Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said Sunday that at least 7,000 people have been rescued so far.
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The National Guard has deployed to assist with the rescue efforts, as WWNO’s Eve Troeh reported to our Newscast unit.
Authorities confirmed a third death in Louisiana on Saturday after recovering the body of a woman from the Tickfaw River in St. Helena Parish, northeast of Baton Rouge near the MS border. “And because these are record floods, we don’t know how wide the water is going to get in those areas”, he said.
The Salvation Army, which is dealing with flooding at its Baton Rouge facility, is helping thousands of residents who were forced to evacuate their homes.
More than 1,000 homes in East Baton Rouge Parish, more than 1,000 homes in Livingston Parish and hundreds more in other areas were damaged in the flooding that also saw the evacuation of nursing homes and the closing of highways.
One of those motorists was Alex Cobb of Baton Rouge, who has been stuck since around 11 a.m. Saturday morning.
One of the men, David Phung, jumped into the water after smashing open the auto window, to pull the woman out.
After failing to break the window one of the rescuers jumps into the water and pulls the woman out by her arms moments before the auto becomes completely submerged under water. The woman pleaded with the rescuer to get her dog.
Other emergency responders said it was probably too late for the pup.
“We need to get somewhere safer”, Gwen said, as her dogs panted heavily under the hot sun. And in many places, the water was still rising, with days expected before rivers were expected to crest. Water was creeping up to the back of the sanctuary, and they didn’t have any food or water there. The statistical chance of such flooding occurring in any given year is 1%, the weather service said.
The Louisiana National Guard’s 2225th Multi-Role Bridge Company uses a mobile bridge to go door-to-door searching for stranded residents near Ponchatoula, Louisiana March 13, 2016. Governor John Bel Edwards said that many more are staying in unofficial shelters, such as churches. She and her husband will be living with him and his wife until repairs are done, he said, while another washed-out neighbor is staying with Cutrer’s brother. More than 500 pets have also been rescued, he said.
Torrential rains have caused record flooding in parts of the southern United States, with USA media reporting at least three deaths. Areas in Baton Rouge were the last to see the damaging rains.
The heavy rain began on Friday, with between 6 and 10 inches of rain falling on parts of southeast Louisiana. Meteorologist Mike Shields in the weather service’s Slidell office said one of their weather observers reported 17.09 inches in Livingston. Rain continued to fall on Saturday and according to NBC News, forecasters predict that parts of Louisiana could continue to see heavy rain well into next week.
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Though the storms that caused the flooding had largely moved on by Sunday afternoon, flood warnings remained in effect around Livingston Parish.
