Hurricane Laura update
Austin has taken in more than three times the number of Hurricane Laura evacuees than it did Hurricane Harvey evacuees. The City of Austin is setting up the Austin Convention Center as an emergency shelter for evacuees after running out of the 1,078 contracted hotel rooms made available. The city’s Juan Ortiz says they’re seeing way more people escaping from the storm than last year.
“For Hurricane Harvey, the maximum number of evacuees that evacuated before and after landfall were approximately 850 evacuees that we provided support as our guest. Today, we’re a little bit over 3,000 during Hurricane Laura,” Ortiz says.
That count could still build as the full impacts of Hurricane Laura are yet unknown.
At this hour, Laura has weakened to a category three storm, but by no means does that mean it’s become a weak storm. It came ashore as a category four with widespread damage being reported along portions of Louisiana and Texas coastlines. Across the two states, the number of power outages is nearly 350,000, and that number continues to grow.
COVID-19 update
COVID-19 hospitalizations have fallen by more than a dozen over the past day in Travis County. That number this morning, now at 158 continuing the week over week trend in declines along with both ICU beds and ventilator usage. 26,117 cases are now confirmed and the recoveries are not far behind that. As of today, 24,951 people who previously had the virus, no longer do.
There was another significant drop in active COVID cases seen in Williamson County. That number now stands at 257. At the same time yesterday, the active case count was above 300. On top of that, the counties also tacked on almost 200 more recoveries, bringing that number up to 7,563 today. Over the past five months, the county has recorded a total of 7,820 cases.
The City of Austin is officially in stage three on the COVID risk chart. Travis County Health Authority Mark Escott says that means we are winning this fight. However, it’s not changing some of the COVID rules, including the school start dates.
“The September 8 start date is still in place. That means that schools need to delay their in person opening until September 8,” says Escott.
They are allowing extracurricular practices to resume on September 7.
TABC eases up restrictions for bars to reopen
This week, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commision approved new rules making it easier for bars to reopen as restaurants. That’s a move that’s being lauded by the Texas Restaurant Association. CEO Emily Williams Knight says it will be easier now for bars to meet the required metrics to reopen.
“Allowing businesses to count commercially prepackaged food items, to be able to bring in pre packaged food to be sold with alcohol beverages,” Knight says.
The change also lets bars include sales from nearby food trucks as part of that qualification. There have been more than 5,300 Texas bars that have been closed down amid this pandemic.
Georgetown approves outdoor business expansion
The City of Georgetown this week has approved a proposal to allow downtown businesses to expand into the street. The city’s real estate services coordinator, Travis Baird says it gives downtown businesses the space they need to boost revenue through outdoor seating and shopping.
“Businesses in other areas of the cities are able to deal with this on site with the excess base that they have, but businesses in the downtown are acutely affected through their lack of additional space,” says Baird.
The city will roll out the program over the Labor Day weekend, and it should run through the end of the year.
Williamson County car break-ins
Williamson County is dealing with another rash in car break-ins, specifically in Georgetown when 13 of them were hit. The sheriff’s office says a group of teens is believed to be responsible for breaking into the vehicles and the Mayfield Ranch and Rancho Sienna neighborhoods. Sheriff Robert Chody is requesting help from anyone who may have caught the break-ins on their home surveillance.
Central Health tax rate
Central Health, Travis County’s taxpayer funded health district, is proposing a tax rate increase of 6.9% for the next year. If approved, that would add another $25 onto the average tax bill, bringing that up to about $392. Central Health is among the five taxing entities in Travis County. The others being AISD, ACC, The City of Austin and Travis County itself.
This news and more on News Radio KLBJ:
https://omny.fm/shows/klbjam-flash-briefing-1/am-newscast-8-27-20
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