BATON ROUGE, La.: Robert and Gwen Arceneaux endured a sleepless night Sunday after noticing floodwater creeping into their home — in a neighborhood that had never seen water before.
They gathered up their dogs and a few bags of belongings and fled out the back door, eventually 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 heavily 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, boats and helicopters manned by emergency crews hurried to rescue scores of south Louisiana residents as the governor warned that it was not over.
The low pressure system that wreaked such havoc moved into Texas, but the National Weather Service warned that there’s still danger of fresh floods, as swollen rivers drain toward the Gulf of Mexico.
Most of the rivers have crested, but some are still rising.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said Sunday morning that at least 7,000 people have been rescued. Edwards called on people to refrain from going out to “sightsee” even as the weather gets better.
“This is a serious event. It is ongoing. It is not over,” he said.
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.