“They are exhausted”, said Livingston Parish President Layton Ricks. Now safe at a movie studio-lot-turned-shelter their worries weren’t over, as they tried to get medication for Robert, who suffers from lung cancer. Bus after bus continued to drop off evacuees.
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Entergy Louisiana said more than 7,500 customers were without power on Friday night.
“We’re just keeping them right here in the neighborhood, and we are all going to be working right here with them, cleaning it out”, Cutrer said. It’s unclear how many people are stuck in those cars.
Though the storms that caused the flooding had largely moved on by Sunday afternoon, flood warnings remained in effect around Livingston Parish. People are urged to evacuate now to seek higher ground and find shelter. About 120 people had to be evacuated from there. Three people have died as a result of the flooding, one person is accounted for.
Roads that had never flooded were under water, he said, adding that the backlog of people waiting to be rescued was as long as 150, even after the more than 1,000 rescue operations carried out so far. Helicopters also were transporting some seriously ill people to areas outside the high waters.
The Acadian Thruway is covered in floodwaters Friday in this handout picture from the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development taken in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. An additional 20 will be transferred shortly as a precautionary measure. Water was creeping up to the back of the sanctuary, and they didn’t have any food or water there.
Floodwaters have swamped parts of the state after drenching rain earlier in the week. Rescuers found the two others clinging to a tree on Saturday.
Gov. John Bel Edwards says in the Sunday statement that the initial federal declaration is for four parishes.
One of the worries, the governor said, is that as the rain lessens 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.
Muse said he has been trying in vain to reach or contact his 86-year-old mother since Saturday night, when she told him by phone that she had two inches of water inside her apartment at a Denham Springs retirement home. More sections could be shut down due to the flooding, so people could have limited routes to get out of the area. He warned residents that there will be more to come. “I’m a miracle. I figured I’d better help while I’m still a miracle”.
Walters said the Red Cross is also looking for volunteers.
The greatest challenge has been the unpredictable nature of the flooding level.
Edwards postponed a trip that had been scheduled Sunday to view the damage in Acadiana until Monday.
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Three people were killed, one person is missing and thousands have been displaced as historic levels of flooding wreaked havoc across Louisiana over the weekend, officials said.
