BATON ROUGE - President Joe Biden approved Louisiana's request for a Major Disaster Declaration as Hurricane Ida ravages the southeast region of the state Sunday.

Governor John Bel Edwards requested the declaration Sunday evening because of the storm, which has been ripping through southeast Louisiana since late Sunday morning. 

"Hurricane Ida is one of the strongest storms to ever hit Louisiana. It is our goal to assist our local agencies and the citizens of the state as quickly as possible, and we have pre-positioned search and rescue teams, boats and other assets to begin helping people as soon as it is safe. This major disaster declaration will help Louisiana better respond to this crisis and protect the health and safety of our people, and I hope the White House will act quickly so we can begin getting additional aid and assistance to our people,” Gov. Edwards said.

The announcement came out hours after the governor held a news briefing to discuss the storm.

Prior to his Sunday update, the Governor hosted a Saturday afternoon news briefing and urged locals to complete storm preparations before Sunday, saying, "The window is closing quickly...the weather is going to degrade very quickly tomorrow. And by 7 p.m. tomorrow night, more than half of hurricane Ida should be over land." 

In addition to encouraging people to plan for possible power outages, high water, and extreme winds, Governor Edwards said now is the time to check on elderly friends and family members to ensure they have what they need to ride out the storm. 

He concluded by reiterating the importance of monitoring weather developments and working in harmony with the advice of local officials. 

"The state and local government, our federal partners, we're doing everything that we can to quickly respond to the needs of the people of Louisiana... but we need the people of Louisiana to be prepared as well," Edwards said.

During a Friday news conference, the governor urged Louisianans to take the storm seriously. 

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I have requested a pre-landfall Federal Declaration of Emergency in a letter to @POTUS in advance of Tropical Storm #Ida, which is forecast to make landfall in Louisiana as a Category 3 hurricane late Sunday evening or Monday morning. https://t.co/pA2aKmR3cR. #lagov #lawx

— John Bel Edwards (@LouisianaGov) August 27, 2021

On Friday, the governor said he was also requesting a federal Declaration of Emergency for Louisiana ahead of Ida's landfall. The governor also declared a state of emergency for Louisiana ahead of the storm's potential impacts in Louisiana. 

Read the latest on Hurricane Ida here.