300-dollar federally boosted unemployment benefits resume tomorrow with a 900-dollar check that will be retroactive to August 1st. Matt Doyle has the story.
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Governor Edwards says Phase Two of the economic reopening will likely be extended. Kevin Barnhart has the story.
cut 2 (30) “I’m Kevin Barnhart”
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Hurricane Laura is expected to strike southwest Louisiana as a Category Three storm. There’s a mandatory evacuation for Cameron Parish, but Cameron’s assistant emergency preparedness director Ashley Buller says many people started leaving last weekend
The National Hurricane Center is forecasting a storm surge as much as 13 feet from Sea Rim State Park in Texas to Intracoastal City, Louisiana. The highest surge will be near and east of center. Buller says storm surge is their number one concern…
In 2005, Hurricane Rita flattened nearly every structure in Cameron Parish. Buller says that storm is still fresh in many peoples’ minds
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300 dollar federally enhanced unemployment benefits will be sent out to qualifying unemployment recipients tomorrow.
Louisiana Workforce Commission Secretary Ava Dejoie says this first payment is retroactive to August 1st, so expect a much larger than usual payment Wednesday.
Starting next week the enhanced benefits will only be an additional 300 dollars a week on top of what you already receive from the state.
Dejoie says over 400,000 people will receive the benefits, but about 87,000 unemployed will not qualify, most of them because they don’t earn enough in-state benefits.
Dejoie says that decision was a Labor Department ruling, and not a state decision.
About 20,000 receive over 100 a week from the state but are ineligible because they did not mark down that their unemployment is COVID-related. Dejoie says it could be an oversight on their part.
The benefits are being funded by FEMA emergency response dollars, and Governor Edwards projects that pot will last about five to six weeks.
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Governor Edwards says he will likely extend Phase 2 restrictions but the exact details are not known. The current Phase 2 order expires Friday and it keeps most businesses at 50% capacity, bars closed, and masks mandatory. Edwards says the start of a new school year is one reason for this decision…
Edwards says the state will not have the same level of information and data they normally would due to the impact of Marco and Laura on drive-up testing facilities and adds emergency response could result in more viral spread.
Cut 10 (08) “…of super spread.”
Edwards says while the state has seen modest gains, the White House Coronavirus Task Force still believes Louisiana’s COVID metrics are a major concern.
Cut 11 (12) “…expressed some concerns.”
The current order is set to expire on Friday. Edwards first confirmed the decision during an interview with Brian Haldane on Baton Rouge radio station Talk 107.3.
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Hurricane Laura is moving through the Gulf of Mexico with its eyes set for southwest Louisiana, southeast Texas coastline. State Climatologist Barry Keim says Laura is expected to ramp up to a category three storm with maximum sustained winds of 115 miles per hour…
A hurricane warning is in effect San Luis Pass, Texas to Intracoastal City, Louisiana. Hurricane conditions are expected to arrive in this area tomorrow night and Keim says that’s when the heavy rainfall will start as well…
Cut 13 (09) “…southwestern Louisiana”
Keim says wind speeds at landfall are expected to surpass 100-miles per hour at landfall. The storm is expected to keep moving north at landfall and remain a tropical storm Thursday night in northwest Louisiana.