The system had numerous same atmospheric features seen in tropical storms, and it sprawled across the Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle.
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More than 20,000 people were rescued from their homes through Sunday night, Edwards said during the briefing.
The storm has put another 12,000 people into temporary shelters, Governor John Bel Edwards said during a press conference.
“The simple fact is we are breaking records”, Edwards said.
The manner of death and identification – confirmation of a flood-related death – will come from the coroner’s office, Ms Hicks said.
A man and woman drowned when he was swept away in flood waters in Tangipahoa Parish, most likely on Friday night.
The flooding dramatically impacted scores of people across Louisiana, forcing families to flee to safe ground and stranding people on waterlogged interstates.
“Once the water recedes, all these homes that are completely covered with water, we got to go to every single one of those and go inside of them and check for anybody who might be in those areas”, he told CNN.
The Guard troops, alongside local and state first responders, have been working through the weekend as southern Louisiana faced torrential downpours that pushed rivers and creeks above flood stage – some areas saw close to two feet of rain over a 48-hour period, according to The Associated Press.
Tangipahoa Parish public schools are closed until August 22.
She couldn’t say how many homes and businesses in Ascension were affected by the flooding, but said majority were in some way.
The federal government declared it a major disaster for four parishes around Baton Rouge. The White House said that Obama was briefed about the flooding by Lisa Monaco, his adviser for homeland security. Courthouses in Baton Rouge, Ascension Parish, Acadia, Lafayette, Vermillion and Washington parishes were all closed, with at least the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Louisiana, if not others, closed until further notice. Gov. Edwards said President Barack Obama called him and said the people of southern Louisiana were in his thoughts and prayers and that the federal government would be a solid partner.
Louisiana restaurant operators began recovering Monday after devastating rains that caused historic flooding in the southwestern part of the state.
The Amite and Comite rivers were among those hit with record flooding.
The Coast Guard said its helicopters rescued more than 50 people from rooftops, vehicles and trailers on Saturday. Residents were pulled from water-logged homes, flooded cars and at-risk hospitals across the southern portion of the state, he said. Besides the flash flooding, Ameren said more than 15,000 customers in Missouri were without power.
As meteorologist Tim Destri with the NWS New Orleans/Baton Rouge office explains it, a low pressure system forms near the surface bringing deep tropical moisture from the warmer water in the Caribbean – nearly like a hurricane but without the wind and the name. Jeff Gaschel, a hydrologist for the National Weather Service, said some areas of the Amite River won’t crest until Monday.
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The flood was the result of an inland tropical depression, a combination of tropical moisture, a low pressure system in the area and large amounts of moisture in the air.
