Officials said at least two people had died in the floods. John Bel Edwards and his family were forced to leave the governor’s mansion after water flooded the basement.
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The governor and his family relocated to a state police facility in the Baton Rouge area.
In addition to the three confirmed deaths, Mr Edwards said, at least one person is missing.
One of the worries, the governor said, is that as the rain lessens in the next several hours, people will become complacent and feel too at ease in areas where waters may still be rising for several days, getting in cars in areas that could still be unsafe.
“I’m still asking people to be patient”. “Even when the weather is better, it’s not safe”.
THIS is the dramatic moment a woman and her dog are rescued from their sinking auto in deadly Louisiana floods. The woman, who was not initially visible in a video of the rescue, yelled from inside the vehicle: “Oh my God, I’m drowning”. She pleaded with Phung to get her dog, but he could not find it. After several seconds, Phung takes a deep breath, goes underwater and resurfaces – with the small dog.
Although she was safe, the woman was anxious about her dog, calling out, “Get my dog, get my dog now!”, she attempted to go underwater while another rescuer threw a floatation device to help them swim.
David Phung jumped from an emergency boat into the deadly rain-swollen waters and broke open the convertible top to free the woman from the vehicle, video obtained by CBS News showed.
State Sen. Bodi White, who represents some of the hardest-hit areas in the suburbs around Baton Rouge, said water has reached levels that were never recorded during 1983’s record flood. He warned that waters could continue rising for several days.
State police said 140 motorists were rescued from I-12 near the Amite River and were brought to a pick-up location and taken to a shelter by the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office.
“We haven’t been rescuing people”.
“This is going to be water we’ve never seen”, he said Saturday. “It has not stopped at all today”.
Beginning Friday, 6 to 10 inches of rain fell on parts of Louisiana and an additional 4 to 6 inches was possible Saturday afternoon, National Weather forecaster Donald Jones said.
In southwest Mississippi, Leroy Hansford, his wife and stepson were among those rescued near Gloster, which had more than 14 inches of rain.
For almost 24 hours, motorists have been stranded on I-12 between Baton Rouge and Covington since the road was closed around 10 a.m. Saturday, August 14.
The state’s emergency management office called it a “historic flood event”.
Numerous rivers in south-east Louisiana and southern MS overflowed with officials still uncertain just how widespread the damage would be.
Lyn Gibson described hacking away at a hole near the roof of her two-story house as floodwaters swallowed it.
“I can’t get the dog”, he said. “I would saw for a while”.
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He then told her to float to the boat to where the other rescuers were waiting to grab them from the water, helping both the dog and her owner to safety. Heavy downpours pounded parts of the central U.S. Gulf Coast on Friday, forcing the rescue of dozens of people stranded in homes by waist-high water.
