BATON ROUGE, La. (WGNO) — On Tuesday, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards hosts a media briefing from Baton Rouge regarding Tropical Storm Nicholas as well as the state’s response to Hurricane Ida.
Gov. Edwards kicked off the press conference acknowledging President Joe Biden’s approval of his request for federal emergency declaration for Tropical Storm Nicholas. This authorizes FEMA to coordinate disaster relief efforts across all 64 parishes.
According to Gov. Edwards, this approval also allows the state to move federal personnel and assets in the state in order to respond to needs following Nicholas.
Gov. Edwards also showed gratitude toward FEMA and its commitment to Louisiana.
In reference to Nicholas, which made landfall along the Texas coast as a category 1 hurricane on Tuesday morning and is now expected to track, stall and dissipate over Southwest Louisiana. However, rain can be expected from the storm throughout the remainder of the week and into the weekend, according to the National Weather Service.
As much as four to six inches or rainfall in Southwest and Central Louisiana and up to six to 10 inches in Southeast Louisiana.
“The bottom line is that much of Louisiana is projected to receive a lot of rain,” said Edwards. “That has already started. One of the most distressing parts of this, is the heaviest rain now is expected to fall in areas most devastated by Ida.”
The governor also warned of the risk of tornadoes and flash floods as result of the system moving into the state.
The state also recorded its 29th Ida-related death, including the latest occurring in St. Tammany Parish when a 70-year-old man died due to excessive heat during an extended power outage. The death marks the 13th heat-related fatality, while six are due to carbon monoxide poisoning.
Of the one million customers originally without power following Ida more than two weeks ago, 95,000 are still without electricity, The state is currently tracking 13,500 outages due to winds gusts attributed to Nicholas. Most of the latest outages registered are in areas already repaired after Ida.
As of Tuesday morning, there are still 1,130 individuals being sheltered across 18 locations in Louisiana due to Ida. The governor said, “We are well into the re-entry program for those parishes that are able to receive their evacuees, and every day we are moving busloads of individuals back to parishes – principally those parishes restored to power and water.”