Private citizens also contributed to search and rescue efforts but the flood waters continue to claim victims. “The dramatic images are all too familiar in Louisiana – water up to the eaves of homes, people stranded on rooftops, some lifted to safety by helicopter rescue teams”, she said.
Advertisement
(Travis Spradling/The Advocate via AP).
The flooding, which have also hit hard the neighboring state of MS, are “not finished”, warned John Bel Edwards.
Residents wade through floodwaters from heavy rains in the Chateau Wein Apartments in Baton Rouge, La., Friday, Aug. 12, 2016. Much like the hurricane disasters which struck the state, the National Guard has been called in. “We tried to wait it out, but we had to get out”.
Immediately, she says: “Get my dog!”
For the many people forced out of their homes, there is the added complication of limited mobile phone service.
From the air, homes in southwest Louisiana looked more like little islands.
From the ground it was just as catastrophic.
The National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings extending from the Texas coast to the Ohio River Valley. Ankle-deep water filled his home; he hopes an insurance payout will help replace the floors.
“When I woke up this morning, I had a toolbox floating in my front yard”, Rhonda Hughes of Livingston Parish told NBC station WVLA of Baton Rouge. Doug Cain. Those were two of the hardest-hit areas.
As of Sunday night, President Barack Obama declared Louisiana a major disaster in East Baton Rouge, Livingston, St. Helena and Tangipahoa, in an effort to provide the areas federal funding.
“This is a serious event”. The governor said on Twitter late in the day that everyone had been rescued. The man, who was not identified, drowned, said Devin George, director of the state registrar.
Another man was found dead after washing up on a riverbank in Tangipahoa Parish.
About 200 roads were closed Sunday due to the high water, and 1,400 bridges need to be inspected before they are reopened to traffic, officials said. Scores of shelters were opened across Louisiana, with the largest number in East Baton Rouge Parish, the state’s biggest parish with more than 446,000 residents.
A team led by Coast Guard helicopter pilot Lt. Mike Hennebery picked up two people from the second-story porch of a Baton Rouge house Sunday.
But she wasn’t the only one trapped. The couple had been visiting family in Baton Rouge when the flooding started. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries said at least 100 pets have been rescued since Friday. Water was creeping up to the back of the sanctuary, and they didn’t have any food or water there.
Emergency crews plucked motorists from stranded cars in high water along a stretch of south Louisiana interstate yesterday and pulled others from inundated homes.
“This is unprecedented”, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said Saturday.
Elsewhere, a rescue caught on video showed three men in a boat pulling a woman out of her submerged auto as it filled with water.
Advertisement
The woman shouts, “Oh my God, I’m drowning!” One video tweeted out on Saturday captured a man jumping off a boat and ripping the roof off a sports vehicle to pull a woman and her dog to safety just as the auto completely submerges. They even managed to save her dog.
