County extends disaster declaration for Hurricane Laura

The Travis County Commissioners Court voted unanimously yesterday to extend the disaster declaration issued Aug. 23 for Hurricane Laura by another week. “We would like to keep it in place out of an abundance of caution,” said Chuck Brotherton, county executive for emergency services. He explained that with this extension, his department will be able to reference the disaster declaration when it reports costs to the state for reimbursement. Eric Carter, chief emergency management coordinator for Travis County, told commissioners that the county worked to successfully house 3,000 evacuees across four counties in the area and that they were able to document most of those people returning home last Friday. He noted the number of evacuees for the storm was triple that experienced during Hurricane Harvey. “It was a significant event by any stretch,” he said.