More than 24 inches of rain have fallen since Wednesday in Livingston, near Baton Rouge, making the disaster an extremely rare weather event, according to the National Weather Service. AT&T mobile users in the greater Baton Rouge area have reported large outages of service.
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There were 14,000 people staying in shelters, mostly in the state capital Baton Rouge and surrounding communities, he said. “It was an absolute act of God”.
“We are not in control as far as how fast these floodwaters will recede, and in fact they are still going up in some places”, Edwards said. He was in Baton Rouge to help his parents and grandparents, who got flooded out.
Forecasters said one reason was the sheer, nearly off-the-charts intensity of the storm and the difficulty of predicting how bad it would be.
But Graham emphasized that forecasting exactly how much rain is going to fall and where is almost impossible.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before”, said Barbara Manuel, 41, speaking on the side of the road as she was about to get in a National Guard vehicle.
It continued on Saturday, with some areas receiving almost 17 inches in one day. Another hard-hit area – Livingston – received almost 22 inches of rain over the same stretch.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Ben Beard said experts will be monitoring the situation, but generally, the agency is not concerned about floods triggering the spread of the Zika virus.
Six rivers in the state have reached historically high levels, and the flooding is not over yet.
As water starts to move out of heavily-flooded Livingston Parish in southern Louisiana, authorities assessing the damage believe three-quarters of the homes are destroyed.
Thousands of people spent Saturday night in shelters, Some sleeping on the floor because of a shortage of beds, according to officials. And some shelters had to shut down when they, too, started to take on water.
Motorists on Highway 190 drive through deep water through Holden, La.
After a night in the shelter, Marc Matherne planned to head back to see if he could help stranded neighbors.
The Mississippi emergency management agency said early Monday that damage reports were coming in on the flooding in neighboring Mississippi. “It just seemed like a normal event for us, but it wasn’t”.
The Louisiana National Guard reported that its soldiers rescued almost 500 people and 61 pets in the 24 hours between Friday and Saturday, by boat, helicopter and high-water (high-clearance) vehicles.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency for the entire state of Louisiana on Friday, and the Obama administration is expected to expand the federal declaration to include more parishes as assessments are conducted. “I had my family, and we were able to help some people”.
Louisiana state police Col Michael Edmonson said helicopters were transporting food and water to those still trapped by floods.
Two people died in St. Helena Parish, Lisa Ballard with the sheriff’s office said.
“You’ve got all of these people who hunt and fish who have more experience than the average first-responder”, said Serigne, a TV producer of an outdoors show and marketing director for marine equipment business.
The U.S. Coast Guard said its crews had rescued dozens of people from Baton Rouge during the flooding, picking them up from rooftops, cars and trailers.
Above the water, he said, snakes trying to escape the deluge have been spotted in trees, and rescuers must be careful of power lines that are close overhead because the water is so high.
Another eight parishes have been added to Louisiana’s federal disaster declaration, boosting the number of parishes available for federal aid to 12.
Despite the dangers, people ventured out.
“We’re going to have standing water all over south Louisiana”, Edwards told CNN.
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The slow-moving, low-pressure system moved into Texas, but the National Weather Service warned that there’s still a danger of more rain and fresh floods, as swollen rivers drain toward the Gulf of Mexico.
