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 and we have thousands and thousands of our fellow citizens whose lives are upside down because their 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 electrical power, Water Service or you name it and we have a lot of work to do but we are in better shape today than might have been the case and so we have a lot to be thankful for as well. As you know by now im sure hurricane laura made landfall as predicted last night or i should say this morning at 1 00 a. M. As a very strong category four hurricane with sustained winds of 150 miles per hour. This was most powerful storm to ever make landfall in louisiana and it is still a powerful storm that is in the state of lou
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.
Thank you all again for coming back today and for tuning in, and i do know that these daily briefings can get tedious, and the information, much of it, sounds the same, so people may start to tune it out, but i can tell you the situation is changing, it is evolving, and the information we are putting out is important. Just because the social distancing and hygiene guidance and the stay at home order stays in place after day doesnt mean we shouldnt talk about those things because that will be the key to success in trying to get through this Public Health emergency with the fewest amount of cases and certainly the lowest death toll. I want to think the doctor for being with us today. He has been a practicing physician in new orleans for decades although he does not look that old. Officere chief medical officer. Working with the state office of Public Health and it is great to have you here today. He will take some questions. He will have some prepared comments and take questions after i
Trying to get through this Public Health emergency with the fewest amount of cases and the lowest death total. Corey he thank dr. Bert. He has been a practicing physician for decades, although he does not look that old. He is the chief chief medical officer for dillard university. He is also working with the state of Public Health. And it is great to have him here today. He will take questions and have some prepared comments after i am finished. The doctory have from the apart department of health to take questions related to testing and Public Session other things. Dr. Hebert is here because we mentioned some disturbing statistics coming out of our analysis of the information we are getting, and that is while about 33 of the states population is africanamerican, over 70 of the deaths because of covid19 or among africanamericans. That is concerning to me and to others, and it is unacceptable. We want to better understand why that is and what we can contributed to do, and how we get rid
For being with me. We will be here to take any questions related to testing. I want to start by thanking all of the state and local first responders, everybody out there, who is working so very hard on this emergency. And i want to, again, thank our health care workers. All across the state of louisiana. Whether theyre doctors and nurses, respiratory therapists, you name it. A lot of really, really good work by selfless people has taken place across the state of louisiana. And certainly particularly down in the new orleans region. Last night, i requested a major disaster declaration for the state of louisiana from the federal government. So i directed that request to President Trump. In order that we might receive Additional Support for state and local agencies as we continue to combat the spread of the virus and deal with all of those individuals who actually have the disease, covid19. As we anticipated and as we stated and, quite sadly, the number of cases in louisiana continues to r