President Donald Trump has approved emergency measures for Hurricane Harvey in Louisiana, which will give the state government funding for all rescue and emergency efforts.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a statement from the White House Monday morning assuring the people of Louisiana as well as the nation that the president has declared an emergency in Louisiana calling for federal assistance to supplement the state through it’s tough times.
The full statement follows:
Today, President Donald J. Trump declared that an emergency exists in the State of Louisiana and ordered Federal assistance to supplement State, tribal, and local response efforts due to the emergency conditions resulting from Tropical Storm Harvey beginning on August 27, 2017, and continuing.
The President’s action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts. This action will help alleviate the hardship and suffering that the emergency has inflicted on the local population, and provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in the parishes of Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron, Jefferson Davis, and Vermillion.
Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency. Emergency protective measures, including direct Federal assistance, will be provided at 75 percent Federal funding.
Brock Long, Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Department of Homeland Security, named William J. Doran III as the Federal Coordinating Officer for Federal recovery operations in the affected areas.
JUST IN: Pres. Trump approves Louisiana emergency declaration in response to #Harvey https://t.co/L2ncYdFJdG pic.twitter.com/yetCNOhEiy
— ABC News (@ABC) August 28, 2017
The storm began as a Category 4 hurricane but stalled shortly after hitting southern Texas. The National Hurricane Center told reporters Saturday that a rain gauge near one of the smallest cities in the hurricane’s path recorded more than 16 inches of rain in less than 24 hours. Five deaths have been reported so far in and around Rockport, one of the cities hit the hardest.
Trump will travel to Texas on Tuesday to survey the damage Hurricane Harvey has continued to leave throughout the state.
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