BATON ROUGE, La. — For the sixth time this year, Gov. John Bel Edwards stepped up to a podium in Baton Rouge with a dire forecast for Louisiana: a hurricane or tropical storm expected to strike the state within the week.
At a press conference announcing a state of emergency for the state Tuesday, Edwards assured residents that the nearly half-dozen storms before Hurricane Delta this year have given state officials ample opportunity to set up protective measures.
The infrastructure "remains in place in terms of sandbags and super sacks," he said. As the cone narrows, those resources will be moved to where they will be needed.
"All of that's ongoing as we speak," he said.
But even with that preparation, Delta appears to be on track as one of the stronger storms of 2020 to hit Louisiana. As it enters the Gulf of Mexico, the fast-moving storm has quickly strengthened over a 36-hour period to a Category 4 Hurricane.
Benjamin Schott, the Meteorologist-In-Charge of the National Weather Service's New Orleans branch, echoed the governor's storm warnings.
"It is going to be a major hurricane," Schott said. "The impacts of Delta, when it comes onshore, will be significant for Louisiana."
Because the storm is still well south of the southern U.S. coast, there is major uncertainty in the path it will take. Schott said his team expects much of that uncertainty to go away by Thursday, leaving a clearer picture of the hurricane's likely path through Louisiana.,
But he warned that anybody who is waiting to see where the hurricane will land before preparing or checking their supplies is putting themselves at risk.
"Your window to prepare starts to close on Friday. The window will close here in just a few days," he said.
The earliest the storm could hit is Friday morning, but it could make landfall as late as Saturday morning if it begins to slow in the Gulf.
The storm's speed is actually a blessing in disguise, Schott said, because it means there is a lower chance of Delta lingering and dumping catastrophic amounts of rain.
Even with that, areas in the vicinity of the storm could see four to six inches.
"If you get that in a short timeframe, and you get one of the heavier bands, that amount could double," he said.
Edwards said the storm's speed meant it was less likely to force protected areas such as New Orleans to evacuate.
"We do not anticipate the evacuation of huge numbers of people," he said.
Low-lying areas outside levee protection, such as the Venetian Isles or lower Plaquemines Parish, will likely see some evacuation orders, but residents in those areas are historically prepared to leave -- or hunker down for the possibility of power and service outages -- during severe weather.
But just as Edwards had gone to the podium to brief members of the press on the state's plans almost half a dozen times before over the course of 2020's hurricane season, he has spoken even more often on another crisis facing the state: COVID-19.
The pandemic has complicated storm-prep efforts across the board, largely because of social distancing requirements that prevent agencies from using their traditional evacuation center plans.
Hurricane Laura, which devastated the western part of the state earlier in the season, forced 12,000 evacuees to nearby cities, with most settling in New Orleans hotels.
The hotel rooms, paid for by the state, are the best way to keep families apart during the pandemic.
Even as Delta's centerline continues to skirt just west of New Orleans, leaving the city on the eastern side of the storm -- which is usually the "wet" or rainy side -- there are still more than 6,600 evacuees from the Lake Charles area, spread across a handful of hotels.
Edwards said there was no plan as of Tuesday to evacuate those people a second time ahead of Delta.
Surveying the crowd of reporters and cameras streaming the conference, Edwards was frank in his assessment of the year:
"Look, I know that another hurricane, another challenge, another disaster is the last thing any one of us wanted to face this season," he said. "This season has been relentless, and in fact, since early March it just seems like one thing after another."
He then pushed back against the "storm fatigue" felt by many in the state who have been at the ready for a hurricane to strike.
"The fact of the matter is, we don't get to pick and choose," Edwards said. "This is the hand that we have been dealt. What we get to decide is how we play our hand."
But the coronavirus has also complicated the traditional power of the governor to declare and keep the state in a state of emergency.
The state legislature is currently in a special session aimed at tackling many of the issues facing Louisiana, including COVID restrictions and Edwards' use of emergency orders to extend restrictions related to the pandemic.
Several bills aimed at curbing the governor's authority related to crises facing the state are making their way through the Republican-controlled lawmaking bodies.
Some lawmakers, whom Edwards called a "minority of legislators," have been pushing for what is essentially the power to veto or cancel the governor's emergency coronavirus declaration.
With the storm raising the possibility of property damage and displacement, Edwards warned them against pursuing that political strategy.
"It's not a good idea to pursue that," he said. "It would be sheer lunacy to prematurely end the state of emergency."
Edwards vowed to fight any attempts to shift emergency decision-making power away from the governor's mansion as the person "constitutionally charged to take care of the people."
"I will surrender none of those tools because some people have an unrealistic idea about this public health emergency," he said.
More Stories:
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the new FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.
