NEW ORLEANS, La. - Tens of thousands of residents in South Louisiana were hit hard by recent flooding. With warnings and alerts set out before the storm, it seems like so many were caught off-guard. One of the problems, is many who were hit hard, had never flooded before and thought they were in the clear.
Several days before the storm hit, it was on forecasters' radars.
"We're used to getting heavy rainfall, but by our standards this was extraordinary," said Warning Coordination Meteorologist with the National Weather Service - Slidell, Frank Revitte. "On Monday morning we issued what we call a Hydrological Outlook where we called mention to the development of heavy rainfall developing mid to late week. It had the potential of river flooding developing. We don't do that a lot, but we saw the system was coming our way and it had the potential of developing into a heavy rain problem."
The National Weather Service in Slidell, issued multiple watches, warnings and a 'Flash Flood Emergency' which they say is only sent if it's believed there's a threat to life and property.
"We tried to highlight the rainfall potential," said Revitte.
Still thousands across South Louisiana were caught off-guard, like Ponchatoula residents, Vincent Cefalu and his wife, Marianna.
"It comes from every direction possible, and next thing you know you're under water," said Vincent.
Never having flooded, they thought their home was safe. They said they'll never forget the day the Tangipahoa River rose. They said it came up at least two feet inside their home, and that the sun was out (it wasn't even raining).
"It's sad," said Marianna. "It's sad pulling up here every day and seeing everything we've worked for just laying out here."
It's a situation many who flooded can relate too right now.
"We get a lot of rainfall down here," said Revitte. "So that's always a challenge on calling attention to events like that."
Forecasters want people to know they should take every chance of rain seriously because while rare, these storms happen.
"You can get these," Revitte said. "You don't have to have a hurricane or tropical named system to get tremendous rainfall."
Revitte mentioned in May of 1995, there were about two days of heavy rainfall that flooded at least 40,000 homes locally. The previous record event he said that caused river flooding in the Baton Rouge area happened in April of 1983. Not to mention the flooding many saw in March.
The Cefalu's say they will never forget this flooding event, and add the next time there's a flood warning, they won't hesitate.
"If you're thinking about leaving, just go ahead and leave because I was the one watching the news thinking why did people wait so long before they could leave?" said Vincent. "Now I'll understand why, it just doesn't take that long at all."