BATON ROUGE, La. — A line of storms with torrential rain pummeled south Louisiana late Monday into Tuesday morning.
The line slowed down over the Baton Rouge area Monday night and dumped up to 13 inches of rain. Multiple road closures and high water rescues were ongoing Tuesday morning. A flash flood warning continues there until 1 p.m. Tuesday.
WBRZ-TV reports that more than 250 water-related rescues were made in East Baton Rouge Parish alone overnight. Firefighters told The Advocate that most calls were a mix of people trapped in cars or needed to be rescued from homes or apartments that were taking on water.
Officials urged residents to take shelter in safe areas like fire stations which had been converted to accept incoming evacuees. The Advocate reports that dozens of individuals were also taken to the regional airport which had been set up as a temporary refuge.
Here are some of the highest totals from late Monday into Tuesday morning.
To put this in perspective, the average rainfall in Baton Rouge for an entire year is 61 inches. The average yearly rainfall in Denver is 14 inches.
The line of storms charged into the New Orleans area early Tuesday morning and prompted a flash flood warning for the metro area. The storms then weakened and left the city to dry out with sunny spells.
Meteorologist Alexandra Cranford said the rain was so heavy because the atmosphere was laden with moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, plus the line of storms moved incredibly slowly and nearly stalled over Baton Rouge. This allowed the storms to unleash torrential rain where they set up.
Much of south Louisiana got a break in the rain midday Tuesday, but additional storms were possible later in the afternoon and evening. A flash flood watch continues for south Louisiana through midday Wednesday.
The heavy rain is causing the Comite and Amite rivers near Baton Rouge to rise. Both rivers are forecast to reach minor to moderate flood stage by Friday or Saturday. They are forecast to start falling over the weekend.
The Mississippi River level around Baton Rouge briefly rose slightly early Tuesday, but it is forecast to steadily fall the rest of the week and stay below flood stage.
Farther east on the northshore of Lake Pontchartrain, river levels are rising and are forecast to reach minor flood stage. The rivers are forecast to fall late in the week.
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