Posted on 08/19/2016 7:26:56 AM PDT by BenLurkin
After two feet of rain began falling Thursday night, water rose quickly in Baton Rouge and then migrated east and south, leaving a vast swath of damage. At least 40,000 homes have been damaged, according to Gov. John Bel Edwards (D). The death toll has risen to 13.
Roads remain flooded and closed, while schools, businesses and government offices have been shut down for days. The country has not seen a natural disaster this bad since 2012, when Hurricane Sandy pummeled the East Coast, according to the American Red Cross.
“The current flooding in Louisiana is the worst natural disaster to strike the United States since Superstorm Sandy,” Brad Kieserman, vice president for disaster services operations and logistics for the Red Cross, said in a statement. “The Red Cross is mounting a massive relief operation, which we anticipate will cost at least $30 million and that number may grow as we learn more about the scope and magnitude of the devastation.”
Many scrambling to escape the water or witnessing the chaos from afar have wondered why the flooding has not gotten more widespread national attention. William W. Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), referred to those concerns at a news briefing in Baton Rouge on Tuesday, but he assured residents that the federal government was deeply aware of the scope of what happened.
...
he number of those stranded and still needing rescue “was next to impossible to say,” said Mike Steele, a spokesman for the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, “and it’s changing every minute.”
Teams are going to search as many as 30,000 homes and buildings in at least five parishes over the next two weeks, said ... state fire marshal, whose office is coordinating the urban search and rescue effort.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The libs will call Trump an opportunist yet they criticized Bush when he didn’t appear on the ground. I didn’t catch any mention of FEMA. Meanwhile, Oblamer is starting the back nine on his 325th golf game since becoming president! We just can’t catch a break!
Yes, I haven’t heard one mention of FEMA in any news reports. Are they there??????????
Unless federal funding is provided under the terms of the Stafford Act (and the state accepts responsibility for its' portion of the expenses), that's probably where it ends as far as FEMA's involvement.
IIRC, that's what happened with the BP oil spill. A bunch of feds went down to look things over, then their presence was minimized because there was no Stafford Act declaration that unlocked the funding (the Disaster Fund was probably empty at that time, anyway).
If where you live received almost 30 inches of rain in a three day period, I bet you’d be in danger of flooding as well. I have several friends who lived in areas that had NEVER flooded before lose everything because the designed drainage could not accommodate the sheer volume of water falling from the sky. Stick that desert sand up your butt.
I saw one picture where it looked like a construction site had flooded, and some others that I couldn’t definitely recognize as LSU that did show flooded parking lots early in the week.
Here’s something that doesn’t look as useful as it might be. https://uploads.knightlab.com/storymapjs/cf87f519bc17bebffbd3376a72605be8/mapping-south-louisiana-flooding/draft.html
So wrong, you might have a future with the media. It ranges from about 45 feet near LSU to to mid 50s downtown to about 70 feet at the airport. Areas north of the Baton Rouge fault are generally going to be higher than areas south of the fault, although flooding occurred both above and below the fault along the Amite river.
Apologies. Meant meters.
I live in Northern VA and it has rained that much. No flooding. I have also lived in northern Italy and has rained more than that. No flooding.
Stick that desert sand up your butt.
FO.
That works.
Of course, mixing metric and real measures brings to mind the Mars Climate Orbiter.
Nelson County Virginia received over 27 inches of rain from hurricane Camille in 1969. I guess there were no damages and no lives lost, right? Is that when you lived in Virginia and told those folks they should find safer places to live? I bet they’d stick entire sandbags up your butt.
I just got a picture that shows the campus flooded. I don’t know what to believe just yet but the only thing separating it from the Mighty Mississippi is the levee and last time I was down there the river was up and it looks as though it wouldn’t take much to top the levee down there.
The campus must be on a little bit higher ground than the flooded areas which are only a short distance away. I think the flooding is a combination of incredible amounts of rain and then the Mississippi is probably flooding in some areas.
But as well known as LSU is, you’d think the news folks would make some particular, frequent mention of what is or is not happening on the campus. - I’ve just thought it was odd for several days that nothing was being said about LSU.
Those are some incredible pictures of the flood in the link in comment #46. I wonder what the chances are of those homes and other buildings being salvageable after having five or more feet of water inside for days.
I’m surprised that the media hasn’t made it about Scotlandville and Southern. But I suppose that’s because they haven’t been able to come up with a Republican to blame.
Speaking of that - notice that this sort of thing only happens when Louisiana elects democrat governors?
The Mississippi river (like with Katrina) isn’t the problem. The worst flooding was along the Amite (and I think Pearl) rivers.
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