On Tuesday, the parish was among eight others that were newly approved to be included under the federal disaster declaration, bringing the total number of parishes under the declaration to 29.
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Devin George, state registrar for vital records, said Tuesday the latest deaths are accidental drownings. “I fully expect that more parishes will be added to the declaration on a rolling basis”, Edwards said.
A sign is seen along a flooded road on August 15, 2016 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Floodwaters have been receding today in most of the effected areas, however water levels are rising in the southern parts of the state as the excess water washes downriver and out to sea.
“The Weather Service tells us because the flooding is so far above what they’ve ever seen, they can’t really model or predict how wide the water is going to flow or how deep its going to get”, Edwards told CNN.
Raymond Lieteau, 48, returned to his home in the Woodlands neighborhood of Baton Rouge to survey the damage Tuesday and begin cleaning up.
In Livingston Parish, one of the hardest-hit areas with about 138,000 people, an official estimated that 75 percent of the homes were a “total loss”. He said 20,000 people have been rescued and at least 40,000 homes have been impacted.
The number of confirmed deaths due to severe flooding in the U.S. 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. That number could go as high as 10,000, he said, which would be about a quarter of the homes in the parish.
“The last I heard my sister was there and it was on fire”, she said.
It’s getting late, and it’s nearly time to close up for the evening.
On their way out, the McDaniels stopped to gawk at a monster truck revving its engine in a failed attempt to free a National Guard vehicle mired in a muddy ditch.
“My furniture is all over the place”, he said. “My agent didn’t recommend it to me”.
Four public school systems are closed indefinitely, three others are locked up at least through the end of the week and about 20 more are shuttered for parts of this week, state Superintendent of Education John White said Tuesday morning. More than 1,500 motorists stranded by high water on I-12 near Covington were all rescued by Sunday night, some after spending more than 24 hours on the highway.
Scott Richard, executive director of the Louisiana School Boards Association, said some school districts maintain service contracts with firms that fix schools after hurricanes and floods. During the next 24 hours, the possibility of more floods can not be ruled out. Another, Livingston, got almost 22 inches over the same stretch.
The Amite River, the source of flooding for many areas, had risen 14 feet (4.3 meters) above flood level in one reading, besting a previous record flood in April 1983, the NWS said.
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Santana reported from New Orleans.
