Ruinous flooding catches much of Louisiana off guard
LOUISIANA | BATON ROUGE — An act of God is how some are describing it, a catastrophic 48-hour torrent of rain that sent thousands of people in Louisiana scrambling for safety and left many wondering how a region accustomed to hurricanes could get caught off guard so badly.
At least six people have been killed and more than 20,000 have had to be rescued since Friday in some of the worst flooding the state has ever seen.
A seventh body was pulled from floodwaters Monday, said Casey Rayborn Hicks, a spokeswoman for the East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s office. A volunteer patrolling in his boat found the body, and sheriff’s units confirmed the discovery.
As of Monday, the rain had mostly stopped, but rivers and creeks in many areas were still dangerously bloated and new places were getting hit by flooding. In areas south of Baton Rouge, people were filling sandbags, protecting their houses and bracing for the worst as the water worked its way south.
More than 11,000 people were staying in shelters.
“It was an absolute act of God. We’re talking about places that have literally never flooded before,” said Anthony “Ace” Cox, who started a Facebook group to help collect information about where people were stranded.
“Everybody got caught off guard,” he said.
Forecasters said one reason was the sheer, almost off-the-charts intensity of the storm.
Meteorologist Ken Graham, of the National Weather Service’s office in Slidell, said forecasters alerted people days in advance of the storms. The forecasts Thursday were for 8 inches of rain, with higher totals expected in some areas.
But Graham emphasized that forecasting exactly how much rain is going to fall and where is nearly impossible.