The waters have flooded areas of cities that have never before been flooded, and in some areas people were trapped atop their homes, and inside their cars, as the roadways turned into rivers.
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Gov. John Bel Edwards said 40,000 businesses and homes are without power, and rescue workers are still “bringing people out of homes to safety”, particularly in the hardest-hit areas around Baton Rouge.
At least three deaths have been blamed on the flooding.
“We’re praying it stops where it is”, said Kelly’s neighbor, Jenny Ragland, whose home on a ridge was spared similar damage.
“It was an absolute act of God”.
Guard troops have distributed more than 600,000 sand bags, nearly 96,000 bottles of water and 2,300 Meals, Ready to Eat. The NWS in Baton Rouge forecasts at least a 50% chance of rain through Wednesday, though drier conditions are expected in the later portion of the week and into the weekend.
He is anxious his parent’s home may not be habitable for months. Jeff Gaschel, a hydrologist for the National Weather Service, said some areas of the Amite River won’t crest until Monday.
“It’s one thing to say we’re getting set up for a lot of rain”. That number appeared to at least double by the end of the day, when Livingston Parish Sheriff Jason Ard said 2,000 people in his parish alone had been rescued, and more people still await help.
The torrential rains, which also affected the neighboring state of MS, slackened on Sunday as authorities intensified their rescue efforts, although the high waters continue to pose a danger to people across a large part of the state.
Hawthorne tells NOLA.com (http://bit.ly/2bhoaVA) that he had a foot-and-a-half of water in his home when he and his wife were rescued by a passing boat Sunday afternoon. He criticized government officials for closing roads, a move that prevented boats from reaching launch areas. News reported that more than 20,000 people had been rescued and seven people have been killed. Authorities worked through the night to rescue motorists stranded on I-12 with a break in the weather finally allowing for major progress on the rescue.
Vehicles that were out of gas, stalled or unclaimed were being towed Monday to the shoulder to help clear the interstate.
Houses look like small islands from the air. Farmland was covered and streets descended into impassable pools of water.
From the ground it was just as bad.
Beginning Friday, 6 to 10 inches of rain fell on parts of Louisiana and several more inches of rain fell on Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.
As of Sunday morning, about 5,050 people were staying in parish and Red Cross shelters, said Marketa Garner Walters, secretary of the Department of Children & Family Services. Flood stage is 20 feet. This included the Amite River, which exceeded its previous record by over six feet in Magnolia, and by over four feet in Denham Springs. Flood stage is 29 feet.
Federal aid will now be readily available for residents impacted by the ongoing flooding in East Baton Rouge, Livingston, St. Helena and Tangipahoa Parishes. Celtic Studios has also taken on almost two thousand people displaced by flooding.
The rain clocked in stunning numbers over the weekend: 22 inches in Livingston, La., near Baton Rouge, and 18 inches in Kentwood, La., a rural town near the MS border that is home to singer Britney Spears, the National Weather Service in Baton Rouge reported. The numbers “were really shocking”, he said.
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Noel Michael, a school teacher, and her husband Deryl, a retired Marine, spent Saturday piling sandbags around their home in the Livingston Parish town of Walker but it became fruitless.
