Thousands Rescued, Motorists Still Stranded on Interstate in Flood-Soaked Louisiana

Ada Carr and Ryan Phillips
Published: August 14,2016

Three people have died and one remains missing as torrential rains continue to inundate both Louisiana and southern Mississippi, flooding homes and forcing evacuations and water rescues.
As of Saturday, more than 30 inches of rain fell in Watson, Louisiana, according to observations relayed to the National Weather Service.
Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency for the entire state. Edwards held a press conference in Baton Rouge on Saturday, where he cited the weekend flooding as the third major flooding event the state has endured this year.
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant issued a state of emergency Saturday for Adams, Amite, Pike, and Wilkinson counties, as well as any other counties affected by the heavy rainfall and flooding.
(MORE: Where This Storm System Is Headed Next)
The downpours have sent at least six river gauges to record levels in Louisiana. This includes the Amite River which exceeded its previous record by over six feet in Magnolia, and by over four feet in Denham Springs.

Aerial view before and after in Denham Springs, Louisiana. (After image: Patrick Dennis/The Advocate via AP, Before Image: Google Earth)

Here's the latest on this flooding event.

Rescue Efforts In Full Force on Sunday 

Mike Steele, communications director for the Louisiana Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, told weather.com on Sunday that there was a huge spike in flood rescues overnight, mostly in the eastern half of Baton Rouge into Denham Springs.
"It’s kind of an all hands on deck," he said in a phone interview. "We still have a situation where motorists are stranded on I-12, and it remains closed between here and St. Tammany Parish, so the whole interstate system from Baton Rouge to that location is still closed."
Steele said the Louisiana State Police are currently in the process of airlifting supplies to those stranded along the interstate.
State police posted on Facebook that hundreds of cars were stranded on "islands" along the interstate in eastern Livingston Parish. Steele said some flooded spots were too deep for high water vehicles to traverse, while other spots littered with cars made it dangerous to attempt a helicopter landing. 
In terms of the number of homes impacted, Steele said more than 1,000 have been flooded in Baton Rouge - a number that is expected to climb. In Livingston, more than 1,000 homes have been impacted, along with 200 in St. Helena Parish, and 500 or more in Tangipahoa Parish. Apart from residential damage, Steele said they are also monitoring nursing homes and hospitals in the area that could be impacted by rising water.
Steele said the Louisiana Air National Guard (LANG) currently has about 200 full-time employees working, plus about 750 guardsmen that have been deployed - a number that could climb to 1,000 soon. Additionally, he said 160 high water vehicles were in use as of last night, along with 35 watercraft, which brought the LANG rescue total to more than 3,500 people and 166 pets as of Sunday morning.
As more rain fell and floodwaters rose last night in the Baton Rouge area, Steele said buses were used to move people out of their communities. Steele then said as the water rapidly swelled, rescue efforts had to speed up with it.
"The water came up really fast overnight and we have more rain coming in now," he said. "It got so bad, I could hear concern on the scanners saying we needed to move the buses out of there fast."
Rescue efforts will persist into Sunday, but Steele pointed out that motorists need to be aware of the current conditions and avoid site-seeing amid storm damage to avoid putting a further strain on state resources.

Three Dead in Louisiana

Flooding triggered by the heavy rainfall has left at least three people dead in the Pelican State.
On Friday, 68-year-old William Mayfield drowned trying to escape floodwaters near Zachary, Louisiana, as heavy rains piled up water in the northeastern regions of the state, NBC News reported.
"We were in the trailer just watching TV and then the water just started coming up," Vernon Drummond, Mayfield's roommate, told the station. "We were walking out and he slipped and fell. He went under the water. We tried to save him, but we couldn't."

Flooding in Centreville, Mississippi, Friday morning.
(Sherry Jefferson)

Rescue crews in Zachary recovered Mayfield's body Friday morning, according to WAFB. Drummond says Mayfield is originally from Los Angeles and does not have any family in the area.
East Baton Rouge Parish Emergency Management Director JoAnne Moreau told CNN that the body of an elderly man was recovered. The victim was being helped through floodwaters when he slipped into a ditch.
The body of a 40-year-old woman from Amite was recovered Saturday from the Tickfaw River. The woman, her husband and the woman's mother-in-law were driving on a state highway Friday when their car was swept off the road. The woman's husband and mother-in-law clung to a tree for hours before they were rescued Saturday.
A man is still missing after he and his son were swept away by rushing waters in Tangipahoa Parish, CNN also reports.
Police Chief Darrell Martin told CNN that the son has been located.
Carey Chauvin, assistant chief administrative officer for the city of Baton Rouge, told weather.com that the damage is widespread throughout the parish and that search and rescue efforts were still ongoing.
"We just ask people to be vigilant since this is such a major event ... anybody that doesn't need to be out should stay in," he said in a phone interview.

Small Town Devastated, State of Emergency Issued in Mississippi

Four counties in Mississippi have been placed under a state of emergency as of Saturday, according to a release from the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.
"I want to make sure all Mississippians that were forced out of their homes by this flooding are taken care of," said Bryant in the release. "This state of emergency will ensure state resources are available to all local governments that need help."
Mississippi officials say the heavy rain and flooding has affected almost all of the 342 people living in the small town of Crosby.
According to Wilkinson County Chancery Clerk Thomas Tolliver Jr., residents left their homes Friday as the town was inundated by floodwaters. Some people were able to leave on their own, but others had to be rescued. Most were sent to shelters in Natchez.
Tolliver said most of the buildings in Crosby sustained water damage.
Water rescues have also been reported in Centreville, Mississippi, according to the NWS.

'Unprecedented, Historic' Flooding in Louisiana

Residents in Louisiana are being urged to heed warnings to evacuate and not rely on their past experience, as the state has never seen flooding like this before.
"This is an ongoing event," said Edwards. "We're still in response mode."
During a press conference Saturday, Edwards said more than 1,000 people and 100 pets had been rescued from the deluge. As of Sunday, 23 Parishes had declared states of emergency, while Edwards has already declared a state of emergency for the entire state.
Saturday a news release from the U.S. Coast Guard said the service has rescued five people from floodwaters in the Baton Rouge area. A helicopter crew saved two adults and their 6-year-old child from their home and took them to the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport.
A second helicopter crew rescued two women and evacuated them to the airport as well.
In Baker, Louisiana,  dozens of residents had to be rescued by boats or wade through waist-deep, snake-infested water to reach dry ground.
"This is the worst it's been, ever," resident John Mitchell told the Associated Press. "We tried to wait it out, but we had to get out."
Mitchell told AP he swam to safety with his pit bull after officers in a boat picked up his girlfriend and her 1-year-old daughter.
Friday morning, Shanita Angrum called 911 when she realized flood waters had trapped her family in their home. A police officer carried her 6-year-old daughter on his back while Angrum and her husband waded behind them for what "felt like forever."
"Snakes were everywhere," Angrum told AP. "The whole time I was just praying for God to make sure me and my family were ok."
Edwards and his family were also displaced by the deluge, after the basement of the Governor's Mansion flooded Friday, according to NOLA.com.
"That's never happened before," the governor told AP.

Saturday the Vermillion Parish emergency manager estimated that 1,500 homes had been flooded throughout the community, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).
Officials at Louisiana State Univeristy announced Saturday that its football "Fan Day" and media day scheduled for Sunday were canceled due to the flooding. Vice-chancellor and director of athletics Joe Alleva said in a news release that Fan Day will not be rescheduled.
The Advocate reported that about 1,400 LSU students - who are scheduled to start class on Aug. 22 - had already moved into on-campus housing when the flooding began. Move in dates slated for Saturday and Sunday were canceled.
The flooding was so bad Friday in Walker, Louisiana, that caskets were unearthed in St. Mark's Cemetery. Photos posted by the Walker Police Department on Facebook showed at least two bright yellow caskets floating in floodwaters.
"Virtually every road now in the city has some kind of water problem," Central, Louisiana, mayor Jr. Shelton told the Baton Rouge Advocate. "We've never seen anything like this before."

Heavy rains caused street flooding in Denham Springs, Lousiana, Friday morning.
(Jordan Grove)

A school bus ferrying children home veered off the road and into a ditch in Zachary, according to a separate Baton Rouge Advocate report. Zachary police chief David McDavid said no one was injured in the accident, which likely occurred when the driver didn't see a turn due to high floodwaters.
NWS declared a flash flood emergency Friday morning as rising water entered St. Helena Parish Hospital and a local nursing home. The rising water was also responsible for isolating the towns of Greenburg, Louisiana, and Osyka, Mississippi.
Flooding also forced an Amtrak train traveling from Chicago to New Orleans to stop in central Mississippi because floodwaters covered the tracks, according to the AP. Amtrak planned to bus the passengers to New Orleans, the report added.
A motorist sustained moderate injuries Friday after a tree was knocked over onto their vehicle in St. Helena Parish, according to the Louisiana Police Department.

The National Guard has deployed high water vehicles to make rescues in St. Helena Parish, Louisiana, WWLT.com reports. Interstate 55 was closed in both directions in St. Helena Parish due to flooding, the Louisiana Department of Transportation reported Friday.
St. Charles Parish President Larry Cochran declared a state of emergency Thursday in a precautionary move in anticipation of further rainfall and flooding later this week, WBRZ.com reported.
"Within two hours, it was flooded," St. Charles resident Tiffany Jackson told Fox 8. “It went from master bedroom to my son’s bedroom to the hallway to the kitchen to the bathroom, and every time I swept it up it just kept coming back in."
The office of Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards on Saturday morning also released a revised list of shelters for those impacted by floods.

Rivers Rising to Record Levels

All this heavy rain quickly overwhelmed waterways in the region. The Tickfaw River reached a record flood stage of 13.33 feet at Liverpool, according to the NWS, and crests on the Amite and Comite Rivers are forecast to exceed record levels set in 1983.
By Saturday morning, the Amite River in Denham Springs, Louisiana, had reached the historic crest level of 41.5 feet, according to NWS. The tributary has been forecasted to reach 46 feet by Sunday morning.
As of Saturday, the Comite River in Louisiana has surpassed its historic level of 30.64 feet. The waterway crested to 31.74 feet and is forecasted to rise to 34.5 feet by Sunday morning.
During the record flood that year, the Amite and Comite rivers flooded 3,025 homes and businesses in Livingston Parish, 1,615 in East Baton Rouge Parish and 828 in Ascension Parish, the Baton Rouge Advocate said.