Louisiana Gov: ‘Even When Weather Is Better, It’s Still Not Any Safer’

Despite thunderstorms calming down during Louisiana’s historic, catastrophic flooding, Gov. John Bel Edwards  (D) says that even when the weather no longer appears dangerous in areas like Baton Rouge, the region remains as unsafe as ever.

After declaring a state of emergency, Edwards’ own family had to evacuate the Governor’s Mansion in the state capitol when the electricity was shut off and rising, chest-high water began flooding the basement of the mansion.

The unprecedented re-location of the state’s newly elected Democratic governor is keeping Edwards on alert, telling residents that even when weather seems calm, the area is not.

“I’m still asking people to be patient,” Edwards told the Associated Press (AP). “Don’t get out and sightsee. Even when the weather is better, it’s not safe.”

Mike Steele, a spokesman for the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said there has been a surge of rescues in the eastern area of Baton Rouge.

“It never slowed down last night,” Steele told the AP. “For the last few hours, there has been just as much activity as at any point.”

Steele said police were also rescuing residents who were stuck for hours on Interstate 12, which has been closed from Baton Rouge all the way to Tangipahoa Parish.

Residents on the interstate were driving when flood waters became so high that they were no longer able to continue fleeing the region.

Over 2,000 homes in East Baton Rouge and Livingston Parish have been damaged due to the historic flooding, according to Steele, while rescue missions and flooding remains underway.

In one case caught on camera, as Breitbart Texas reported, a woman was drowning in Baton Rouge as her vehicle quickly became fully submerged in muddy water.

The woman was rescued by a man who was passing by in his boat with two others. The man pulled the woman from the vehicle after failing to break her window and eventually grabbed her dog in a heroic display that has gone viral.

East Baton Rouge Sheriff Sid Gautreaux saved a family of two men, a woman and an infant child, from their flooding home, as Breitbart Texas reported. Captured video footage of the rescue shows Gautreaux and the woman keeping the baby warm with a blanket as they stand in inches-deep muddy water.

John Binder is a contributor for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.