2 dead from 'unprecedented' flooding on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana

REUTERS/Therese Apel

BATON ROUGE, La. (Reuters) - Torrential rainfall along the U.S. Gulf Coast has caused "unprecedented" flooding in parts of Louisiana, Governor John Bel Edwards said on Saturday, while claiming at least two lives across the region.

The National Weather Service issued flood watches for parts of eastern Texas early on Saturday and extended its flash flood warning further west in Louisiana, according to its website.

It also maintained a flash flood watch and flood warnings for eastern regions of the state, including New Orleans, and southern Mississippi. Over 17 inches (43 cm) of rain had battered parts of Louisiana by Saturday morning, with another several inches expected later in the day and on Sunday, the NWS said.

Edwards, who has called a state of emergency in Louisiana, said on Saturday that emergency workers had to rescue more than 1,000 people from homes, cars and trees as rivers in the southern part of the state spilled over.

A 54-year-old man in Greensburg, in northern Louisiana, died when his vehicle was swept off the road. The vehicle was still submerged in the flood waters and the crash was under investigation, a Louisiana State Police spokeswoman said in a statement on Saturday.

The body of a 68-year-old man was recovered on Friday near Baker, Louisiana, close to the state capital, after he drowned while trying to evacuate, said William "Beau" Clark, the coroner in East Baton Rouge Parish.

In Mississippi, water rescues were conducted throughout Friday, and two people were reported to have suffered minor injuries in Harrison County, the state's Emergency Management Agency said.

Even as the severe weather eased in the eastern part of the region, rivers further west in Louisiana were spilling over, and flooding could worsen over the next 24 to 36 hours, Edwards said.

He described the floods as more severe than those that struck the state in March, when at least four were killed and thousands of homes were damaged in Louisiana and Mississippi.

"This is unprecedented," Edwards said, warning residents to heed warnings. "Please don't rely on your experiences in the past."

In Livingston Parish, where floods had displaced "well over a thousand people," authorities imposed a curfew as rivers poured over their banks, Sheriff Jason Ard said.

Ard said authorities there had a backlog of about 150 people to rescue, and were now being helped by the National Guard.

"We have reports of people in attics, people on rooftops," he said. "We haven't forgotten about you and we're coming for you."

 

(Additional reporting and writing by Chris Prentice in New York; Editing by Frank McGurty and Paul Simao)

NOW WATCH: Watch the Air Force drop 8 armored Humvees out of a plane from 5,000 feet