Residents awoke Tuesday to find their homes and businesses still surrounded by muddy water, without clear answers about when the epic flooding that has killed at least seven is expected to recede.
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Gonzales: The death toll from historic flooding in Louisiana climbed to 11 on Tuesday as the expanding flood zone prompted authorities to declare disasters in 20 parishes of the southeastern USA state.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards defended the state’s response, saying unprecedented flooding “presented tremendous challenges for everyone”. “It is ongoing. It is not over”. Several rivers crested at record levels.
Here’s the latest on this flooding event.
“It’s kind of an all hands on deck”, he said in a phone interview.
On Aug. 12 Edwards declared a state of emergency for the state of Louisiana and deployed the Louisiana National Guard.
The flood was still very much under way Tuesday in Ascension Parish, southeast of Baton Rouge, where the Amite River, other rivers and bayous have overflowed and spread across much of the parish. We are traveling the state with FEMA representatives who are constantly collecting data on the damage, and we will continuously update our request to add more parishes as needed. She says the cemetery is at Darlington Church of God and Christ.
Rick Ramsey, the mayor of Walker – a town of 6,000 people east of Baton Rouge – told CBS television affiliate WAFB that his town was heavily damaged.
Pierre and Barbara Pitard, both 76, had just minutes to leave their home in Denham Springs as the water rose rapidly. As the main roads drain, emergency crews were going to be able get hot meals, water and medical supplies to the 25 shelters in the parish.
More than 20,000 high-water rescues of people and more than 1,000 pet rescues have already taken place.
“Observations indicate that water is still slowly rising in these areas”.
“It all came down my way”, he said.
More than 3,300 Guardsmen are involved flood operations – about a third of the force, defense officials said.
An airboat transports residents of to dry land Monday in Baton Rouge.
Residents are evacuated from floodwaters in Baton Rouge on August 14.
– Amtrak is busing customers from Jackson, Mississippi to New Orleans instead of using the train.
“We weren’t in a flood zone”.
The Coast Guard said its helicopters rescued more than 50 people from rooftops, vehicles and trailers on Saturday.
She noted the state’s residents graciously welcomed her kickoff of the USA dates of her “1989 World Tour” in Louisiana a year ago.
“I don’t know we have a good handle on the number of people who are missing”, the governor said. Electricity at the mansion has since been turned off as a safety precaution.
With floodwaters retreating in some areas and remaining in others, officials are still in recovery-and-rescue mode with more than 8,000 people staying in shelters.
Roads have been washed out, and while the water is going down it’s a blessing and a curse. “We tried to save him, but we couldn’t”. The victim was being helped through floodwaters when he slipped into a ditch.
40 year old Damin Anthony Pashilk has been arrested on 17 counts of arson. Her mother and husband were rescued. The woman’s husband and mother-in-law clung to a tree for hours before they were rescued Saturday.
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Police confirmed Sunday that a woman’s body had been retrieved from inside a flooded vehicle at North Hampton. “That’s all I really care about”, Denova told CNN.
