Here is a selection of images to illustrate the impact of the floods.
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The death toll from historic flooding rose to 11 on Tuesday as sweeping floodwaters that have damaged more than 40,000 homes continued to overwhelm Baton Rouge and much of southern Louisiana.
For the Baton Rouge area, it was a blow on top of what has already been a tough summer starting with the shooting death of 37-year-old Alton Sterling on July 5.
At least 40,000 homes have been damaged, Gov. John Bel Edwards said Tuesday. Although the water was receding quickly, people remained stranded.
These people gathered their belongings after evacuating on August 16, 2016 in Gonzales. While flooding receded in parts of southern Louisiana, other areas saw rising waters.
The National Weather Service forecasts scattered showers and thunderstorms along with high temperatures, but the main concern is backwater flooding along bayous and streams that feed into the Amite River.
President Barack Obama on Tuesday declared eight additional parishes as part of the disaster area, up from four parishes in his Sunday declaration.
The Louisiana National Guard reported that its soldiers rescued almost 500 people and 61 pets in 24 hours over Friday and Saturday, by boat, helicopter and high-water (high-clearance) vehicles.
In hard-hit Livingston Parish – swamped by more than 25 inches of rain in three days – officials estimate about 75 percent of homes have been lost to the floods.
The video shows some of the coffins standing upright, after they were unearthed in the flood waters, as people look for their loved ones grave sites.
One-third of Ascension Parish, between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, remains under water after several dikes and levees overflowed due to rising waters, a situation reminiscent of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which killed some 2,000 people. She felt fortunate the flooding stopped a block short of her home, but she owns a couple of water-damaged rental properties that aren’t covered by flood insurance.
Most residents of southeastern Louisiana’s Livingston Parish, in the Baton Rouge area, are facing total loss after days of deadly, devastating flooding, according to a local official. That number could go as high as 10,000, he said, which would be about a quarter of the homes in the parish.
Lady Gaga says she’s pitching in to help with flood relief efforts in Louisiana.
“I don’t know we have a good handle on the number of people who are missing”, the governor said.
“It’s unprecedented”, he told reporters in Baton Rouge.
“I’m not going to lie, I cried uncontrollably”, he said.
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“Our financial condition won’t limit what we do to make sure the people of Louisiana get the assistance they need”, he said. There were 14,000 people staying in shelters, mostly in the state capital Baton Rouge and surrounding communities, he said.
