As the waters rise there are places where roads are going to be underwater and they may not be marked as such and they are going to be risky.
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The number of confirmed deaths due to severe flooding in the USA state of Louisiana has increased to eight, and tens of thousands of people have been rescued, Governor John Bel Edwards said at a press conference on Tuesday. “There’s several [people] we will be bringing to safe places, as well as giving them stuff to help them begin their recovery efforts”, said Simpson.
While waters were receding in parts of southern Louisiana, other areas were seeing rising waters.
According to the governor’s estimates, more than 20,000 people have been rescued by all participating agencies and volunteers since flooding began.
In Ascension Parish alone, south of Baton Rouge, almost 15,000 homes have been affected by the flooding, and that number is expected to grow.
Four-year-old Mariah McDowell, who was supposed to start preschool last Friday, was perched on the edge of a cot in a shelter, wearing rubber rain boots and cradling her turtle Zeus, The Advocate newspaper of Baton Rouge reported.
Dee Vazquez, from left, helps Georgette Centelo and her grandfather Lawrence Roberts after they tried to recover their belongings from a family mobile home in Central, north of Baton Rouge, La., Mond. With flood waters on the move, it may get worse before it gets better.
In a state more accustomed to hurricanes, forecasters said the rains were almost off the charts in intensity.
Authorities worked throughout Sunday to rescue people from cars stranded on a miles-long stretch of Interstate 12. Some 40,000 homes and business were reported without power.
Devin George, the state registrar for vital records, said the storm-related deaths include two people in East Baton Rouge Parish, two in St. Helena Parish and two in Tangipahoa Parish as of Monday.
“And because these are record floods, we don’t know how wide the water is going to get in those areas”, he said.
The floodwaters recede from Bethel United Methodist Cemetery in Greenwell Springs, Louisiana.
The National Weather Service issued 29 new flood warnings Tuesday for parts of southern Louisiana, as the levels of certain waterways continued to climb.
In some areas, clean-up work was already beginning.
As Louisiana’s governor announced the federal government had declared a major disaster for the state Saturday, Catholic churches in the Baton Rouge diocese called for volunteers to help those displaced by extreme flooding and asked flood victims what assistance they needed.
The American Red Cross said it was responding to the disaster, which it called the worst since Superstorm Sandy flooded coastal areas in NY and New Jersey in 2012. Schools have been closed in many areas, including the Lafayette Parish school district where schools will be closed until Monday.
He said over 20,000 people have been rescued.
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In one dramatic rescue in Baton Rouge captured on video, rescuers on a boat pulled a woman from a auto that had just slipped under water. “The whole time I was just praying for God to make sure me and my family were okay”. One of the men on that boat, David Phung, jumped into the water and pulled the woman from the water.
