Rising floodwaters leave thousands homeless in Louisiana

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Robert and Gwen Arceneaux endured a sleepless night Sunday after noticing floodwater creeping into their home -- in a neighborhood that never had seen water before.

They gathered up their dogs and a few bags of belongings and fled out the back door, wading through waist-deep water to a passing National Guard truck.

Now safe at a movie studio-lot-turned-shelter, their worries weren't over, as they tried to get medication for Robert, who suffers from lung cancer.

"We need to get somewhere safer," Gwen said, as her dogs panted under the hot sun.

Across southern Louisiana Sunday, residents scrambled to get to safety as rivers and creeks burst their banks, swollen from days of heavy rain that in some areas came close to two feet over a 48-hour period.

In high-water vehicles, boats and helicopters, emergency crews hurried to rescue scores of south Louisiana residents as the governor warned it was not over.

From the air, homes in southwest Louisiana looked more like islands surrounded by flooded fields. Farmland was covered, streets descended into impassable pools of water, and shopping centers were inundated, with only roofs of cars peeking above the water.

From the ground, it was as catastrophic.

Drivers tried to navigate treacherous roads where the water lapped at the side or covered the asphalt in a running stream. Abandoned cars were pushed to the side of the road, lawn furniture and children's toys floating through the waters.

The low-pressure system that wreaked such havoc moved into Texas, but the National Weather Service warned there still is danger of fresh floods as swollen rivers drain toward the Gulf of Mexico.

Most of the rivers have crested, but several still are rising.

About 18,000 people have been rescued from East Baton Rouge and Livingston Parishes, said Maj. Doug Cain. Those were two of the hardest-hit areas.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards called on people to refrain from going out to "sightsee" as the weather gets better.

Four people have been reported dead, said Devin George, the state registrar for vital records. The death toll rose Sunday when a man's body was found washed up on a riverbank in Tangipahoa Parish.

Mike Steele, spokesman for the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said there was an overnight spike in flood rescues in the eastern part of Baton Rouge. Two nursing homes were being evacuated.

Police rescued people from cars stranded on a miles-long stretch of Interstate 12.

One of those stranded motorists was Alex Cobb of Baton Rouge, who spent the night on the interstate before being rescued by a National Guard truck.

She was on her way to a bridal shower she was supposed to host Saturday when flooding closed the highway.

She said food intended for the bridal shower and produce from a truck up the road were shared with other stranded drivers.

Hundreds of people were gathered at Celtic Media Centre in Baton Rouge, some coming in by bus and others by helicopter.

Matthew and Rachel Fitzpatrick, from Brandon, Mississippi, hopped off one of the choppers with her grandparents. The couple had been visiting family in Baton Rouge when the flooding started. They found temporary refuge at Hebron Baptist Church but became trapped by floodwaters Saturday night.

People at the church used boats and big trucks to rescue others and bring them to the church, where helicopters started picking them up and flying them to safety Sunday.

Matthew, 29, said between 250 and 300 people were still at the church as of late afternoon Sunday. Water was creeping up to the back of the sanctuary, and they didn't have any food or water there.

"Everybody is just tired and nervous and wanting to see what kind of damage they have to their home," Rachel said.

Steele said the flooding that started Friday has damaged more than 1,000 homes in East Baton Rouge Parish, more than 1,000 homes in Livingston Parish, and hundreds more in other areas, including St. Helena and Tangipahoa parishes.

Gov. Edwards declared a state of emergency Saturday, calling the floods "unprecedented" and "historic." He and his family were even forced to leave the Governor's Mansion when chest-high water filled the basement and electricity was shut off.

In one dramatic rescue Saturday, two men on a boat pulled a woman from a car almost completely underwater, according to video by WAFB. The woman, who's not initially visible on camera, yells from inside the car: "Oh my god, I'm drowning."

One of the rescuers, David Phung, jumps into the brown water and pulls the woman to safety. She pleads with Phung to get her dog, but he can't find it. After several seconds, Phung takes a deep breath, goes underwater and resurfaces -- with the small dog.

As of Sunday morning, some 5,050 people were staying in parish and Red Cross shelters, said Department of Children & Family Services Secretary Marketa Garner Walters. Even more people were staying in private shelters like churches.

Other effects from the flooding:

• A hospital in Baton Rouge -- Ochsner Medical Center in Baton Rouge's O'Neal campus -- has evacuated about 40 patients and is expected to evacuate another 10-15.
• Severe weather damaged AT&T Wireless's equipment and halted service for some customers in the Baton Rouge area.
• Amtrak is busing customers from Jackson, Mississippi to New Orleans instead of using the train.
• Rescuers have taken out hundreds of pets as they go door-to-door searching for people. Lt. Davis Madere from the Louisiana Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries said he and his teams have rescued at least 100 pets since they started working Friday.
• The head of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency says 56 people remain in a shelter because their homes are flooded.

Around Baton Rouge, worried family members tried to locate relatives. Wayne Muse, 68, ran into a police roadblock on Sunday morning in east Baton Rouge, where rapidly rising water is flooding neighborhoods near the juncture of the swollen Amite and Comite rivers.

Muse said he has been trying in vain to reach or contact his 86-year-old mother since Saturday night, when she told him by phone that she had two inches of water inside her retirement home apartment.

"She said they were going to evacuate them but no one could get to them," Muse said.