NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana may have a day or two of sun after the storms that swamped the state, but rivers and streams will still be high and the ground will still be soggy when the next round of rain hits over the weekend, forecasters said.
| Photos by Cecile Clair from Facebook | |
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| The living history museum at Vermilionville is living in 1927. |
Storms probably will start late Saturday in north Louisiana and work southward through the state Sunday and Sunday night, said Christopher Bannan, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Slidell, north of New Orleans.
"The next one doesn't seem to be nearly as potent" as those Wednesday and Thursday, Bannan said.
The slow-moving midweek system dumped nearly a foot of rain in some areas, filling streets, swelling rivers and prompting Gov. Bobby Jindal to call a statewide emergency so Louisiana can use state money to help local governments recover from storm damage and prepare for more bad weather.
No injuries were reported, though authorities suspect a tornado may have been the cause of damage at an industrial plant near Baton Rouge.
Eunice, in Cajun country, got nearly 11.2 inches of rain over the 24 hours ending at 7 a.m. Thursday. Iowa, near Lake Charles, got 9.7 inches and Crowley 9.35 inches. Grand Chenier, Jennings, Bunkie, Opelousas, Alexandria, Dry Creek, Alexandria, Elmer, and Lake Charles all reported between 5.6 and 8.75 inches.
"I need my little floaties, honey, my little waders," said Iowa Mayor Carol Ponthieux. She said water got into perhaps a dozen houses on two streets in a fairly new subdivision and rain water seeped into sewers so that scores of households couldn't flush their toilets.
"We've got to pray the good Lord doesn't send us any more rain," she said.
Mike Marcotte, a weather service meteorologist in Lake Charles, said people can expect a day or two of sun.
"Friday definitely looks like a pretty good day. Saturday there's a little chance of a few showers. But it will still be very warm," he said.
Even without the expected rain, "the larger rivers and bayous will continue to rise for at least the next couple of days. It's not going to be a good week" in southwest Louisiana, said weather service hydrologist Jonathan Brazzell in Lake Charles. However, he said that's likely to affect mostly streets along the river, where most homes are built up high enough to avoid flooding.
Minor flooding also was reported and predicted in southeast Louisiana.
The Louisiana National Guard sent 50,000 empty sandbags to Livingston Parish, near Baton Rouge, and a high-water truck and two soldiers each to Marksville, 75 miles northwest of the state capital, and Crowley, about 70 miles south-southwest of Marksville.
Residents of about 10 houses in Crowley asked for help and more than 20 homes took on water — mostly from the wakes raised by tractor-trailers, Mayor Greg Jones said. Avoyelles Parish 911 director Donald Milligan said people in two vehicles near Marksville and a house in Mansura called for help.
Eunice Mayor Claud "Rusty" Moody said some houses and about 10 to 15 apartments in one complex flooded.
In the south, Ascension, St. James, St. John and Livingston parishes reported widespread street flooding, with minor street flooding in several other locations, said meteorologist Danielle Manning.
JUNE 19 Former Saint Steve Gleason, who is paralyzed by ALS, released a statement Tuesday in response to the Atlanta radio station's skit making fun of him and the disease, this Picayune post reports. What did he say? He said he'd accepted the apology of the DJs who did it, notes that at least the incident has got people talking about ALS, and asks anyone who is burning to take action about it to do so -- by helping him fight ALS.
JUNE 19 Blogger Ian McGibboney takes a look at the Gleason incident in this post. He makes a good argument about the difference between having free speech and being free from consequences for your speech (which none of us is). He also admits that many of us got upset before we listened to the skit -- but lets us know that the reality is far worse than we can imagine. It was the incredibly bad judgment, even more than the actual speech, that probably got those DJs fired, he opines.
JUNE 19 Washington Post blogger Aaron Blake writes about Sen. Guillory's switch to the GOP in this post. He writes what most political watchers in Louisiana know: Guillory was a Republican before he decided to run for the senate seat in a mostly-D St. Landry district, and has switched back now that he plans to run for Lt. Gov. in a mostly-R state. But how come Blake missed Guillory's appearance on a TLC pageant show? Now that is a video we'd like to see. (Again).
JUNE 19 Here's another Washington Post blog post about a Louisiana politician, and it's just plain scathing. Ezra Klein says Jindal's Politico post was "insulting" to the intelligence of voters, and adds that Jindal is personifying the "stupid" he's railed against, by being an "elite" who convinces GOP activists of "things that aren't true." Me-ow.
JUNE 19 Here's Gov. Jindal's post in Politico, in which he asks the GOP to get over losing to Obama (again) and stop "the bedwetting." (Uh, what?) He gives his Republican buddies what is probably a nerd's idea of a coach's motivational talk, which starts with a list of accomplishments that they can't seem to exploit and ending with an absurd description of liberals that sounds like a character treatment for a Fox "News" movie scripted by Gordon Liddy. Sure, he's preaching to the choir, but even the choir's not this gullible.
JUNE 19 Lamar Parmentel read Gov. Jindal's post on Politico, but thinks it was so dumb it probably was published in the wrong paper. This post by Lamar on the Daily Kingfish opines that possibly Jindal's post was destined for the Onion -- because the governor couldn't possibly be serious here. If you listen closely, you can hear the staff of the Kingfish giggling.
JUNE 19 Blogger Robert Mann posts from Turkey, a country he has visited several times in the past few years. Mann gives an interesting overview of the current political and societal climate of the country, which -- if you're living under a rock and don't know -- is experiencing protests and turmoil these days. Mann promises to post as much as he can during his trip, which should be fascinating reading.
JUNE 19 Blogger CB Forgotston says the legislature is keeping the vicious cycle going with its funding of new buildings for the community college/technical college system. Universities across the state need maintenance and improvement on existing buildings, and the solution is to build new buildings at other schools? By the time the bonds are paid off, those buildings will be falling down, too, CB says.
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