BATON ROUGE - President Donald Trump declared that an emergency exists in the state of Louisiana Tuesday and ordered Federal assistance to supplement state, tribal, and local response ahead of Tropical Storm Zeta.

The White House released a statement Tuesday evening announcing the President's declaration.

"The President's action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe."

Emergency assistance and protective measures, including direct Federal assistance, will be provided for the following parishes:

Acadia
Allen
Ascension
Assumption
Beauregard
Calcasieu
Cameron
East Baton Rouge
East Feliciana
Evangeline
Iberia
Iberville
Jefferson
Jefferson Davis
Livingston
Lafayette
Lafourche
Orleans
Plaquemines
Pointe Coupee
St. Bernard
St. Charles
St. Helena
St. James
St. John the Baptist
St. Landry
St. Martin
St. Mary
St. Tammany
Tangipahoa
Terrebonne
Vermilion
Washington
West Baton Rouge
West Feliciana

Pete Gaynor, Administrator, FEMA, Department of Homeland Security, named John E. Long as the Federal Coordinating Officer for Federal recovery operations in the affected areas.

Governor John Bel Edwards sent a letter to the White House Tuesday requesting that the President declare a federal emergency for the state ahead of the storm's projected landfall late Wednesday.

"I anticipate the need for emergency protective measures, evacuations, and sheltering for high-risk areas," the governor said in his letter.

Read the governor's full letter here.