Governor John Bel Edwards says shelters are set up throughout the affected areas. Additional parish declarations will be made as further damage assessments are conducted, Edwards said. He said statewide, more than 7,000 people and more than 500 pets have been rescued.
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Across Louisiana, at least six people have died and thousands of people have been rescued from flooding.
Steele said the flooding that started Friday has damaged more than 1,000 homes in East Baton Rouge Parish, more than 1,000 homes in Livingston Parish, and hundreds more in other areas, including St. Helena and Tangipahoa parishes.
The slow-moving, low-pressure system moved into Texas, but the National Weather Service warned that there’s still a danger of more rain and fresh floods, as swollen rivers drain toward the Gulf of Mexico.
Photo of School Bus Submerged in Flood Waters in Zachary, Louisiana.
The National Weather Service says the Vermilion River which runs through Lafayette remains at its crest of 17.5 feet Monday. The flood stage is 17 feet. The deluge brought 6 to 10 inches of rainfall to the southeast parts of the state.
Up to $33,000 is available for flooded homeowners without flood insurance, provided they live in neighborhoods that didn’t require the insurance and are in a parish that has been declared a disaster by the federal government, he said. It was the third shelter for around 175 of those people, who had to be moved from other locations in Baker on Saturday because their first set of shelters had flooded.
The American Red Cross is helping at least 4,700 people in dozens of emergency shelters in Louisiana.
The rare weather event dumped more than 20 inches of rain on southwest MS and coastal Louisiana, causing massive flooding in Baton Rouge and Lafayette, La.
“The rivers and streams north of Interstate 12 have crested and have started to drop, while those south of the interstate continue to rise”, meteorologist Mike Efferson said.
Approximately 18,000 people have been rescued from East Baton Rouge and Livingston Parishes, said Maj. EVERY river in eastern Louisiana will hit record flood stage before the week is over. The Amite River at Denham Springs was at 43.5 feet Monday after reaching 46.2 feet. Flood stage is 29 feet.
The Louisiana Department of Transportation & Development shared images of their tour of the Baton Rouge area on Sunday afternoon.
LSU sports information director Michael Bonnette asked the public for help on Twitter on Sunday and said Hawthorne couldn’t be reached on his cellphone.
Yglesias’ home was about two miles from the floodwaters, but the lifelong Baton Rouge resident was seeing flooding in places that had never flooded before.
Hawthorne retired following this past season.
“We’re still in response mode”, Edwards said, urging residents to heed warnings to evacuate and be prepared for a disaster that could last for several days.
And he did. With one more dive below the surface, he emerged with the woman’s little white dog and calmly said, “I got your dog”. “Each year it just gets worse, but for us, this is just more of an inconvenience”.
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Then, the civic center became too small to hold all the people who needed help. Large rain events can actually reduce the number of disease-transmitting mosquitoes. The National Weather Service reported Sunday that the community of Watson, Louisiana, received nearly 800 mm since the rain began Friday, though the agency later said that was an unofficial total that had yet to be verified.
