Reporter . [inaudible]. Texas Governor Greg Abbott in response from hurricane after the category storm came to shore about 1 00 oclock this morning. In neighboring louisiana. About 35 miles from the texas border paredes joined by senators and ted cruz. [background sounds]. I want to thank everybody for gathering with us here today. Especially want to thank senators cornyn and chris for taking the time to join us today and being part of the Aerial Overview that we were able to take to get a better assessment of the entire region. As well as to work with here on the ground. Also want to thank the two local area congressman, and the congressman, as well as the governor dan patrick. In the state senator nichols, and local representatives stephen think all of them for being here. Of particular want to thank the county judge. Thank you for hosting us and for being with us. It is been a pleasure. And working with you through this pretty so thank you for being here. Of course. And mayor, i want to thank you for being here. And i want to express a special thank you to the admiral. For providing the coast guard that provided a very helpful tour. Of the entire region. As we flew around the region and about 1000 feet. We could see the way that the storm impacted different areas differently. And i will be candid with you, all the areas that we saw, the worst that we saw was orange. It seemed like the most significant damage and i was able to observe both from the sky as well as on the ground, in this region is an orange. You saw more rooftops ripped o off. You saw more shingles missing. You saw more trees down. We saw the big pieces of Steel Framing wrapped around some trees. You saw some roads there were still innovated. Underwater and impassable at this particular time. That is just what i was able to see from the sky from driving down the street. And obviously people get closer and look at buildings or homes, there will be additional damages that the people have to deal with. As i ask everybody, how they feel about working their way through this hurricane, everyone pretty much as the same frame. And that is we dodged a bullet. It can the men are course. We were anticipating, that there will be a storm surge could very easily exceed 10 feet. I was told oreo the storm surge was about 3 feet pretty now 7foot differential makes all of the difference. We would not be gathering right now had we seen a 10foot or higher foot storm surge. Like what was anticipated earlier. So when you consider the magnitude of the damage that could have occurred here, we did dodge a bullet. And then of course doesnt help those whose homes had been hit. Those businesses who had been hidden for this people, we want them to know that we are already working on a process of helping them rebuild. Theres a very important person here. Tony robinson. Hes with fema. He works very collaboratively with the administration for the time of Hurricane Harvey all of the way through today. Tony we thank you in your leadership. I was selling both pecan or, they had a or administrator of fema. Until the president. Never before in my experiences governor have i ever seen in administration that responded to swiftly and effectively as with President Trump and administrator has done. Some details i want to get into is as you may want to clarify, we declared a disaster and 62 counties. The president has similarly declared a disaster in each of those counties. Hurricane laura made landfall near cameron, louisiana about 3s louisiana border. At 1 00 a. M. As a category four storm hurricane. When does it exceeded 80 mileperhour the storm surge was an estimated 2. 5 3. 5 feet and the pastorate. National wildlife refuge at about 34 Miles Per Hour sustained winds with gusts up to almost 90 Miles Per Hour. It was 38 miles per our was sustained wins. Orange county airport, when does sustained a 20mile or 29 miles per our with gusts up to 54 miles. And beaumont regional airport, 59 Miles Per Hour sustained with gusts up to 66 Miles Per Hour. Tree damage has been reported in Jefferson County as well as the other surrounding counties around this region. I hear from some reports, that we would expect to see even greater tree damage as you go further up north into east texas. Other damage reports will be coming in during the course of the day. We do have teams in this region already. Whether beat search and rescue teams, Law Enforcement teams, the national guard. Assessment teams, that are covering every city every county every region to make damage assessments but also to go about the process, to determine the safety of everybody who lives in this area. So do want to get one confirmation. They are currently closed. In texas that is not true. Is on the on the louisiana side of the border. We are all of the way through pretty. I ten is open. All the way to the border. And by the way and it did have the opportunity to speak with governor of louisiana this morning. He was his typical jovial self and was ready to be offering help to texas. So he is in good spirits. Another people of louisiana are dealing with challenges themselves right now. In texas, stand ready to help our neighbors over and louisiana. Several state agencies including the Texas Department of Health Public safety, that texas parks and as well as the Texas Military division are scouring every aspect, every zone of all of the affected areas to provide search and rescue capabilities is needed. We will continue the process until we know for a fact there is no person was unaccounted for. As of now, they remain more than 160,000 Power Outages throughout the entire texas region affected by hurricane laura. We have almost any phone hundred people. Your providing childhood throughout the states with more than 3000 hotel rooms, chattering evacuees. Sheltering operations are occurring bear county, ellis county, Travis County in harris county. Those efforts will continue as long as needed and one very important point here is one thing that saved lives was evacuation orders that were made by local officials rate. It was so important for the local residents who he those local warnings. And by people getting out of the harms way and an early time, that is one of the reasons why the loss of life was minimized. As well as the damages. I do just as people listen to local officials and knowing when to evacuate, its equally important to listen to the local officials about when it is a good time to return. If you have no power, and other challenges on the ground, there will be different parts of a particular county that will have Different Levels of ability. So is very important to continue to listen to the local officials about when is the best time to go back as well as one of the challenges may be existing in a particular county. One thing that we are continuing to look at, as we stand ready to watch and respond to potential flash flooding as well as potential tornadoes as the storms continue to go through the exiting process of exiting. I have one report unconfirmed about a death in sabine county. No that is completely unconfirmed. Among point is this. That is the only report that i received it all about any potential loss of life. If we make it through a category four hurricane that ripped through the coastline all of the way to the text, area, and we have been able to have minimal or perhaps no loss of life, that is a miracle. It shows that prayers were answered. So many people care so much about the neighbors and the preparations paid off. So i applaud the local officials for being so effective as they prepared the regions for the oncoming hurricane. I applaud what they were able to do to save lives in ways that led to saving lives in saving property. In will lead to a very quick recovery. One of those local officials pleasure county judge to whom i would like to turn the mic over to at this time. Governor thank you. We think we have dodged a bullet definitely fills what we feel here in Orange County as a whole. And about probably about 230 or 3 00 oclock this morning, there was probably held across texas, huge sigh of relief. This thing started going east. With a sigh of relief was also some sadness that it was going to our neighbors. We hate to see it go there. Were going to do all we can to help those folks just as they came over and they helped us. Louisiana helped us secure our folks over here and from the flooding. Thank you for your efforts in all of the stuff that you have done. Between us and what we need to hear and you responded extremely well to this cause. Thank you for that. In the state level, cecily important that whenever we answer those resources and respond to those resources, everybody, we had a all of the one standing behind his throughout this. Without the support, we cannot support our citizens which is now growth to actually giving them the support they need so that they can be safe and they did hed known warnings to evacuate. In of god to take a lot of that is the fact that our local city officials as well as the city mayors and managers, that we all Work Together. Our local counties, we have a good six county region that will Work Together in. So we put out evacuation orders in different orders that we do it as a team. And that consistent message goes across our Community Spread i think that is a huge benefit i think that helps the citizens understand what we are trying to do in a trusted. That was our calls we move through the storm and once we knew that we were going to get the search, then we start focusing on the wind damage what would it was going to do. We did not get the 140mile an hour wind but we still got enough went we have damage. This morning our assessment teams would help us as the god daily to get out safely. Theyre out first goal to get out of the runways find out what clearance we need together is because many of the people are going to want to get back into town. Back to the homes and businesses so they were doing that. We should have those reports in the so that we can assess. That is a twofold approach. Number one is that letter citizens come back safely is one thing cannot get hard in a hurricane. But we dont want to get her coming back here. We could see nothing arteries and stuff, some of those have not completely deep fall and yet so youve got to be careful moving around but we also know have a lot of assets here. We may not need better neighbors well. We want to be able to get them in essence me know we are clear here, we will have that ability for you to send those assets of their help our neighbors. They have always helped us. And again thank you for everything that youve done. Thank the city mayors and the managers throughout Orange County. Because without this, we Work Together. Without them, we come up with Good Solutions as a team. That is what we try to do pretty thank you. Of course. The mayor next. I would like to thank everyone for coming out. This is been a tremendous show of support. From all of the representatives from all of the senders, from all of the different organizations across the state of texas. This is truly a remarkable situation that is been not one plus of life for the city of orange and surrounding counties. And so i want to think my Emergency Management coordinator. Our fire to come our police chief, our manager, all the city staff are working diligently to evacuate. Its not always about policies and procedures. It is about loving people and letting them where they are for who they are. And this will be sent for peer in the city orange texas. I want to thank you governor for your support. Its definitely a to meet you. I look forward to seeing and working with you in the near future. God bless you all for your support. Thank you mayor. Judge we celebrate, this wonderful news that we dodged a bullet friend will be know this will be the last one. One of the things that i would like to think that distinguishes texas from the rest of the country when they experience a national disaster, the coordination a different parts of the government. Everybody at the state and local and federal levels. Texas congressional delegation is working. One of the rules of them than i go by his five piece. Prior pressurization practice because you had a lot of practice. But i just want to congratulate you and the Commissioners Court and stepping up on this project and senator chris in the texas get delegation. Has worked on enhance storm surge system in this part of the state. Theres a lot of attention given to the arctic which is very important. Certainly a priority. But we are one step closer as a result of your leadership in county commissioner stepping up the deal with an enhanced levee system that will cover 27 miles an Orange County. But also help some of the surrounding counties to and do with us in the future. So congratulations. Thank you. Now sen. Ted cruz. Thank you governor and i will say texans all across the state, texans here in Southeast Texas are breathing a giant sigh of relief right now. This hurricane couldve been much much worse. We just completed an aerial tour of the region. In the damages much more contained in prior hurricanes have been. Obviously our hearts and our having for our neighbors in louisiana where we toured some of the damages well pretty it is significantly greater. Given that the magnitude of the storm, it couldve been so much worse. Several whole lot of prayers that were lifted out across texas and a whole other prayers across the country and we saw prayers being answered. We also saw testament to the leadership we have in the state, the local level in the federal level. One of the realities the texas when it comes to hurricanes is this was not her first rodeo. We have experience with Natural Disaster and at this point, we have county judges and mayors and state officials and federal officials who have come together and dealt with tragedy from Hurricane Harvey to milton to rita to ike. We have seen the devastation that can come from National Disasters and we are grateful that this one did not bring the same level of magnitude. One of the reasons we limit some of the damages because we have such terrific cooperation at the local level, the state level, the federal level. All of us have been talking to each other, talking to the governor repeatedly. Talking to the white house yesterday. Talk to the secretary of Homeland Security pretty that the federal government and state and local all working handinhand. And for those who were impacted by this, the weepy resources and support and also from the community. From the churches, charity but i gotta say at this point, every time we face a disaster or even disaster, im inspired to see a texan step up to help each other print out texans, help their neighbors, help them out of harms way, help clean up the mess and help them get back on their feet. And judge, it is powerful to hear but exactly the texas spirit that even though there folks hurting here, one of the first thought is we are going to help our neighbors in louisiana. Because that is who we are as a state. That is who we are as a nation. Thank you. United states congress, local. Thank you governor. I really appreciated. Thank you for being here. His commissioners, our mayors here over in georgetown have done a bang up job trait just wont be the first time ive worked with Tony Robinson either. Everybody in this room that is a hurricane veteran, raise your hands. A. [laughter] or Law Enforcement, our First Responders, i just want to say thank you. It has been something that people only back when they say you have it on survivable 20foot storm surge and you have a 150 mileperhour winds. At category four. A lot of people evacuate. I evacuated and got out late last night. Came in this morning. And i can tell you, it was ver very i cant say i take great pleasure in looking i saw a lot of roofs off. From what it would heat we have seen in the past, we have definitely dodged a ebola. So i just want to say thank you. For you being here. Thank you to all the folks who have worked hard. We really appreciate it and god bless. I have a lot of kinfolk. [laughter] were over across the river. They come over here and help this numbers and numbers of times. This is an opportunity for us to go over and help them. Brandy serving lunch . [laughter] welt my wife knows how to cook that stuff i guarantee. We will have that range. Will bring up your neighboring congressman, randy weber. Will thank you governor. I dont have a lot to add. Weve got district 14 to the east. On since brian is doing lunch and you were all invited. [laughter] i just want to make that clear. We need a name for a great texas spirit. We have the cajun navy command before. Too that was an embodiment of the spirit of neighbors helping neighbors. In fact i coined the frames back than they did things that we did need to be done we called it cajun area. [laughter] we need a place in texas whether its texas tough folks. My hat is off to all of you. Our great governor, our great center, our great delegation come together. Fema, locals people, cities, i will tell you what. My first hurricane is a 1961, it was hurricane carla. I was eight years old. And i have been through a lot of hurricanes. I have never seen this much coordination. I have never seen this much fema help. Thank you tony for jumping in. The president being ready to jump in for the governor working with the president , with the locals. Weve got it going on in texas. We know how to handle these hurricanes. Lord help relist think we dont need any more practice. For all of our First Responders we think the world of you all. We really love being in texas, we really love whats happening right here right now because of the love poured out from the help we are goi