With search and rescue efforts completed in the flooded parts of southwest Louisiana, Gov. John Bel Edwards says the state has now taken the lead on evacuating and sheltering people from the far corner of southeastern Texas.
Texas roads into Beaumont, Port Arthur and Orange are flooded.
"The folks from Texas don’t have the ability to get to them," says Edwards. "So they can't get to them to affect the rescues, and they can’t get to them and move them back out west to their shelters."
Wednesday night, nearly 900 Texans were staying in Louisiana shelters, and on Thursday, Edwards announced the state is opening its doors to 3,000 more evacuees.
The plan is to house them at shelters in Lake Charles, Alexandria and Shreveport.
Edwards says though flooding caused some evacuations, damage to farmland, and school closures in 16 Louisiana parishes – the state didn't get hit as hard as it could have. And there's enough shelter space for everyone.
"Given the capacity that we have in these large mega-shelters, it only makes sense to accommodate as many people from Texas as they need us to accommodate – but I can assure everybody that we are not doing anything with respect to our sheltering operations that will deprive someone of shelter space should they need it," says Edwards.
Schools are still closed in a handful of parishes Friday.
Information on road closures can be found online at 511la.org.
