In Denham Springs, 19km east of Baton Rouge, coffins unearthed by the rains floated down the streets.
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Almost 2,500 personnel are mobilized and almost 195 high-water vehicles tasked or staged to assist local, parish and state emergency officials with heavy flash flooding in Ascension, Avoyelles, East Baton Rouge, Iberia, Lafayette, Livingston, Pointe Coupee, Rapides, St. Helena, Tangipahoa, Vermillion and West Feliciana parishes, officials said.
U.S. Coast Guard pilots share personal accounts from a series of rescue operations over the weekend in the Baton Rouge area where communities were inundated with flood waters beginning Friday.
– 48 hours: The amount of time a torrent of rain fell across parts of south Louisiana. “At one point, we started to think that was it with nobody was going to be able to get to us”, Deanna Scherer said.
While the worst of the rain is over and flash flood watches have been dropped, many rivers remain at a major flood level. “More than anything else, I’m proud that Louisianians are taking care of their own, and people are being neighbors to one another”. In Ascension Parish officials said some small towns have already been swamped by floods.
A spokeswoman for Louisiana governor John Bel Edwards, Shauna Sanford, said some 40,000 homes and business were reported without power. According to witnesses, the woman’s vehicle was swept away Saturday night as she attempted to turn around in high water, the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office said.
“We’ve literally had hundreds of people who’ve brought boats in and have wanted to help”, Edmonson said.
Meteorologist Ken Graham of the National Weather Service’s office in Slidell outside of New Orleans said that forecasters alerted people days in advance of the storms. However, the forecasts Thursday were mostly for just eight inches of rain. “It’s another thing to say where is this going to be”, he said.
“The low, as it’s moved into the Texas area, it’s weakened a lot”, Phillips told AFP, so the state is not expected to get as much rain.
The woman, not visible in the video broadcast on Sunday by local television station WAFB, shouts, “Oh my God, I’m drowning!”
At least two other Baton Rouge parishes, St. George and St. Aloysius, have set up Web pages asking flood victims to submit requests for help and asking others to list the kind of help they can provide.
A rescuer jumps into the murky brown water and pulls her out by the arm.
The National Guard mobilized 2,500 personnel and almost 195 high-water vehicles and had rescued almost 3,400 people and 400 pets as of Monday. When she tries to dive under for her dog, the rescuer goes underwater and reappears holding the animal.
As the scope of the disaster became clear, churches, schools and other places opened to take evacuees. Some shelters had to shut down when they started to flood. He criticized government officials for closing roads, blocking boats from reaching launch areas.
The slow-moving, low-pressure system moved into Texas, but the National Weather Service warned there’s still a danger of more rain and floods, as swollen rivers drain toward the Gulf of Mexico.
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“Normally we operate off-shore”, Lt. Hennebery said.
