Watch: Gov. Landry issues 'statewide declaration of emergency'

Governor. Just to let everyone know we've been tracking tropical storm Francine for the last week and a half. Right now. It is tropical storm Francine. We do anticipate that it will go to category one hurricane Francine by tomorrow at around 7 p.m. We also anticipate that at landfall based on the information we're getting from the National Hurricane Center as well as from Jay Grimes internally to go that it could possibly rise from a category one to category two storm. Most likely looking for is heavy rain along with localized flooding of 7 to 9 inches over a 12 hour period once the storm makes landfall and then the most dangerous aspect of the storm, if it approaches land and then slows down and pushes storm surge. The good news is the storm metrics have gone from movement of five miles an hour and the advisory at one o'clock to now 4 p.m. It's moving seven miles an hour. We do anticipate that this will be a mid afternoon to late night landfall. So that brings a specific element. We would ask everyone to stay off the roads and remain vigilant as you as you are at home, pay attention to what's going on. We also would like to remind everyone that you may experience power outages. And then one of the things most concerning to us in GOP is generator safety. So if you have a power outage, we remind you to use your generator in a proper fashion. If you have a question about how to use your generator, you can go to get a game plan.org and to follow the metrics of the storm. Along with all the road closures, you can go to virtual L A dot L a.gov. With that being said, I will now turn it over to the governor for his comments. Thank you. I want to thank both the insurance commissioner and the speaker of the house who joined us as well as the other members of the cabinet that are here today. Uh Today we um we issued a statewide declaration of emergency. Uh This will allow uh the um uh the resources will give us an opportunity for resources to begin to flow. I spoke to administrator Deanne Cresswell, uh the fema administrator earlier this morning. Uh We have requested uh a pre um landfall presidential declaration already. We want everyone in the state to be cautious and vigilant. As Jacque said, we don't want, we don't want to downplay this event, but we also do not want people to panic. We are putting out the best information possible. We have our state climatologist who is working 24 and seven. Pushing information about what he predicts is going to happen. Um With this, with this storm, uh we want everyone to go to the uh the hurricane preparation plans that they should have. Uh We've been putting P SAS out all summer long again. You can go to get a game plan.org. There's great information there as well. You have to know the risks for your area and listen to your local officials. We have already began initiating conference calls with all of our parish partners and state agencies. Tomorrow, we're going to have a unified command group meeting uh with the entire cabinet and statewide officials. The steps that we've already taken go E has been monitoring this storm development over the past eight days in conjunction again with our state climatologist Jay Grimes. They have begun conference calls with the National Weather service since Saturday con. We have been in constant communication with FEMA and region six. We began daily uh calls with all parishes and state agencies. Today, we activated the state EOC crisis action team today and began briefing the legislature tomorrow. We will, we will be at a level three activation which means that go se will go to a 24 hour emergency support function. And as I said, early, um earlier tomorrow, we're gonna have a unified command group meeting and a press conference right afterwards. I would now like to bring the insurance commissioner up uh to go over a couple of um, of pre uh preparation plans that people can make in order to ensure that they protect their property. Tim, thank you, Governor. And I'd like to echo what the governor and Jock said. You know, no matter what the forecast for the storm is, we need to take it seriously. Uh, with that regard, I'd like to ask everybody to be insurance ready. And by that, what I mean, I'm asking is you to read your insurance policy? Go over it again. Look at your declaration page, know what your insurance deductible. Your name Storm Deductible is. And at any time you have questions on your policy. Call your insurance agent, call your insurance company. Now is the time to get those questions answered. The other is prepare your property. Now if you haven't done so already, please trim back any limbs or trees that are close to your home, secure your furniture and your windows and doors. You don't want your furniture to become part of the debris that could damage your neighbors. Um take photos of your inventory, not just the inside, not just your contents, but also the exterior. It's a better way to document if you do have damage, make copies of your policy and your insurance, your insurance agent's phone number, your insurance company's phone number, take those with you and make that part of your evacuation plan. And then finally, once it is safe to return, if your home does have damage, make sure and document it, take more photos, but also mitigate any future damages, tarp, your, your roof, if you have damage there tarp or, or board up your windows, if you have damage so that you won't get water intrusion. And again, let's just, let's take this seriously and I appreciate the governor's opportunity to speak. Thank you. Thank you, Tim. Again, again, we want the citizens of the state not to panic but to be prepared. Uh These, these storms are storms that we uh unfortunately have been susceptible to. Uh each and every year that that hurricane season is upon us. We are going to be putting out information. Um Please again, go to get a game plan.org or stay tuned to your local officials and to local websites on the government officials in the parishes that you live and we will be holding a press conference uh again tomorrow about 1030 1130 after the UCG meeting, uh we'll open it up to any questions that y'all may have right now, Julie, can you guys tell us where you think that the main part of the state that might be affected by the storm is? And can you also, are you opening any public evacuation centers at this point? But we'll tell you right now, we're trying to monitor and understand exactly the impact that the storm is gonna have on the coastal parishes, right? So again, the places that the that the storm makes landfall, are going to be impacted the most, the heaviest. And depending upon the speed of the storm is gonna depend upon uh the uh the storm surge that um uh that will impact the coast. And so again, as we all know those people living along the coast, uh, should heed their local officials warnings uh and take uh the proper precautions necessary for high tides uh for extreme storm surges and for and, and for those areas that are gonna be impacted by a strong southerly wind as for storm shelters. Uh The store shelters are all based on a parish by parish basis. So the best mechanisms is exactly what the governor said, maintain contact with your local parish office of emergency preparedness and they're gonna tell you which shelters by parish would be open. I think we have and I think Jacque said that we have got 2323 declarations um of emergency by parishes. Uh I'm, I'm sure that that may expand by tomorrow when we'll have more information on the impact of this storm to the state of Louisiana any other? Yes, sir. Uh I know we mentioned uh getting insurance ready. But what other advice do you have people for getting ready? Now, we've seen um a couple of gas stations with extremely long lines of people filling up their cars, people getting ready for, with their generators. What other advice do you have for people? Look again, if you, if, if people would just go to get a gameplan.org that we took a tremendous amount of time and resources in order to put great information out that's readily available to people. Right on that website, they can, they can access it from their phones or their laptops or their ipads or their desktops uh inside of, get a game plan.org, you see, uh some um uh some advice as to preparing for a storm. And again, we don't want people to panic. Uh We have some time. That's why we're doing these press conferences today. Uh It's why we're continuing to push out information to the citizens of the state so that they understand that there is a storm coming. This, this is the level of risk that we have. These are the potential effects that are gonna be along the coast. And if you go to get a gay plan.org, I think you're gonna be just fine. So, is that the point where we just selling this website? This, this, this app? Is that, no, I think that uh no, because look, we have put a tremendous amount of resources and information on it. Uh Again, I could go here and go through that website with you. Uh But that would, that might take us 60 seconds in 12 hours. Everyone's gonna forget that if you remember, get a game plan.org and you go to that website. If you forget something there, you will find all of the information necessary to prepare your property, to prepare your home, to prepare yourself, uh, for this type of emergency. Chuck, is there anything you might have missed on it? It comes down to all the information that we have in the emergency management cycle we provide on the app to modernize ourselves as an agency everywhere across the board. When you tell someone how to work an app, they know exactly what to do. So that's why all the information is in a one stop shop. It's very good, very impressive. And as the governor said, we spend a lot of time tailoring it from the person's standpoint that's out there. Uh Just worried about what happens and we don't get any revenue over the clicks. We just save lives any more questions? I have a question. Have you had to evacuate any nursing homes or hospitals or medical? We have, I, I'm glad you asked that question. We were just in consultation with L DH. We will be issuing an executive order that will put in place um uh uh certain measures that nursing homes will be able to take in order to ensure that we don't have any negative impact on nursing homes along the coastal uh parishes. Yes, ma'am. Yes, that's an, an additional executive order. Uh that the surgeon general will be putting out. Uh We'll be signing, we're drafting it as we speak. He'll put it out and we'll make sure that y'all get, um, the information on it as soon as possible. One last question governor in when was sort of not really down, but as you and the commission to, you need to be ready to go. But if there's a mandatory evacuation and somebody does not adhere to it and invariably people are loath to get in that bump and run out of fuel. What is there a penalty for that? Look, here's what I'm gonna tell you. We are gonna continue to ask the people of, of, of Louisiana as a whole, uh, to pray, um, uh, for all of those first responders that are gonna have to, uh, be placed in harm's way because of this storm and, and, and it is important that people adhere to the warnings that their local officials put out by adhering to those warnings, then guess what, you end up saving lives as well. So we do not want people to get, um, uh, to wait to the last minute to get on the road to run out a few. Uh, we don't want long lines at the gas stations. We put out a lot of information throughout the summer, throughout hurricane season so that people can be prepared, the more prepared we are, the easier it is for us, uh, to address these types of storms. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for more. Ok. It can I say about that?