American comedian and television host Ellen DeGeneres showed her solidarity to those affected by tweeting “Louisiana, I love you” while actor Eliza Dushku called on people to support residents in “tough times“.
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The area that has been hit the hardest is Ascension Parish where nearly a third of all homes have been damaged after floodwater overtopped a levee along the Amite River, according to the Baton Rouge Advocate.
(AP Photo/Max Becherer). In this Sunday, Aug. 14, 2016 photo, a girl takes her pony for a walk on the dry road where homes were flooded near Walker, La., after heavy rains inundated the region. In neighboring Livingston Parish, there were another handful.
The NWS said other areas of the United States faced threats of flash floods – from the Texas coast to the Ohio River Valley. A total of 12 parishes can now access Federal Emergency Management Aid.
More than 70,000 people have registered for individual assistance and more than 9,000 have filed flood insurance claims. “When you have a storm that is unnamed – it wasn’t a tropical storm, it wasn’t a hurricane – a lot of times people underestimate the impact that it would have…”
“About 40,000 homes have been damaged to varying degrees by the disaster”, Edwards told a press conference. It was a welcome moment of levity after days of worry around the state’s southeast, which saw thousands of water rescues. “It’s going to be a hard one”.
Many parishes in Louisiana were collecting donations for flood victims, including food, water, blankets and hygiene products.
“I can not stress to our residents enough the magnitude of this situation”, Meredith Conger, planning and intelligence officer at Ascension Parish Homeland Security, said in a video statement Monday night.
A vehicle is seen after flooding in Gonzales, Louisiana.
Rivers and creeks were still dangerously bloated in areas south of Baton Rouge as the water made its way toward the Gulf of Mexico.
A third of Ascension’s 45,000 homes have been flooded – and waters there are expected to rise.
Rivers in Louisiana had reached record levels wreaking havoc over the residents as heavy rains continued to lash the state.
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.
Officials from Livingston Parish were in Baton Rouge on Tuesday to talk to federal officials about getting temporary housing for their first responders – a sign of the housing crunch likely to come with so many people out of their homes for weeks and perhaps months.
“They took all the TV’s, everything they could get their hands on”, Elmira Perkins, a Baton Rouge local, said of her north Baton Rouge home.
A 59-year-old man who died in the same parish appeared to have been swept away by rushing floodwaters. Officials have reported five in East Baton Rouge Parish, three in Tangipahoa Parish, two in St. Helena Parish and one in Rapides Parish.
“The Red Cross is mounting a massive relief operation, which we anticipate will cost at least $30 million and that number may grow as we learn more about the scope and magnitude of the devastation”, Brad Kieserman, vice president for disaster services operations and logistics for the Red Cross, said in a statement.
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May and her family were among those rescued.
