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NEW ORLEANS (AP) – Tropical Depression Barry spared catastrophic floods in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Although it has weakened and has moved north through Arkansas, its trailing rainbands have submerged parts of Louisiana with up to 43 inches of rain and have transformed part of the Mississippi Delta. in "an ocean".
Floods can be seen near the Lafourche South Lift in Galliano, Louisiana, on July 13, 2019. (Source: Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office / MGN)
By Monday evening, when the storm center was about 170 km northwest of Little Rock, the National Weather Service reported that flood watch was still going on in southeastern Texas, in the Lower Mississippi Valley.
According to forecasters, the storm is expected to produce up to 10 inches of rain, and up to 20 centimeters in isolated locations in Arkansas, western Tennessee and Kentucky, the southeastern Missouri and northwestern Mississippi.
Barry did not cause death or serious injury.
Some of the first fears of the storm did not materialize: a change in trajectory reduced the risk of major Mississippi river discharges being exceeded in New Orleans, where catastrophic waterside breaches devastated the river. city after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. And the rainy rains announced by forecasters were possible – alleged repetition of the catastrophic floods of the Baton Rouge region in 2016 – did not occur.
"It was a storm that obviously could have happened in a very different way," said Gov. John Bel Edwards. "We are grateful that the worst case scenario has not happened."
But the storm was still a huge headache for many. The levees have been pbaded along the waterways in some coastal parishes. According to Edwards, more than 90 people were saved because of high tide in at least 11 parishes.
And the problems persisted long after Saturday's landing, when Barry arrived ashore as a weak hurricane. The floods hit parts of southwestern Louisiana late Sunday night to Monday morning.
The director of emergency of the parish of Calcasieu, Dick Gremillion, estimated that the northern parts of the parish reached 43 centimeters in a few hours. Two people had to be rescued from submerged cars and 19 others were displaced from homes threatened by high water, he said.
In Oakdale, Louisiana, Mayor Gene Paul estimated that 14 inches (36 centimeters) had fallen overnight. He spent part of the day on Monday gathering information on businesses and homes that used water.
In the parish of Evangeline, north of Lafayette, KLFY television showed scenes of water-covered streets and flooded cars in the town of Ville Platte.
During most of Monday, a continuous line of showers extended from southwest to northeast.
"Do not drive through these flooded areas," sheriff Tony Mancuso of the Calcasieu parish pleaded with motorists.
"I noticed that our rivers were rising very fast," said Mancuso in an interview broadcast on KPLC-TV. "It's just very serious right now."
In Mississippi, forecasters said 20 inches (20 centimeters) of rain fell in parts of Jasper and Jones counties on Monday, with several more inches.
"The South Delta has become an ocean," Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant wrote on Twitter on Monday.
He is asking the federal government to build pumps to drain water from the confluence of the Yazoo and Mississippi rivers. The EPA put the project on hold in 2008 due to concerns over wetlands and wildlife. The Trump administration said it could reconsider its decision.
The Edison Electric Institute, a trade badociation, estimated that there had been more than 325,000 power outages reported in several states during the storm and that about 33,000 remained without electricity Monday night.
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Martin reported from Atlanta. Rebecca Santana, badociate editor, New Orleans; Jay Reeves at Mandeville; Rogelio Solis in Morgan City; Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi; Jeff Martin in Atlanta; and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina.
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Copyright 2019 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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