Skies in Louisiana have cleared, but there is no reprieve from the rains that have put most of the state underwater.
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Flooding hit the Amite and Comite Rivers, while the Louisiana National Guard has also employed high-water vehicles to rescue flood victims, including stranded motorists.
Many flood warnings have been extended until Tuesday and Wednesday, though East Baton Rouge, Livingston and Ascension will remain at risk until Thursday.
While waters were receding in parts of southern Louisiana, other areas were seeing rising waters. Seven people were confirmed dead, said the police, noting that the toll could rise in the coming days.
“One issue we are fighting is getting teachers back in because many of them are in areas where their homes are flooded and they can not get out”, said Brian LeJeune, president of the Louisiana Association of School Superintendents and superintendent of the Jefferson Davis School District in southwest Louisiana.
There were reports of looting in areas where homes and businesses were abandoned by fleeing residents.
Twenty parishes were declared emergency disaster areas – a designation that frees up federal money to aid with rescue operations and emergency housing, among other things.
“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. Officials reported that hundreds of roads, mostly in the southern parts of the state, were closed.
“That’s going to be the case over the next couple of days”, Edwards said. In some areas, clean-up work was already beginning. Inside, a young boy rode his bicycle around the now-empty church.
Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, assured Louisianans that his agency was committed to supporting a full recovery across the state- even if the natural disaster was not commanding front page national media attention.
“I can’t say it’s worse than a hurricane, but it’s plenty bad”, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards told reporters.
Numerous homeowners in inundated areas have no flood insurance, leaving them prone to draining savings accounts and relying on federal disaster programs to rebuild and fix.
Flood water inundated the small town of Sorrento early Tuesday morning, washing over portions of several state highways and making them impassable, the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s office reported.
The National Weather Service estimates the chance in any year of that much rain falling in the area within 48 hours at 0.1 percent, meaning that it is likely to occur only once every 1,000 years.
“We understand that there are a lot of people who are suffering”, Edwards said.
East Baton Rouge Parish suffered another fatality Friday when a 68-year-old man drowned after slipping and falling in floodwaters.
A woman can be heard inside the auto, saying: “Oh my god, I’m drowning”.
A rescuer jumps into the murky brown water and pulls her out by the arm. She pleads with Mr Phung to get her dog, but he cannot find it.
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And the heavy rain is now expected to pummel parts of south Texas.
