Officials say least 40,000 homes damaged and 11 people killed in some of the worst flooding in Louisiana history, touched off by as much as 2 feet of rain in 48 hours.
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In a sign of the housing crunch, Livingston Parish officials are talking with FEMA about getting temporary housing for emergency and rescue workers.
“We’re exhausted but today’s a good day”, she said.
Private citizens also contributed to search and rescue efforts but the flood waters continue to claim victims.
Eight deaths are now attributed to the storms and flooding in south Louisiana.
David Key used a small boat to get to his house in Prairieville and said it had taken on 5 inches of “muddy nasty bayou water”.
“The last I heard my sister was there and it was on fire”, she said. Five deaths have been in East Baton Rouge Parish, two in St. Helena Parish, and two in Tangipahoa Parish.
The Baton Rouge refinery in Louisiana has begun shutting units as the flooding threatened an off-site liquefied petroleum gas storage facility, a person familiar with operations said Wednesday.
An estimated 20,000 have been displaced so far; their homes likely ruined, and many are in financial trouble because they did not have flood insurance. “We’re asking people, if you’re going to fight it, fight it, but I think it was a tough decision to make for everybody”. “We understand there are still a lot of people who are suffering”.
He was in Baton Rouge to help his parents and grandparents, who got flooded out.
The Ascension Parish Homeland Security Office confirmed that floodwaters were slopping over the top of the Laurel Ridge levee, which protects the parish in the Baton Rouge metropolitan area, from the Amite River.
“I’m just lost. I don’t know what to do”, Guidry said while at an emergency shelter in Ascension Parish.
Around 8,000 people remain in emergency shelters, days after the deluge began.
While many areas were drying out, the National Weather Service forecasted that all waterways would not fall below flood stage until as late as Friday.
Louisiana will mark the 11th anniversary this month of Hurricane Katrina, which killed more than 1,800 people when floods overwhelmed levees and broke through flood walls protecting New Orleans on August 29, 2005.
“What you’re seeing now is tremendous community spirit”, he added.
“The intense rainfall rates were probably well in excess of 3 inches an hour for some spots Thursday night and Friday morning, and that overwhelmed local drainage, causing flash flooding”, Frank Revitte, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Slidell, told the Times-Picayune. “The other big challenge is that if people wake up tomorrow and say they need flood insurance because there’s a hurricane coming next week, it’s a 30 day wait to get the policy”.
Anyone with flood damage is eligible for FEMA aid of close to $33,000 – far less than many people without flood insurance will need to fix and replace their damaged property.
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Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards will hold a press conference at noon Eastern and provide an update on the flooding. According to the Weather Channel, nearly 27 inches of rain fell in Monroe on March 8 through March 11, precipitating flooding at five river gauges across the state.
