Family Services did upgrade their system. You need to include as much information that you can including your mobile telephone number and your parish of residence. Go to dcs. L. A. Gov dcfs. L. A. Gov snap. Remember snap recipients do not need to register for d snap. If you are already on snappy do not need to register. These are for individuals who might qualify horn not already on snap. Snap recipients are already receiving the emergency allotment for the maximum benefit for the household size because of the covid emergency. So those are automatically loaded. Youre not going to have a separate emergency allotment for this event. Because you are or pretty at the maximum. Dcf applied for another covid emergency allotment to continue into the month of december by the way. Snap recipients can apply for replacement benefits if their households lose food at purchase with snap benefits and lost power for at least 24 consecutive hours. So for more information on all of this, good dcfs. L. A. Gov dcfs. L. A. Gov disaster faq. Im before i take questions, i did want to point out this morning the Louisiana Workforce commission, while working to respond to this natural disaster, was able to run the remaining 25 of those of transactions eligible for additional unemployment federal enhanced benefits. Its about 47 million. That is complete. And looking forward to resuming those payments next week. So those payments are basically for this week in the previous two weeks start next week in order to continue those weekly benefits. Tomorrow i plan to do the Media Briefing in the early afternoon prayed we will let you know the exact time for there will not be another schedule briefing today. Because i will be leaving with the Lieutenant Governor but i want to thank billy for working throughout the storm and staying into constant communication with me. But he and i will be leading a group of individuals from the state to go join up with parish officials and we will fly over those parishes that i mentioned earlier. We will let you know what time tomorrow to expect a press briefing. I am assuming it will be about 1 00 p. M. Because we plan to have our meeting again at 10 30 a. M. But we will let you know that for sure. So with that, great, ill take your question. Reporter [inaudable question] yes there are prayed we know there are a number of Water Systems that are down because of power loss or potential other mechanical problems as well. And we know some of them are not back online. Some came back online but after a drop in pressure. There are more advisers in place around the state. I dont have an extensive list here with me on where those advisories are. But its another reason why individuals need to play close attentive to their elected officials and file the directives theyve been given. We are very thankful when that water comes back up. Even if it needs to be boiled for a while. You dont have to boil it before you can fight a fire with it. We are very concerned that fires may happen. Anytime you are recovering from a disaster, i think you are an elevated risk for all types of things. So we are really asking all of the electric companies to prioritize restoring power to essential infrastructure. They come specifically to Water Systems in hospitals in order to make sure we can get past this as soon as possible. Reporter [inaudable question] we dont yet. And look, it is a Herculean Task to get out and do the inspections to figure with the damages. And then these electric companies and contacted crews are going to set about working to restore power once they find out what the damage is. We also are directing them to restore power to essential infrastructure first. We will have better information coming from the Public Commission suit on this. I know we are accustomed to sort of instantaneously knowing things pretty want to know things real time. But is not until sometime after daylight today that we can actually start moving these crews into the affected area. Until they have been engaged in Damage Assessment today. And i know they started repair work as well. We can be thankful that when they preposition, many of them were doing maintenance work. Cutting back vegetation away from the lines so that there would be fewer trees that would actually fall onto the wires and cause problems. I dont have an answer for you yet. I will tell you i would not be a bit surprised at the number i gave you is already old. Because as that storm continues to move north, more continues to move nth and more businesses will lose electricity. It was about 600,000 when i left to come over here print i would not be a bit surprised if it was north of that now. Yes, reporter you often talk of being a Good Neighbor. [inaudable question] first of all, i will tell you ive been very gratifying to the outreach i have had from our neighbors. I have talked to Governor Abbott in texas for it i have talked to governor hutchinson in arkansas, governor reeves and mississippi. All of whom have offered their support. It is just what we do for one another. But in the support came from texas, that was despite the fact there was some impact from the storm inhereas some imt from the storm in texas. When it came from governor hutchinson in arkansas, he knew once it left louisiana it would be in arkansas. That is what we do. I will tell you, it really is very helpful because while we all have tremendous agencies and competent people, the capabilities are different especially as it relates to National Guard. Not every National Guard unit is the same. We dont have a single chinook helicopter. We can get those for mississipp mississippi. So it has been gratifying. I know tell you we have not had the need to ask them for assistance. But if we do have a need we will call them directly and will put out the request which is the formal request we make so that they can be reimbursed by fema for the cost of the assistance they do provide us. But it is a great question. And it is an example of being a Good Neighbor. In this still important for louisiana to be Good Neighbors to one another. It is different you would not want to but doing a 6 feet away will washing a mask and washing your hands frequently. Reporter [inaudable question] we have a lot of roads that continue to be closed. And not just because we want them close but they are unsafe. They have debris strung across them. They have downed power lines. We havent bridges that we have not inspected and so forth. And so we are going to ask people to be patient. And they are going to have a hard time getting back in. We knew several hours ago about this fire and westlake. And they had to work extremely hard trying to figure out how they were going to get close enough to that facility in order to fight the fire. Because all of the obstructions and live power lines that were down in that vicinity. And these are firefighters. These are professionals with much more equipment than individual residents are going to have. And so we do need to be patient. And as roads open you can go to 511, what is it shawn . Thats it 511la. Org. And you can see realtime what disclosures are. But again the more people are on the road today, the harder it is going to be with first responders, search and rescue, the power restoration crews, all of those assets and personnel to where they need to be. Yes, sir. Reporter [inaudable question] i am going to see if colonel reeves went to come talk . We dont know everything there is to know about it. We have some assumptions. It is quite often we dont air assumptions until the investigation is complete. We know it is a serious situation. Her and ask her folks from Public Safety to come up and give the best information that they have. Sue at good afternoon. By a lab is a manufacturer of chlorine products but it sometime during the weather event last night, an undetermined amount of product began to react and decompose. The cause of this is still under investigation. As this begins to decompose a begins to heat, burn, really sick chlorine gas into the atmosphere. A small group made unsuccessful attempts to distinguish the flame spread that time around 10 00 a. M. Or so this morning by a lab contacted state police to respond to the scene. And upon our arrival we immediately issued a shelter in place order for the residents nearby in the town of west lake. So biolab is working with local and state officials to include Fire Departments with the state fire marshal and satan local Fire Department surround the area to extinguish the fire and also to monitor the air quality. Reporter [inaudable question] it is still going on i dont have a timeline for that. That is still under investigation. We believe it began during the course of the storm. Reporter [inaudable question] like i said, the chlorine gas was released into the atmosphere. But we are working deq to monitor those risks. Right now we are at a stable point with it. Reporter snack going to the chief speak to that party probably has a better perspective on that than i do. So specific with a standard procedure when you have this, the state police has met takes care of that and elicit they need to be done. Immediately the Environmental Quality started monitoring and they continue to monitor every what they found is a lowlevel detection of chlorine offsite. Which means or people are walking and gathering which is a good thing. But the cloud, the plume that goes in the air and moves out there is chlorine in that obviously. Those chemicals are following in the lake which is the right thing because it pulled loose the chlorine. The outside impact we dont believe its danger to anyone. But that standard procedures and mediate stand in place and that was the action the state took. Reporter [inaudable question] exactly. Reporter [inaudable question] it is a plume that is wind driven. As a plume goes up it comes down for the direction of the when the plume is because the vapors to suppress themselves in the leg. Which then makes the chlorine less dangerous for the water suppresses the chlorine. Reporter [inaudable question] the symptoms of exposure to chlorates respiratory distress or respiratory problems. I dont have any knowledge of any injuries reported. Thank you colonel reeves. In fire marshal browning. Yes, sir. Reporter [inaudable question] i have not heard anything about the visit. Obviously we will welcome the president anytime he wants to come. We are going to need substantial federal assistance going forwar forward. I think that is always a good thing to have a decisionmaker on the ground to see for himself what the damage is. So that we can express what the needs are as well. Especially in a covid environment. And also because we still have a lot of hurricane seasons ahead of us prayed there still storms that are entering the atlantic. I had an opportunity to speak with the president about a quarter after 12 this morning parade so shortly after midnight he and i had a conversation. He let me know that he had directed all the federal agencies to be leaning as far forward as possible. And responding to our state. And as needs developed. And i can also tell you administrator gartner, fema and i have been in conversation today about this. Tony robinson in region six has been closely monitoring the situation. In the conversation with us we expect him on the ground tomorrow. I had an opportunity to speak with chad wolf, who is the acting secretary of homeland security. Also secretary wilbur ross of Commerce Department and other federal officials. So we appreciate the attention that they have been showing louisiana. The assistance they have been providing. I went to assure them that we are going to be calling upon them in the future as well. Look, it would to thank you all for continuing to cover this. And again, we did not have the worst Case Scenario developed. Should all be thankful for that. And you know that i ask the people who are faithful to pray and ask for blessings. And when we get them we need to offer a prayer of thanksgiving too. So im asking people of louisiana to do that. But there are still thousands and thousands of families whose lives are not right today either because her businesses have been destroyed, their homes have been damaged, they may be in a shelter, we know that at least four families have lost a loved one. So lets lift them up in prayer. Lets understand there is a lot of work to do. This is very much a marathon. It is not a sprint. And i do want to remind people it is quite often the case that it is the cleanup that causes people to seriously injure themselves or to do something that causes them to be killed in an accident. that is another way to be a Good Neighbor right now. Thank you all very much, we will head to southwest louisiana now and we will be back with you all tomorrow at about 1 00 oclock, i believe. Thank you. Weeknights this month we are featuring booktv programs as a preview of what is available every weekend on cspan2. We begin with the story on a. J. Baime on the 1948 president ial election discussing his book dewey defeats trump and then at university of virginia history professor Elizabeth Barron arguing that during the civil war the north was motivated to liberate instead of conquer the south. Later, Boston College history professor Heather Cox Richardson talks about how southern social political and economic ideologies prevailed in the American West following the civil war. Enjoy book tv on cspan2. You are watching book tv on cspan2 every weekend as latest nonfiction books and authors. Cspan2, created by americas table Collision Company as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider