posted by mike kraft
on Wed, 2020-08-26 22:29
CNN)More than 1.5 million people are under evacuation orders in Texas and Louisiana as powerful Hurricane Laura approaches the Gulf Coast, and the Covid-19 pandemic is multiplying the misery.
Covid-19 has "added a complexity to this that was difficult, it was a challenge," Galveston, Texas, Mayor Pro Tem Craig Brown told CNN's Anderson Cooper.
In Louisiana, the state is picking people up and taking them to hotels instead of shelters "because of Covid concerns," Mike Steele, communications director at the Governor's Office of Homeland Security, told CNN.
"We're trying to avoid congregate sheltering," Steele said.
Galveston added extra buses to transport people out, so that they could keep their distance from one another, Brown said.
Hotels are putting one person to a room to keep people separated, Brown said, and the city had ambulances "for those that needed isolation as they were being transported off the island," he said....
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Pandemic stresses massive hurricane evacuations
HOUSTON/DENVER (Reuters) - A hurried evacuation of a half million Texas and Louisiana residents ahead of Hurricane Laura has clogged highways, while COVID-19 precautions slowed public transportation for evacuees who needed it and complicated temporary housing arrangements....
Local officials advised residents with personal vehicles to take them. For those boarding buses out of the area temperature checks were required. Evacuees were being assigned to far-flung hotels to avoid large groups at shelters.
In Galveston County, Texas, which ordered a mandatory evacuation of low-lying areas on Tuesday, buses brought residents inland, but capped the number on each at 15 to 20 people because of the pandemic, said county official Zach Davidson. Officials also arranged for ambulances for those diagnosed with COVID-19....