La. Gov. Edwards Requests Federal Declaration of Emergency in Advance of Hurricane Zeta

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana, Oct. 28 -- Gov. John Bel Edwards, D-Louisiana, issued the following news on Oct. 27:

Today, Gov. John Bel Edwards requested a pre-landfall Federal Declaration of Emergency in a letter to President Donald J. Trump in advance of Hurricane Zeta, which is forecast to make landfall along the Louisiana coast on Wednesday as a hurricane, making it the third such hurricane to make landfall in Louisiana since late August.

On Monday, Gov. Edwards declared a state of emergency for Hurricane Zeta, allowing the state to begin its preparations and to assist local governments as they respond.

"If the current track holds, Hurricane Zeta will be the third hurricane to make landfall in Louisiana in two months, and I am incredibly hopeful that President Trump will quickly approve my request for a federal emergency declaration, as he has done before," Gov. Edwards said. "We are already coordinating with our federal partners to respond to Zeta, as we have been since the start of the COVID pandemic and throughout the recovery from Hurricanes Laura and Delta. Louisianans along the coast and in the tracking cone should be making their final preparations today as Zeta will likely impact parts of the state tomorrow."

Click here to read Gov. Edwards' letter to the President: https://gov.louisiana.gov/assets/docs/Trump-Ltr-2020-10-27-Major-Disaster-Declaration-Request.pdf

Yesterday, Gov. Edwards declared a state of emergency in advance of Hurricane Zeta. Click here to read that declaration: https://gov.louisiana.gov/assets/Proclamations/2020/144-JBE2020-State-of-Emergency-TS-Zeta.pdf

The Governor's office will share updates about Hurricane Zeta through its texting system. People may opt-in by texting LAGOV to 67283 and sign up for phone calls by going to Smart911.