Good afternoon. I will speak and then bill dorn from fema and then well have meryl paul thomas. Commander of the United States coast guard hell speak today and introduce himself to the folks of louise say in the. Theres five parishes. Parishes. Did speak with the administrator of fema earlier this morninging where he confirmed the president did sign the declaration upon our request and obviously if we need to and the situation warrants we half can add additional parishes and we do have a long way to go in this particular storm. As we told you all and the folks of louisiana last week this is going to play out over several days. Thats whats happening. The storm is more less stationary. This is actually moving towards the east in our direction. That makes this obviously a dangerous situation for our state especially those people on the western portion of our state. While the Tropical Storm is finish ed finished it will remain a Tropical Storm and will drop a lot of rain. We believe this will remain a rain event not wind event from the storm but theres a number of tornadoes as relationship to this storm as well so please take those tornado watches and warnings very seriously. We expect the storm will drift slightly to the east over in the next two or three days and slowly move north and slightly towards the east and somewhere around the bend between toledo bend and shreveport it will cross over in the state of louisiana. It will drop a lot of rain the entire time and it moves further east well expect those rain bands will also move further east and so in all likelihood the worse is yet to come for us in louisiana. Weve had more than our fair share of afternoon thunderstorms throughout the summer and the rain had saturated the ground before this event ever started. Specifically with respect to southwest louisiana so theyre anticipating ten to 15 inches of additional rain in addition to that the storm search forecast has gone up to between one to three feet above ground level. Where that impacts us most not just in low lying areas where thats enough to cover a road but it will prevent the rivers from draining the way we want them too so that rain water gets out of peoples businesses and homes and off their property and into the gulf where we want it to go. There is an increase of tornadoes and theres been many suspected and confirmed around southwest we look for that to continue. Cameron parish is mandatory evacuation and largely thats because water that is over topping roads. One of the things that i want to say again and we say it in all of these natural disasters that relate, that result in flooding. Please dont drivethru any standing water if you dont know the depth and dont know its safe for you to do so. That is a very dangerous thing to do and weve seen that play out now in texas where that was responsible for at least one fatality over there as well. Speaking of texas we do have 40 members of the wildlife and fish ry with vessels pursuant to search and rescue. One team often was there yesterday and they partner up with their counter parts in texas and the fact that 700 rescues yesterday. Last night there were 20 individuals in the parish and 8 of them had come from texas so we want to be the best neighbor we can be to texas while at the same time we do what we have to make sure were prepared for this disaster as it unfolds in louisiana so we stand ready to provide provided assets across the state in preparation in the rain events that we expect to happen over in the next several. Ill ask people to Pay Attention to this storm. Go to 511 l. A. Org. To get the latest information on the emergency itself go to emergency dot l. A. Gov. And then looking forward both as it relates to louisiana and perhaps texas i want people to go to volunteer louisiana dot. Govlouisiana. Gov. This is an effort that will be presided over relating to any disaster damage here in louisiana but also with respect to texas. One of the things were hearing from our friends in texas that they are very much still in the response mode doing search and rescue. Now is not the time for people in uncoordinated fashion to drive into texas because you can cause more of a problem than you will be of assistance over there. We want to organize the efforts here in louisiana. There will come a time where there will be a response to recovery and theyll need all the things associated with recovery and we know we want to be as generous as they helped them numerous times over the last ten or 12 years. The Lieutenant Governor will try to make sure were responsive without causing problems from them in the process. There are a number of parishs with School Closings today. I think 12 announced tomorrow as well so people need to Pay Attention to that as we move forward. There are state Office Closures in vermilion and Jefferson Davis and allen in addition to cameron and others. At this point in time ill ask fema representative to come up followed by admiral paul thomas of the coast guard and then ill take questions and you can direct those questions to anyone that is here standing behind me as well. Thank you governor. Appreciate the partnership. As the governor said we have gotten an Emergency Declaration and state of texas. For the state of louisiana report strong see forts for harvey. Declaration makes available emergency protective measures in those parishes and cameron and jefferson, davis and vermilion and the state of louisiana. Fema is reposition Assistance Team has been here since august 23rd. Currently u. S. Coast guard and department of human and Health Service and state requested resources including shelter commodities have been pre positioned on standby and are already here in the state and fema has worked with Partnership Since the 14th. They continue to support ongoing Recovery Efforts from 2015 floods. We continue to follow instructions of the local officials as far as evacuations and continue to listen to those local officials they know best their communities. Still the dangerous storm are in areas effected by this. We have ready. Gov online to give preparedness tips to folks out there. Thank you. Admiral . Good afternoon im the commander of the coast guard district headquartered in new orleans serves the people of the gulf coast states and the river system. Coast guard is busy in texas supporting the federal response led by fema in that state but we have not lost our focus on the state of louisiana and im here today to meet with the governor to ensure were as prepared as possible to support it has 39 rotary and 7 aircraft Response Missions in louisiana if needed and four Shallow Water boat teams being pre positioned Southeastern Louisiana today to support if needed. Our coast guard teams have a long history of operating with response professionals here in lieu i kia. Were ready to serve the state together when the governor calls for us. Thank you. Thank you admiral. I want to finish up the prepared remarks saying what a Good Relationship weve had with our federal partners from fema with the coast guard and all others weve actually had fema folks hoover over the last weeks as we prepared for this particular storm and the communication the collaboration has paid off tremendously and we looking forward to continue working with them as well. Yes, sir. Has there been a request from the state of texas or houston . No and we have specifically made sure that they know through the director of the texas governors office. Homeland security that we are prepared to accept folks from texas in our shelters. I can tell you going into the storm, their thoughts were they would move their evacuees north if they change their mind well be willing to shelter texas residents in louisiana. Ready in or sdwra many the idea is we would actually put them in the shreveport area because for transportation purposes its easier to get them acrossi 20 coming from tyler into louisiana and thats something that the department of children and Family Services is working on. Yes, maam . You spoke about the need for coordinated volunteer effort. Were seeing a lot and heard a lot about the mobilizing. Have you dont word from texas . No, well, we are work ging through our department of wildlife and fishery since secretary jack is talking directly to individuals with cajun navy we know about because the day june navy is you know it is somewhat organize but just about anybody that volunteers to go over and pull a boat considered themselves part of the cajun may Virgin Islands the routes in texas where they need search and rescue its very hard to figure out to get where youre needed so coordinating just the route to approach is very important, but when you get on the ground they want you checking in so they know who you are and where youre going and they dont have a duplication of effort and that youre not in the way. We have a lot of people that have tremendous experience and they do an awful lot of good work and they are in texas now and were just trying to make sure that they get there and theyre employed in a useful manner as possible and thats why were working that through jack. Any flood damage in louisiana . We do not have reports of flood damaged homes yet in louisiana but we have streets that are impossible. I have a hard time believeing we have as many streets closed as we do without having some damage out there but the damage reports thus far have not been significant as it relates to structures. But we do expect thats going to get worse overtime as the rain continues to come over the next three days especially and when the storm actually does start to track north that rain will fall in the same river system and then has to flow back south again so we do think that is a likelihood going forward. Generally speaking ill let general curtis come up and answer specifically but high water vehicles and vessels have been staged across louisiana in the areas with the most rainfall and flooding over in the last several days. He continues to refine that and especially as we look at potential flooding going north, starting wednesday when that storm system starts moving in that direction but those high water vehicles and vessels not just from the National Guard and wildlife and fisheries have 15 teams still. So thats 150 vessels available. Almost that many more with the Fire Marshalls Office as well so we have significant assets here but general curtis you want to talk about your station . Thank you, governor. Our focus really up to today has been Southeast Louisiana. We have numerous vehicles and boats in that area and weve been focused in new orleans based on the they get another rain and capacity of the pump so we have high water vehicles there. What i directed the guard to do this morning is start positioning over in the west boundary of louisiana and on into shreveport so as the storm moves that way we will have people with boats in position ready to respond to the local leaderships need. To deplay . I know we have soldiers with trucks and boots that were waiting for the leadership in that area to tell them to move forward and start doing evacuations but im not aware of any at this point. Request from the governor of texas to help ive been in contact with the last four or five days and they have not ask us for specific asset because we need to keep them here in case we need to respond but based on the experience that weve had since katrina forward we have had been assisting them with Planning Efforts to understand the magnitude of whats affecting the houston area. I will tell you that the National Guard bureau we have been assisting them with planing so that as we look at other states capabilities outside the two effected states what they may be able to bring forward. Talking border magnitude. 10 20, 30,000 soldiers with capability to come forward for the governor in texas and edwards if needed. Yes, sir. If louisiana is spared. When were comfortable that we made it through this, ive offered the governor has offered anything we have to move to texas to assist them. You activated troop . So as we speak right now weve got about 100 on stayed active duty. The governor gave us authority to go up to 350. Based on the threat of the storm well increase or provide him recommendations how to increase or stage as the storm unfolds and we understand the threat. General curtis based on the flooding were seeing video wise out of the houston area, are they talking with all of you about doortodoor searches ultimately in new orleans and such in i dont know that theyve gotten into that detail yet. You know the main thing is the big search and rescue both air which the coast guard is heavily engaged in right now. I think you see more military assets out there and the high water vehicles in boats to do the large scale evacuation and then you once you get out of the extremist life saving measures then you get back into the doortodoor searchs with Fire Departments and the National Guards to do to have doortodoor searches. Yes, maam. Hi. Are we still concerned about new orleans . Well when you say you said less concerned . Yeah. Well look. The forecast for Southeast Louisiana for the rest of the week is total between five and ten inches of rain. The largest rainfall there is expected wednesday and tapers off thursday and friday. At the same time we do know that the pumping capacity and electric generation capacity is improving on a daily basis so were concerned but certainly not panic edked as of right now we feel like things well in hand and of course as the storm moves further to the east those rain bans will move further to the east as well. Now whether they get all the way to new orleans, i mean we certainly dont know but thats part of that weekly forecast of rain that we can expect. Yes, sir . As far as i mean i know we got to federal government offering 75 percent. How much to between the federal government and the Trump Administration . Its been good throughout. We actually had the opportunity to have the fema administrator here within the last couple of weeks so that and Tony Robinson the fema region six administrator here for several days as well so we can have conversations about general preparedness and the way we would Work Together and i think its paying dividends for us. The president certainly signed our requests in a timely fashion. We submitted it last evening around