Louisiana governor, officials talk about Monday storms that left 3 dead
BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) -- Gov. Jeff Landry and the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness director discussed the severe weather that hit Louisiana Monday night.
GOHSEP Director Jacques Thibodeaux said during a noon Tuesday, May 14 press conference that they are urging the public to follow updates from local officials. He said the public should also be careful when running generators or other power equipment during storm cleanup.
Thibodeaux said 16 parishes were impacted by the weather and the maximum number of power outages was 160,000. As of noon Tuesday there are about 53,000 people without power and the number is "getting better by the hour," Thibodeaux said.
"Currently, the National Weather Service is assessing the affected areas to determine whether the damage was caused by the straight-line winds or frenetic activity. We, as Jacque said, are working with all 16 affected parishes and their OEPs so that we can get the resources needed to those affected parishes and those that were affected the most," Landry said. "We would again urge any of the municipalities that may have incurred any damage to work through their parish or OEPs and then move that information over to the state office here at GOSHEP."
The Louisiana Department of Health confirmed that two women and an unborn baby died as a result of the storms.
“Our thoughts this morning are with the families of the two victims who died as a result of the storms. We will use the damage reports from our local partners to determine a recovery path going forward," Thibodeaux said.
GOSHEP said the storms caused damage to trees and power lines. It also caused flash flooding and other problems in the affected areas.