Published: March 10,2016
Rivers quickly rose near record flood stages and homes were submerged in what the National Weather Service in Shreveport, Louisiana, is calling a historic flash flooding event. The rainfall is expected to persist in many areas on Thursday. More than 20 inches of rain have fallen in the hardest-hit places.
(MORE: Additional Flooding Expected | 2 Dead as Storms Slam West Coast)
Here's how each state has been affected.
Louisiana
Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency for several parishes and sent the National Guard to help with water rescues. In Bossier Parish, shocking images of nearly submerged homes surfaced Tuesday morning.
Wow. The flooding in Bossier Parish, LA. is extreme and devastating - water up to rooftops. @CBSThisMorning
Authorities ordered mandatory evacuations of 3,500 homes near the Red Chute Bayou in Bossier City in concern that the waters could topple its levees and ravage the densely populated area, according to KTBS.com.
“After a while, with more rain coming in, we’re probably not going to be able to get in and out of our neighborhood because a lot of it is under water," resident Jennifer Williams told KTBS.com. "A lot of the homes are under water.”
Near Shreveport, where nearly a foot of rain has fallen and another half-foot or more is on the way, up to 80 homes were flooded and a nursing home had to be evacuated due to rising waters, according to the Associated Press. The NWS reported 30 homes were flooded near Haughton Tuesday night, including the Meadowview Health & Rehab Center, which required evacuations in the rehab wing of their facility due to floodwaters.
(MORE: The Lower 48 Just Had a Record-Breaking Winter)
Haughton Police officers and Bossier Sheriff's Office deputies used boats to evacuate residents on affected streets. Haughton is about 20 miles east of Shreveport. No injuries have been reported from the flooding in Louisiana so far, but one death was confirmed near Houston Monday night.
Major flooding has brought Interstate 20 to a halt from Bienville Parish to Bossier Parish. Eastbound I-20 was closed at I-220 in Bossier City and both directions of the highway were closed between Exit 61 and Exit 55 in Bienville Parish, Louisiana State Police spokesman Matt Harris told KSLA.com. In the South Shreveport metro area, a stretch of I-49 near Wallace Lake Thursday morning.
In Bastrop, the NWS reported that the Eden Apartments were evacuated as a result of rising floodwaters in the area. In the Caddo Parish town of Belcher, seven people and six dogs were rescued from floodwaters that surrounded a mobile home Wednesday morning, according to KTBS.com. There were no injuries in the incident.
"They were calm but they were glad to be out," Caddo Fire Chief Danny Richardson told KTBS.com. "The water was two to three inches from the trailer and four feet deep in the yard."
All Bossier, Caddo, Claiborne, Natchitoches, Sabine and Webster parish public schools will be closed Thursday following the severe weather, according to WTVM.com. All additional closures and delays can be found on their website.
Additional water rescues and evacuations occurred Thursday morning in Vernon Parish, more than 100 miles south of Shreveport, according to the sheriff's office.
Oklahoma
In rural southeastern Oklahoma, officials confirmed a 30-year-old man drowned in his SUV Tuesday night after attempting to cross a bridge covered in floodwaters, the AP reported. The victim was identified as Michael Liles of Broken Bow. A passenger in the SUV was able to swim to safety, the report added.Arkansas
Hours of heavy rainfall and rising floodwaters has caused at least a dozen families to be evacuated from their homes in Chicot County. The NWS reported nearly three-and-a-half feet of water covering Highway 65 in the Natural State.
Pic from Pine Bluff and @KATVNews photog Larry Potter. Entrance to Hampton Inn off I530 flooded. @KATVToddYak #arwx
Mississippi
Flooding worsened in parts of western and northwestern Mississippi Thursday morning, as some roads were flooded. In northeastern Greenville, some residents were evacuated Thursday morning, according to NWS storm reports.Tennessee
Streets were flooded in Memphis as heavy rain persisted Thursday, and in other parts of western Tennessee, some residents had to be rescued from floodwaters. In Union City, where at least 4 inches of rain fell Wednesday, crews had to rescue a driver who got stranded in flooding along Knox Daniel Road, according to NWS storm reports.Schools will close early Thursday in several districts due to the flooding, according to the AP.
Texas
Nearly 10 inches of rain fell in parts of the Lone Star State, and in some areas, the impacts were even worse than the catastrophic flooding that occurred in Texas last May.Swift water rescue teams were dispatched to the Lake Mexia area in central Texas Wednesday afternoon due to reports of water rising around homes, KWTX.com reported. Those homes were evacuated as the lake rose to its highest level since 1979, the report added.
(PHOTOS: Severe Storms, Flooding Hit the South)
In Bexar County, a school bus flipped after sliding off a slick road Wednesday morning, the AP reported. The driver and another adult suffered minor injuries, but two special-needs children on board were not injured, Bexar County Sheriff's Office spokesperson James Keith told the AP.
Severe storms caused big problems in North Texas earlier in the week. In Hood County, southwest of Fort Worth, a confirmed EF1 tornado left damage near Tolar, destroying six mobile homes and damaging several others, emergency manager Ray Wilson told The Weather Channel. Two people were transported to a nearby hospital with non-life threatening injuries, he added.
During the height of the storm Tuesday, the awning of a gas station in Saginaw was blown off by strong winds, according to CBS DFW. Store clerk Tanya Jackson said two vehicles were parked at gas pumps underneath the awning and the drivers managed to escape just before it came down. Jackson was able to hit the emergency stop on the pumps before the awning collapsed, but some phone and cable lines were knocked down and trapped underneath. The store's driveway was left impassable.
Oncor reported more than 40,000 Dallas-area customers without power Tuesday, mostly due to wind damage.
In the town of Denton, a school bus was trapped in floodwaters Tuesday morning, and crews had to pull six children and the driver to safety, according to NBC Dallas-Fort Worth. There were no injuries, and the children were dropped off at Hodge Elementary School, the report added.
(MORE: In a Flash Flood, a Vehicle Can Be Your Biggest Danger)
To the southeast, a man was injured Tuesday morning in Garland when strong winds tore the roof off a building and threw it into the van in which he was sitting, according to the Dallas Morning News. The man had serious injuries, and after emergency responders pulled him from the van, he was transported to a local hospital, Lt. Pedro Barineau told the Dallas Morning News.
Monday night, the NWS reported several structures and vehicles were damaged by a possible tornado in Cool near Highway 180. The Parker County Sheriff announced that as a result of the storm, an entrapped man was rescued but wasn't hurt, and one horse suffered a broken leg. No other injuries were reported.
Following a damage survey, the NWS confirmed a tornado hit the area and assigned it a preliminary rating of EF1. Cool is located about 45 miles west of Fort Worth.
“We’re lucky that nobody was hurt," county spokesperson Joel Kertok told the Weatherford Democrat. "People were in those homes that were damaged."
In all, six tornadoes were confirmed in Texas from this round of severe weather.
In southeastern Texas, a man was killed Monday night when his kayak capsized as strong storms moved into the Houston area, the AP also reported. The body of 22-year-old Francisco Ruben Garza, of Hidalgo, was found in Dickinson Bayou, near Galveston Bay, after he and another man went kayaking, police spokesperson Tim Cromie said in a statement. The men were fishing as the storm moved in, but Garza was not wearing a life jacket, he also said.
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