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| A Louisiana Army National Guard dump truck was swept away and submerged in flood waters near Walker. (MAX BECHERER/AP) |
Rsidents began to return to water-ravaged homes Tuesday in Baton Rouge, La., after days of heavy rain submerged large stretches of southern Louisiana, killing 11 and prompting rescues of tens of thousands of people.
Nearly 15,000 homes across Ascension — roughly a third of the households in the parish — were flooded, said Richard Webre, director of the parish’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. About 800 parish residents were in shelters.
The Louisiana flooding is likely the worst natural disaster in the United States since Superstorm Sandy hammered the East Coast in 2012, according to the Red Cross. More than 10,600 people have sought refuge at Red Cross shelters across Louisiana, and the disaster relief organization estimates that its response efforts could cost as much as $10 million.
Harrowing rescues were posted on social media as emergency rescue teams continued to evacuate residents Monday in East Baton Rouge, Livingston and Ascension parishes. The East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office shared footage taken from a helicopter Monday of rescuers saving a man from waist-high floodwater and two men clinging to a tree. The men were attempting to leave their flooded home in a residential neighborhood when they were caught in the current. A civilian in a boat rescued the man from the water, and sheriff’s deputies pulled the other two from the tree.
So far, local and state officials have reported that nine people have died as a result of flooding – four in East Baton Rouge Parish, two in St. Helena Parish, two in Tangipahoa Parish, and one in Rapides Parish. On Tuesday, Edwards said that volunteers and law enforcement officers had rescued "well over" 20,000 residents.
Edwards said emergency crews in Livingston and Ascension parishes were beginning to coordinate door-to-door search-and-rescue operations in flooded areas to check and mark homes, as well as cars that had washed off roadways.
“It’s going to be difficult,” he said. “We have a lot of pockets of water that make it very difficult to get into those places and search those places.”
By Jenny Jarvie
