Authorities in Lake Charles, Lousiana, rescued at least 80 people who were trapped by significant flooding on Monday (May 17). A stationary front dumped over a foot of rain across Louisiana, flooding streets and damaging hundreds of homes.
Most of the water rescues involved people who tried to drive through the quickly-rising water. Officials said that nobody was injured due to the flooding.
Residents are bracing for more rain as the storm system continues to feed off of the moist air in the Gulf of Mexico. It could dump another ten inches of rain in some parts of the state. Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency as some parts of the state remain under a flash flood watch until Thursday.
The storm isn't expected to dissipate until Wednesday evening and could dump more rain than Hurricanes Laura and Delta, which caused widespread damage last summer.
"In fact, when you look at these rain totals, they will meet the threshold of a 100-year event," Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter said. "And it's getting to be perhaps a little of a misnomer to call these events 100-year events because they are happening more often."
In addition to heavy rains, the storm system is bringing high winds and thunderstorms, which can spawn tornados. There were multiple tornado warnings issues on Monday night, and at least two tornados were confirmed to have touched down.
"I think it's crazy. I think we've been through enough in the past year, and we're seeing flooding that we didn't even see from Delta," Rachel Mere told KPLC. "Usually, it drains, and it's not draining. I live south of town off Ham Reid, and we're not in a flood zone, and a lot of the houses almost are taking in water, ours included. My husband is there now."
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