Almost a third of all homes have flooded in Ascension Parish, Louisiana after the region’s levee system failed to keep floodwaters at bay.
While skies have continued to clear in the most flooded areas of the state, control systems are proving unreliable, with the Laurel Ridge Levee being toppled, according to the Advocate.
Despite the levee structure being overcome with floodwaters, the Ascension Parish Office of Homeland Security said in a Facebook post that the levee had not suffered any breaks, breaches or even structural damage.
Parish officials are estimating that some 15,000 homes have already been flooded in the region, with the majority in the Galvez and St. Amant areas.
“The next 24 to 48 hours is going to be a significant indication of just how much risk the parish remains in,” director of the Ascension Office of Homeland Security Rick Webre said in an emergency statement.
The parish has also been pushing back against rumors that their region’s six-diesel powered pumps have failed during the historic flooding. The pumps were temporarily shut down to clean out debris caught in the pumps’ intake system, but have been up and running since.
Parish officials, though, did acknowledge that flooding in the region could become so overwhelming for the pump system that they would have to be shut off.
“It is possible it will get to that point that it is no longer functional,” Meredith Conger, homeland security planning and intelligence officer told the Advocate. “Flooding across Ascension Parish is widespread, and we are not out of danger yet.”
As Breitbart Texas reported, Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) said on Sunday that although the weather in the state appears to be calming down, flooded areas remain as unsafe as ever.
“I’m still asking people to be patient,” Edwards told the Associated Press. “Don’t get out and sightsee. Even when the weather is better, it’s not safe.”
State officials say more than 20,000 residents have been rescued in the unprecedented flooding, Breitbart Texas reported.
John Binder is a contributor for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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