PRESS RELEASE Governor Jindal's Afternoon Update on Hurricane Gustav Preparedness Efforts
Governor Jindal said, "Hurricane Gustav is a Category 3 storm, but is only 15 miles-per-hour below Category 4 level. We will be experiencing tropical storm force winds to begin as early as late this evening. Currently, the National Hurricane Center predicts there is only a small window for intensification, which is good news, but could change track at any point. Governor Jindal said, "If the storm track remains perfectly on course as predicted by the Hurricane Center, it could slow down and lose half of its power as it moves through Louisiana in the first 12 hours, which means we will see up to around 10 inches of rain even in central Louisiana." Governor Jindal added that all 64 parishes in the state have now declared a state of emergency. In addition to yesterday's parish evacuations, Lafayette has issued a voluntary evacuation order today, Acadia reports that 1/3 of their population has evacuated, Jefferson Parish reports that they are 80 to 90 percent evacuated, and the National Guard has assisted 4,500 residents out of Jefferson Parish. More than 14,930 residents have been evacuated out of New Orleans, the Houma area reported that they have evacuated all their nursing homes and homebound residents, and with FEMA assistance, 2 trains of more than 2,000 people have been evacuated from New Orleans. FEMA has also coordinated 22 flights of more than 2,240 people to shelters in six other states to assist in evacuation efforts. The Governor said he spoke to President Bush this morning and that he agreed to activate Title 32, which activates federal funding for National Guard units in other states, instead of just relying on federal reimbursement. The Governor said he has also spoken to Senator McCain, Senator Biden, and Senator Obama, who called for updates on the storm. Additionally, the Governor spoke to Secretary Chertoff, FEMA Administrator David Paulison, and Commander of the US Northern Command Gen. Victor Renuart today on the state's federal assistance needs. Governor Jindal said he requested six to seven more DMAT teams to assist in medical special needs evacuation, and that the President also said he would provide aircraft support in the evacuation efforts to continue every 30 minutes. Governor Jindal said he also spoke to Texas Governor Rick Perry earlier this morning to thank him for their state's support by sending six C-130s needed to evacuate special needs patients from Lakefront Airport in New Orleans, in addition to his conversations with the Governors of Mississippi and Alabama. The Governor said Alabama has offered to shelter 10,000 more people in general shelter facilities. SPECIAL NEEDS SHELTERS UPDATE: Governor Jindal said the state is working with several states to identify shelters for medical special needs individuals, including 53,000 critical needs slot in eight states (more than 7,000 of which have already been filled – and the state continues to fill them at this time), including:
Currently, 84 out of 115 nursing homes have evacuated in Louisiana (27 with state assistance), and 27 hospitals have had full or partial evacuations. The state is continuing to move special needs patients out of Lafourche Airport, Thibodaux Regional Airport, and Patterson Airport. Federal support flights are assisting in medical evacuations by taking patients to out-of-state locations, including Little Rock, Oklahoma City, Dallas and Albuquerque. Texas is helping to take patients to a medical shelter in Austin and Mississippi has also provided a C-17 aircraft to assist the operation. Governor Jindal strongly encouraged those nursing homes in non-mandatory evacuation parishes to evacuate out of harm's way. NATIONAL GUARD UPDATE:
More than 2,000 Guard security/support forces have deployed to South Central and Southwest LA. 500 guardsmen are assisting New Orleans in support of the city's citizen evacuation plan (including more than 400 bus drivers & over 100 guardsmen are assisting the city with movement control of citizens and evacuation busses). There are 1,800 additional troops from other states en route, and the Guard is expecting 16,000 additional troops to arrive in next 24-48 hours. The Guard has requested support for their security operations through the EMAC (over 1500 guardsmen):
Guard aviation EMAC requests from 12 states will arrive prior to landfall (total of 26 aircraft) :
Aviation EMAC requests from 3 states will arrive post landfall (total of 12 aircraft):
Guard has also made EMAC requests for 88 additional guardsmen:
The Guard is currently positioning evacuation helicopters in LaFourche, Morgan City, New Iberia, and St James to conduct emergency medical evacuations as needed to assist parishes. Additionally, nine LANG teams (190 guardsmen) are supporting Contra Flow missions in coordination with the Louisiana State Police in Souteast, Southwest and South Central LA. CONTRA-FLOW UPDATE: Governor Jindal said the Louisiana State Police is continuing contraflow operations in both southeast and southwest Louisiana at this time. Their operations began shortly after 4:00 AM this morning and at this time they expect to be done before midnight. State Police, in conjunction with officials in Mississippi, are continuously monitoring the contraflow operation in both states and making minor adjustments as necessary to continue uninterrupted traffic flow on all major highways. As of the Governor's briefing, they had stopped contraflow on I-49 because the traffic was light. SEARCH AND RESCUE EFFORT UPDATE: Governor Jindal said the Department of Wildlife has filed an EMAC request for 200 additional officers to support their mission, an increase over the 200 requested yesterday to assist in search and rescue operations. The Department is working with FEMA to expedite this request the units are moved quickly. Additionally, 100 swiftwater units are set to come in from Los Angeles County, CA; and TX sent 52 search and rescue team members here this morning. Department of Corrections UPDATE: Governor Jindal closed by encouraging all media and residents to visit www.emergency.louisiana.gov for most updated information on storm. ###
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