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 louisiana that is continuing to cause damage and lifethreatening conditions including further loss of electricity. Before i get more deeply into lauras impact in louisiana i do want to discuss in particular a chlorine gas chemical fire in westlake that has resulted in us asking the citizens of westlake and moscow of to be cognizant of what is going on into shelter at home. Unfortunately, this, despite the heat they are experiencing shelter at home under those circumstances means they need to be on inside of their home with doors and windows closed and the air conditioning off if they are lucky enough to have electricity whether by generator or otherwise and please understand were doing everything we can to get that situation under control and put out that fire and to stop any [inaudible] and again, we had the state police and Fire Marshals Office here to answer specific questions about that. You may have seen some footage that shows the chemical fire in westlake that i just mentioned from the perspective of the lake and looking underneath the bridge and if you have seen that youve seen the isle of capri casino that is on the barge that obviously came loose during the storm and is wedged underneath the bridge and the bridge remains closed so that means [inaudible] is closed and that is until we can do an inspection to see what damage, if any, was caused by that barge. Obviously there may be additional directions from local officials in that area and we are encouraging everyone well, first of all this goes for everyone across the state to follow the directions that you are given by your local officials and officers of Emergency Preparedness but particularly in Westlake Lake charles areas Pay Attention to directions 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 and the center at the time was between tree port and rusted and the track of the storm was just slightly east of what had been forecasted and according to conversations that i had with ken graham 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 and so that very strong north wind or i should say southwind was never pushing that water of the ship channel and it had been forecasted to track further to the west which wouldve pushed much more water up or whatever the reason is we are very thankful because there is widespread and very significant damage because of the winds and some because of the rain and we are thankful we didnt get more storm surge than we did. Just about the entire state sought Tropical Storm force winds and everything except for extreme Southeast Louisiana and the north shore and that is how big and powerful us storm was. After i finished the press conference i will leave with many of the officials you see with you to join some local officials and lake charles and do an oversight over at least cameron and we believe Vermilion Parish is so we can put eyes on the damage. Please understand that right now we continue to be in an Immediate Response mode which is about lifesaving so certain rescue is ongoing right now, not just an extreme southwest louisiana but basically as that storm moved north we were putting people and assets behind that storm as soon as it was safe to do so to do search and rescue. We had 1500 individuals in the state standing by to do so to rescue about 400 pieces of equipment, hot water vehicles, most aircraft you name it, all of that has been coordinated and that certain rescue is ongoing right now so this today is about saving lives, moving people out of their homes if their homes are no longer safe and habitable and making sure that we get them taken care of and what that means in this covert environment is getting them into a non congregant shelter as soon as possible. The hotel rooms are a motel room and that is what we will be working on until such time is that is done then we will get down to the damages assessment and so forth. Suffice it to say for now theres an awful lot of work being done by a lot of good, dedicated Public Servants and we have our federal partners on the ground and we had people from other states who are here assisting search and rescue, you know the array or of state agencies that have been working at this and obviously we are 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 and i will have just mentioned that we sought Tropical Storm force winds and where we didnt and so the outages are concentrated where we did so baton rouge to new orleans to north shore not many outages but just off the entire west of the state has seen significant outages and the good news is we have more line crews pre position in louisiana than ever before but that is not to say that restoration of power will be done very quickly because we believe there was a tremendous damage done to the power infrastructure. It may take a while so we do as people to be as patient as you can be an understanding as you can be but understand we have more people who are addressing the situation more quickly than ever before. While they are out on the road restoring electricity and what were doing certain rescue and other response related to the fire and Different Things that we have seen now is not the time to go sightseeing. I am appealing to everybody in louisiana, dont get out on the road it is absolutely necessary for you to do that. Please stay home and be safe and we still have an awful lot of places where trees are down across the road where electrical lines are down across 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. Speaking on roads, some you cant even get on if you wanted to i will ask doctor shawn wilson now to come and give an update on the roads and highways of louisiana. Thank you, governor. Good afternoon, good morning and as most of you have probably seen on social media the isle of capri barge was actually dislodged from its dock and connected itself to our bridge and just got a text that the barge has been removed and we will commence the bridge inspection process to be a drone and contingent upon the chlorine incidents underway in that state of the bridge we will then complete the inspection with requires our inspectors to put eyes on the bridge and ensure that it is there and as we said before an unsafe bridge in louisiana is a closed bridge and we cant stress enough the young the importance of staying off the interstate, particularly in the case of the lake charles bridge. We also have live wires on it ten as well as on i 49 in alexandria louisiana and that is in addition to all of the debris as well as the vegetative land material that has been blown into our right away. All of the teams in our district are engaged in this process to clear and remove the debris and are bringing about 75 individuals from Southeast Louisiana over to southwest louisiana to assist that district that receives, not only personal family damage but also to the facilities at the departments so weve got field teams all over the western portion of our state from street port all the way down to lake charles and cameron and weve also activated our debris contracts and that is private contract relationship we have that we are bringing in 25 teams to remove debris off the state highway about five crews per parish for the immediate infected area but we do have debris contracts covering the entire state that will be in addition to what the staff is able to provide. We are seeing about 40 additional weatherrelated closures and i mentioned to the governor yesterday bridges are a blessing and a curse and that we have quite a few of them and quite a few that are critical bridges that have to be inspect before we allow you to cross and so i cant stress enough as we said 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 launchers and agencies. I remind all drivers to Pay Attention to 511 la. Or argie that is where youll get the latest and greatest around open highways and interstates which you may feel a social media and cars passing but we do make provisions for energy and other Energy Companies to get back and try to restore electricity so just because you see some movement doesnt mean its okay for you to drive. 511 la. Org is the best way to do it and get that information and then we are prepared to use our buses, coaches to provide loans to folks in the medical assistance where we have evacuated them but more importantly for the rescue and recovery of the southwest louisiana and other places where we have had damage done to the city bred with that governor i will be happy to take questions at the appropriate time. Thank you, sean. There are a couple of Silver Linings to this morning that i think we can all be grateful for. The first is that the strong storm surge did not materialize to the degree it had been forecasted and nine12 feet of storm surge is still a lot of storm surge and we have some gauges in cameron and paris that failed after registering 12 feet so we think there were some values higher than 12, probably one higher than 15 feet but that is a lot of storm surge but it is not the 20 feet we were told and then not only was that not the initial surge that came up on the coast the storm never tracked west across the ship channel. All of those things helped tremendously. So, the water damage was less than anticipated and hopefully that means the homes that were damaged can be made habitable and safe and secure much more quickly and cheaply than would otherwise have been the case and people dont have to shelter at all and in some cases or wont have to shelter for very long and another piece of good news is that despite the strength of that storm and how long it lasted we never lost mitigations with the affected parishes. That is the first time that has ever happened and i think that is a result of the investments we have made over the years, really since Hurricane Katrina so that we have stateoftheart and redundant communities and systems in place and also made it not only easier but faster for us to discuss what was going on and begin assessing their needs and directing the assistance just as soon as it was safe to do that. We talked about how blessed we have been and have been in the grand scheme of things but we have learned of four deaths in louisiana 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. The four fatalities that i am aware of happened in vernon and acadian. Im asking that we all lift up these families in prayer and im concerned that as we continue to go out and do primary and secondary search and rescue we will fine more fatalities and i hope not and i pray not but that is why we go out and do those certain rescues. I would remind people that even though storm surge was less than we anticipated the southerly flow still continues and in fact, that outer ban basically reaches down into Corpus Christi, texas and makes a large counterclockwise notation pushing additional water still and we are getting reports now in vermillion and parishes east of there that water continues to rise and not as quickly as we feared but what i am trying to tell people is in your particular area you may not have seen water is the highest debt as it relates to laura so be cognizant of that but with more information on Coastal Water levels and what we will do to the water where we can and need to i will ask the cpra to come up and address you and on the backside of that how car will finish the prepared marks and then we will all take your questions. Thank you, governor. As the 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 will be caused by wind but i think its important for the public to understand that water levels across Coastal Louisiana are still at very high levels and particularly as the governor mentioned in vermillion parish in southwest Iberia Parish water levels continue to rise and additionally there is a strong wind cross southwest louisiana which does not allow for areas that experience heavy rainfall and heavy storm surge to drain quickly and additionally the strong southern wind allows for additional water to continue to stack up across coastal regions overstate pushing water further inland. One of the lessons that was learned from Hurricane Katrina was that just because a storm is passed does not mean that we are out of harms way and when you call after Hurricane Katrina the major damage that was caused around the greater new orleans area happened after the storm. Those of us at the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority are constantly monitoring water levels and will be performing assessments of our Flood Control structures across louisiana and will be assessing the impact of our coastal shorelines all the way to [inaudible]s parish. The storm focused on southwest louisiana and some of the outer bands are coming out of Corpus Christi and coming across the gulf of mexico right now and are headed straight for Southeast Louisiana. Just because you do not see a storm surge or heavy rainfall in south louisiana you need to pay close attention to those outer bands and the impact that will continue to have on Southeast Louisiana. We will continue to provide the coastal parishes the Emergency Operation personnel with the best available data that we have on water levels productions so they can fully inform coastal residents of the continued risk that they face across our coast. Thank you. With those vans that he just talks about we are much of louisiana, i should say, is under a Tornado Warning for the next couple of hours and this is something that has played out for about 24 hours and if your member here in the capital briefing yesterday we had numerous warnings that went out for potential tornadoes and i have to believe that we had some that probably formed and touched down overnight as it was dark and how do you know tornado damage from hurricane damage but it is something we need to Pay Attention to today. I want you to note the National Guard has more than 5400 guards activated and that continuing to build as a result of my authorization for full guard activation and we will use the National Guard in a variety of ways and as soon as we possibly can we will reengage them on covid testing, community testing, service site testing and working with our food banks as well as to continue to manage the warehouses we have for ppe and other materials. The National Guard has approximately 220 high vehicles and they are prepared to provide search and rescue support and again not just from southern louisiana but states falling in behind this states that as soon as it is safe to do so and that is already occurred up the western side of louisiana and there, almost 1 million liters of water, 500,000 vehicles and those are strategically placed throughout our state and ready to support our citizens. Wildlife and fisheries has 170 agents and votes staged and ready for search and rescue operations and they are engaged in that as we speak as well. I did want to report that last night secretary azar health and Human Services signed a Public Health emergency, declaration for louisiana and for texas but it provides greater flexibility relative to the medicaid, medicare programs with regulations that affect hospitals and Nursing Homes and other providers and it allows us the flexibility that we need to better serve people under emergency conditions and these are similar to waivers that we received back in 2016 and we can request additional waivers if we decide that we need them but this allows providers to do what they need to do in order to meet the demands of emergency but without worrying about whether there will be ineligible to receive reimbursement associated with the c