Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Flooding in the South: 4 Dead in Floodwaters; Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain Causeway Reopens

Sean Breslin
Published: April 15,2015



 
Heavy rain continues to affect the South and the Gulf Coast, bringing fatal flash flooding to Louisiana and stranding drivers on impassable roads across multiple states. Large hail and heavy rain pelted New Orleans Wednesday night, and water rescues have been ongoing in parts of Kentucky and West Virginia.
Louisiana has been particularly hard hit by the flooding and at least three people died Tuesday. Three-year-old Remy Dufrene died after floodwaters swept the boy into a drainage ditch in Lafourche Parish. In Kenner, Louisiana, a mother and her daughter drowned after their SUV veered off the road and submerged in a local, rain-swollen canal, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office confirms.
A Kentucky man was found dead in a creek after search and rescue teams located his submerged vehicle.
"Impulses of upper-level energy combined with plenty of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico will keep the South unsettled through the end of the week. As a result, the threat of localized flooding will continue in parts of the region where rain or thunderstorms persist in any one location for too long," weather.com meteorologist Chris Dolce said.
(FORECAST: Heavy Rain, Flash Flood Threat for the Gulf Coast, South Continues This Week)
The storms also created a dangerous situation when lightning ignited a few storage tanks in western Texas Sunday night, according to The Associated Press. Hundreds of miles away, a mother and daughter were injured by a lightning strike in Macclenny, Florida.
Here are the latest impacts from several of the states affected by this round of flooding.

Alabama

Mobile, Alabama, saw its fair share of flooding Monday morning, and, as AL.com reports, heavy rain led the sewer system to overflow across the city.
On top of the rain, lightning struck a major water main in Mobile last night, cutting off water service to local businesses and flooding roads in South Mobile County.


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Bellingrath Rd flooding in South Mobile County.

Florida

In Macclenny, Florida, a woman and her daughter were taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries after lightning struck near the pair, First Coast News says.
That same lightning strike caused a structure to catch fire, but no word is out on other impacts.
(MORE: How To Stay Safe If Flooding Threatens)
Northeast of Orlando, Deltona residents are wondering why a brand-new $750,000 pump station did very little to keep the heavy rain from flooding the streets. WESH.com reported some residents sustained thousands of dollars in damage to their homes after being assured the pumps would keep the water away.
"It was built to solve this problem so we're just really frustrated," resident Beth Ojalvo told WESH.com.
Some of the first severe impacts from this storm system came early Monday morning when a local storm spotter reported 11 inches of rain near Cottondale. The town of Alford reported more than 10 inches of rain as well.

Kentucky

Heavy rain unearthed a casket in a Mercer County cemetery, causing water damage and prompting crews to drain the site, WKYT-TV reported. The grave, belonging to Hazel Turner, will need to be dug out again. "You can see the vault sticking up," Hazel's son Larry Turner told WKYT, "It looks like a bomb has gone off on top of the grave. There's barely any dirt, there's a huge hole at the headstone." Other graves in the cemetery were not affected.
Residents of Carter County experienced another round of flood waters inundating homes, businesses and cars Tuesday, WSAZ reported. Resident Gennie Boley told WSAZ, "This morning, I woke up to a little bit out here and within the last couple of hours now, it's all of this again, in my basement and garage again."
A Lincoln County school bus was nearly stranded in high waters, facing the driver with a difficult decision, WKYT reported. "The water was overflow from a creek. It was not moving. I know the road and the lay of the land and felt confident that I could safely drive through it without compromising the safety of the students on the bus. And that is what I did. I made the best decision that I could in difficult circumstances,"  the driver said in an official statement from the school system. No one was hurt.
In Madison County, Kentucky, search and rescue teams found a man's body in a creek, WKYT reports.
Businesses in Liberty, Kentucky, evacuated Tuesday, including the local H&R Block, which is in the midst of its busiest time of the year.
Kentucky Highway 699 remains closed after a massive rockslide blocked the roadway in both directions near Cutshin late Tuesday afternoon, the National Weather Service reported.
Another large rockslide closed Kentucky 1274 in Menifee County Tuesday, WKYT said. Heavy rains caused a massive boulder and several other stones to fall, blocking both lanes of the road. The road was later reopened:
Businesses along the U.S. 127 bypass near Yosemite were told to evacuate due to flooding Tuesday afternoon, according to local storm reports. The order came after several water rescues were performed in the area.
Flooding has been a constant concern for many Kentucky towns this spring, as relentless rains and snowmelt have pushed rivers to their brink. In the town of Paris, located just a few dozen miles northeast of Lexington in Bourbon County, residents are cleaning out their sodden homes after a round of flooding left widespread damage, and they're worried that this week's rain will only cause more problems.
"It starts raining and we are going to start getting paranoid you know. And I say here we go again," Paris resident Mike Herrington told LEX18.com.
(MORE: Here's Why It's Dangerous To Stay in a Car During a Flash Flood)
Not far from Paris, the towns of Salt Lick and Jeffersonville reported flooding Tuesday morning, according to local storm reports. A water rescue was necessary in Salt Lick when a small stream overflowed its banks and the water went into a nearby home, the report added.

Louisiana

Nearly 2,000 Entergy Louisiana customers were without power during the storm Wednesday night, according to the utility's website.
Severe weather prompted officials to close the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway Wednesday evening, WDSU-TV reported. The Causeway has since reopened.
3-year-old Remy Dufrene was killed in Lafourche Parish Tuesday after falling into a drainage ditch and being swept away by the swift current, the Associated Press reported.
The current, strengthened by torrential rains, carried the boy 75 yards downstream where his father Drake Dufrene discovered the body and unsuccessfully attempted to revive him.
CBS 4 reports that a woman and her daughter both died after their SUV veered off the road and submerged in a local canal in Kenner, Louisiana.
A group of people attempted to rescue 32-year-old Elizabeth Braddock and her 6-year-old daughter Carrisa Wise, but by the time they could flip the submerged SUV, it was too late to revive the pair.
Flood waters stalled vehicles on Louisiana Highway 1 and led to multiple road closures in southern Louisiana, WAFB-TV reported.
Torrential rainfall led to serious problems in eastern Louisiana Tuesday morning. In areas near Slidell, 3.4 inches of rain fell in one hour, according to local storm reports.
A handful of towns reported street flooding as the heavy rain fell Tuesday morning, all in southern Louisiana. According to the Associated Press, the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway bridge was closed Tuesday morning due to the heavy rain.
Roads in Mandeville closed Tuesday because of high water levels, The Times-Picayune reports.
(MORE: New Orleans Storm Produces Large Hail and Brief Tornado Warning)

Mississippi

Severe storms passing through brought hail and caused damage in southern Mississippi Wednesday night, including downed trees and power lines, as well as a damaged barn, Mississippi News Now reported.
An elderly woman leaving her trailer to seek shelter was swept up by flood waters in Hancock County Tuesday, WLOX-TV reported. Luckily, the woman's neighbors were close enough to help and pulled her from the quick current. Due to the heavy rainfall, roads in the county resemble creeks.
Flooding concerns began late Tuesday morning for the state, especially along the Gulf Coast. Several roads in the Picayune area were deemed impassable by the local police department, according to local storm reports. Near Beatrice, a roadway had to be barricaded after it was covered in floodwaters.
The National Weather Service confirmed an EF1 tornado touched down in Scott County during a round of rain and severe weather Monday night. The tornado snapped several trees, blew a roof off a barn and damaged the roof of a home. The NWS confirmed an additional two EF0 tornadoes, which touched down in Leake and Hinds counties and caused minor damage to homes and other structures.

Texas

ABC 8 reports that Fort Worth roads started flooding Monday morning and rescue crews were dispatched to save drivers in submerged vehicles across the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
At the University of North Texas in Denton, eyewitnesses say they saw dumpsters picked up by floodwaters and carried across an intersection.
In Saginaw, a suburb of Fort Worth, flash floods submerged local roads, as captured on Twitter:


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@TXThunderTruck @NBCDFWWeather @RickMitchellWX flooding in Saginaw by the rodeo arenas

In some areas of Fort Worth, the water rushed over roadways like a raging rapid, Celia de la Cruz told WFAA.com.
"It just comes this way and heads that way; it's just horrible," she said in the report.
(MORE: Scientists Say This Is Messing With Our Weather)
Oncor reports that over 2,000 customers in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex lost power by mid-morning.
A United Airways flight made a hard landing in rainy weather at Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas, before sliding into muddy grass off the runway.
The National Weather Service says that portions of Highway 385 in west Texas were closed around noon because of flooding, and in Midland, Texas, at least one vehicle was stranded by the rain.

West Virginia

A massive boulder fell during a large rockslide Tuesday afternoon, blocking Blue Creek Road in Kanawha County, WSAZ-TV reported. As of 7 p.m. Wednesday night, road crews had opened one lane.
A major landslide that has been moving for weeks at Charleston's Yeager Airport slipped yet again Tuesday morning, and emergency crews scrambled to respond to the latest movement.
Emergency water channels have been dug by crews near the airport, where a landslide took out a chunk of a runway, according to WCHS-TV. There have been no evacuations, the report added.
Flooding became a major concern in the Mountain State Tuesday morning. Street flooding was reported in several towns, and multiple water rescues occurred early in the morning.
Multiple roads were closed near Spencer and homes in Sissonville were surrounded by water, according to local storm reports.
West Virginia MetroNews reported Lincoln County Schools will be closed Tuesday as the area deals with the flooding.
MORE: Flooding in Louisville, Kentucky, April 3, 2015

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