More than 8,000 Louisiana residents were in shelters as of Tuesday afternoon, and the official death toll from the floods stood at 11.
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Right now, 6,000 people are in shelters and at least 30,000 had to be rescued.
Dylan Heinan, among other volunteers, piles sandbags in an effort to stop flood waters from rising in Lake Arthur, La., Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016. The Mermentau (MUR’-mehn-taw) River, a source of the flooding in Acadia, isn’t forecast to crest until Thursday.
Almost a year after LSU gave the University of SC football team a home field advantage as floodwaters ravaged Columbia, the Gamecocks are returning the help.
The flooding that struck the Baton Rouge and Lafayette areas left at least 13 people dead.
The governor said he is anxious about “battle fatigue” setting in as rescuers and residents deal with day upon day of stress.
During massive flooding in SC in October, LSU hosted the Gamecocks in a football game originally scheduled for Columbia. Billboards around Baton Rouge were programmed to read “Geaux Gamecocks!”
“At this time, Troopers believe that Muse attempted to drive through high water and his vehicle was swept off the road”, states a press release from the Louisiana State Police.
WBRZ-TV (http://bit.ly/2b1vTSy) reports the college also plans to remain closed for the rest of this week. A 58-year-old man was discovered in the woods near Millar Estates. As waters begin to recede in parts of Louisiana, some residents struggled to return to flood. As of this writing, at least seven people have died as a direct result of the flooding, almost 20,000 water rescues have been conducted, and thousands of people have had to relocate to shelters because of flooded homes.
President Barack Obama is unlikely to break from a New England vacation to survey Louisiana flood damage, despite calls for him to visit.
Flooding in Louisiana is still affecting families and businesses. After getting ferried away on a boat, she said, they walked on a flooded interstate in hopes of finding drier ground. “I need to be home”, she said. Edwards sought to assure the public on Tuesday that the fiscal woes would have no bearing on the state’s emergency response, but he said Louisiana would “rely on the federal government to the maximum extent possible”. He initially said well over 20,000 people have been rescued, but after the news conference, his office said more than 30,000 people had been rescued.
And the resulting arithmetic from some of the worst flooding to hit the state has been terrible – 13 dead, 8,400 people in shelters, 40,000 homes damaged, 30,000 people rescued.
Edwards spoke after a meeting with FEMA administrator Craig Fugate.
At least eight people have died in the floods, which started Friday when a torrent of about 2 feet of rain inundated the state.
The number of people staying in shelters after the massive flooding across south Louisiana continues to drop.
Devin George, state registrar for vital records, says an elderly woman in Livingston Parish was confirmed Wednesday as the latest death.
Responders found the body of a male in the South Point Subdivision in Denham Springs. The cause of death was listed as accidental drowning.
He said the house took on 5 inches of “muddy nasty bayou water”. There were fish and thousands of spiders, and mold had started to grow.
“I was scared”, May said.
So far, about 70,000 people have applied for federal assistance, said Steele. Those parishes are mostly in south central Louisiana.
People can seek federal disaster aid by signing up at www.disasterassistance.gov.
Torrential rains have caused widespread flooding in parts of southern Louisiana.
Authorities in a community in southern Louisiana are calling for residents to evacuate amid rising waters there. About 138,000 people live in the parish.
Cases of bottled water, cleaning supplies, baby diapers and more are piling in the hall of Broadmoor Baptist Church in Madison.
The truly sad part is that many homeowners chose not to carry flood insurance because they live outside of the “100-year” flood zone, FEMA dubs the, “Special Flood Hazard Area” (SFHA.) This is a zone where you are required to carry flood insurance, so homeowners that did not purchase flood insurance separately will get no money for their losses.
Louisiana’s economic development office is encouraging business owners to register for federal disaster aid and to look at other available support services at www.OpportunityLouisiana.com. Floodwaters had never come within 200 yards of the place before, he said.
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But though the rain had mostly stopped, new places in the state are facing flood dangers from the deluge that has sent thousands into shelters. In Ascension Parish, some small towns were already inundated.
