Danielle Blount carries her 3-month-old baby Ember to a truck from the Louisiana Army National Guard as they evacuate the area near Walker, La., after heavy rains inundated the region, Sunday, Aug. 14, 2016.
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Governor John Bel Edwards called it a “historic, unprecedented flooding event”. The governor also said more than 10,000 people had been brought to shelters in southern Louisiana, a lot of them in the Baton Rouge region. Some were rescued by local emergency workers, the National Guard or the Coast Guard; in other cases, says NPR’s Debbie Elliott, ordinary citizens put their boats in the water to save their neighbors.
Swollen rivers in Louisiana are expected to continue rising Monday, with deadly flood waters displacing tens of thousands of people and a state of emergency declared. At least six people were killed.
“It’s epic”, Kelly said of historic flooding that swept across southeastern Louisiana over the weekend.
Some 20,000 people in the state have been rescued so far, along with more than 500 pets, Gov. Jon Bel Edwards said at a news conference.
She used a saw, a screwdriver and her feet, knocking her way through wood, vinyl and sheet rock and was eventually rescued by National Guard soldiers on a boat. The worst of the rain is now over, but rivers continue to rise. “I don’t know how long that is going to last because it’s getting kind of hot”, she said.
From the air homes in southwest Louisiana looked more like little islands surrounded by flooded fields. Streets descended into impassable pools of water and shopping centers were inundated with only roofs of cars peeking above the water.
In Baker, just north of Baton Rouge, residents were rescued by boats or waded through waist-deep, snake-infested water to reach dry ground.
Drivers tried to navigate treacherous roads where the water lapped at the side or covered the asphalt in a running stream.
Shoes, children’s toys and household items floated through knee-deep water outside his home. The National Weather Service has posted flood warnings through Monday afternoon.
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 risky.
Meteorologist Mike Shields in the weather service’s Slidell office said one of their weather observers reported 17.09 inches in Livingston.
A man died Friday after slipping into a flooded ditch near the city of Zachary, said East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s spokesman Casey Rayborn Hicks, who identified the victim as William Mayfield, 68. Flood stage is 20 feet.
The Amite River at Denham Springs was at 43.5 feet Monday after reaching 46.2 feet. Flood stage is 29 feet.
The disaster forced the closure of schools in East Baton Rouge, Livingston, St. James and Tangipahoa parishes as well as Louisiana State University. His office said other parishes could be added to the federal disaster declaration as officials assess the damage there.
On Sunday, President Barack Obama granted Edwards’ request for an emergency declaration to assist in response and recovery efforts.
Lee says those people, along with others who had remained with their cars, were allowed to drive their vehicles with a police escort away from the interstate.
Scores of shelters were opened across Louisiana, with the largest number in East Baton Rouge Parish, the state’s biggest parish with more than 446,000 residents. About 200 roads were closed Sunday due to the high water, and 1,400 bridges need to be inspected before they are reopened to traffic, officials said.
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Matthew and Rachel Fitzpatrick, from Brandon, Mississippi, hopped off one of the choppers with her grandparents.
