Gov. Edwards Addresses Disturbance In Gulf Of Mexico

Governor John Bel Edwards says state officials are monitoring Tropical Depression Harvey in the Gulf of Mexico and GOHSEP has activated its crisis action team. He says the storm could hit Southeast Texas sometime Friday as a Category 1 hurricane, so Southwest Louisiana should be on alert.

"But really all over Louisiana because we don't know yet how widespread the rain bands are going to be and how widespread the different wind effects will be."

Edwards made the comments following a meeting with new FEMA Administrator Brock Long and New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu. Edwards says there is good news everyday about New Orleans’ increasing pump capacity and power generation when it comes to dealing with potential flooding in the city.

"Obviously, there is a window of time where there is more vulnerability than we would like but there is no reason for the people of New Orleans to be panicked at all."

Landrieu says the city, while improving mitigation efforts daily, will still be vulnerable until a target date of around September 4th.

"After that, based on the engineering work that's done we should be not only back to where we were but actually in a better circumstance but that is a day to day thing."