Louisiana will move to Phase Three tomorrow. Matt Doyle has the story.
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Hurricane Laura propelled swarms of mosquitos into pastures, leading to scores of dead cows and horses across southwest Louisiana. Brooke Thorington has more…
cut 2 (30) “I’m Brooke Thorington”
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Governor John Bel Edwards says the state is ready to move into the next phase of reopening. Edwards said at a Thursday morning press conference that after analyzing COVID-19 data for the last two weeks, the state is ready to move forward.
Edwards admits it was a difficult decision because not all of the data has come in on whether school resuming, the Labor Day holiday weekend and how recovery from Hurricane Laura is impacting the spread of the coronavirus.
Edwards says just because we’re moving into Phase Three doesn’t mean we’ve moved out of the public health emergency.
Moving from Phase 2 to Phase 3 means there will be fewer restrictions on the number of people that can gather and occupancy at businesses. But Edwards says the mask mandate will stay in effect in phase 3.
Further details about what Phase Three will look like, such as the status of bars, will be provided during a Friday afternoon news conference.
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Entergy has successfully restarted one of its power plants in Calcasieu Parish. Entergy spokesperson David Freese says crews brought the plant online by repairing a transmission line damaged by Hurricane Laura.
Cut 6 (11) “…couple thousands initially.”
Freese estimates that around 13,000 storm restoration workers are on the ground. While it is possible they have wrapped up work near a location still without power, there is more work that is needed to get power restored.
Freese says the customers outside of southwest Louisiana already have their lights back on.
Cut 8 (13) “…can Cameron Parishes.”
The Louisiana Public Service Commission estimates 122-thousand customers are still without power two weeks after the storm. Over 87-percent of the customers in Calacasieu Parish are still without electricity.
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Swarms of mosquitos terrorized livestock in southwest Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Laura, causing the deaths of horses, deer, and cows.
Evangeline Parish Veterinarian Craig Fontenot says the swarms were so thick that they could bite an animal to death, or worse.
The mosquitos swarming livestock can cause the animals to struggle to get enough oxygen as they struggle to remove the mosquitos, and are slowly drained of blood.
Reports indicate a large part of the swarm was pushed out of the marsh by Hurricane Laura. Fontenot says that plus the rains that came after made a tough situation worse.
Fontenot says in Evangeline Parish alone he estimates 40 to 60 head was lost.
Fontenot says the swarm is likely going to cost ranchers more than just their initial losses…
In recent days parish governments have begun running mosquito planes over affected areas, making the problem less severe.
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The National Hurricane Center is monitoring six different tropical disturbances today. There are two named storms in the middle of the Atlantic, a tropical wave in the Gulf of Mexico and another tropical wave could enter the gulf next week. State Climatologist Barry Keim says to have six have systems at one time is rare…
Keim says the good news is that none of the tropical disturbances are a major threat to the U-S coastline…
The National Hurricane Center gives the tropical wave in the Gulf of Mexico a low chance of development, but another wave moving towards the gulf has a medium chance of developing into a tropical depression in the eastern Gulf over the next five days. Keim says it’s not a surprise the tropics are super active…