“The strike force, which consists of about six men, will get the equipment there and make sure it is all set up, then the main workforce will follow one day later on our bus”, Porter said.
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“But Lori Steele, spokeswoman for the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office, was upbeat, saying the rescues taking place now are less of a “lifesaving nature” and more to help people who were running low on supplies in flooded areas”.
While flooding receded in parts of southern Louisiana, other areas saw rising waters, and the National Weather Service issued renewed flood warnings. Residents in 20 parishes are eligible for federal assistance and in two days 39,000 people have registered, the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness said. After getting ferried away on a boat, she said, they walked on a flooded interstate in hopes of finding drier ground.
“You’ve got all of these people who hunt and fish who have more experience than the average first responder”, he said.
Consequently, few homeowners in the area carry flood insurance.
A casket is seen floating in flood waters in Ascension Parish, La., on August 15.
The Red Cross says more than 1,000 volunteers, hailing from every state, are at work, andCNN takes a look at “Cajun Navy” rescuing people in boats.
The Louisiana National Guard has deployed five helicopters, and Hennebery said that coordinating between all the air assets and maintaining an appropriate distance between each helicopter’s airspace was a challenge. More than 8,000 people spent Monday night in shelters, Gov. John Bel Edwards said.
Even as thousands of southern Louisiana residents returned to their homes to assess damage from historic flooding here, thousands more braced for new flooding as the deluge surged into communities southeast of Baton Rouge on Tuesday.
Federal aid is available for businesses located within the 20 parishes included in the federal disaster declaration.
Several shelters in the Baton Rouge area were accepting evacuees with four legs.
“In Livingston Parish, just east of Baton Rouge, officials estimated that as many as 75% of the area’s 52,000 homes had been damaged by floodwaters”.
“The area near Baton Rouge was highly flooded, devastated and the information that we were given as an aircrew [was] a home address versus a Global Positioning System waypoint”, said LTJG Simon Gottenberg, a helicopter pilot with Air Station New Orleans. The couple had been visiting family in Baton Rouge when the flooding started.
Hundreds of people evacuated to a shelter in Ascension Parish as the river water that hit areas around Baton Rouge worked its way south.
Authorities late Monday said a body had been pulled from floodwaters in Baton Rouge, raising the toll to seven dead. “I’m not going to be concerned about the politics, I’m still going to focus on the people”.
The National Weather Service is predicting that the chance of thunderstorms will continue in the region throughout the week, with temperatures expected to reach 32C (92F).
Evacuated cows and horses were housed on the property, along with pets rescued.
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The American Red Cross called the flooding the worst since Superstorm Sandy hit coastal areas in NY and New Jersey in 2012.
