Louisiana flash flooding in the Baton Rouge area left one elderly man dead and a dozen or so caskets floating away from grave sites on Wednesday.
Loved ones of people buried in the Ascension Parish cemetery rushed to the gravesite initially attempting to weigh the caskets down with sand bags before eventually relocating them to higher ground,
CBS affiliate WAFB 9 reported.
The dead man was found at about 4:30 p.m. by a local business owner, who
according to WBRZ.com went out to check on his parking lot and discovered the body beneath a car.
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Local authorities believe the elderly man could have been swept underneath the car by the current during the flash flood.
"Water was flowing swiftly across the parking lot and the water was probably 12 to 18 inches deep. There is a strong likelihood the deceased man slipped, fell, and was swept under the vehicle but it is too early in the investigation to make a definitive conclusion," Ascension Parish Police Chief Deputy Tony Bacala told WBRZ.com.
The Louisiana flash flood also left nearly 50 homes and apartment flooded out in St. Landry Parish while the Ascension Parish, south of Baton Rouge, saw at least 29 homes, as well as three schools and two businesses flooded, Ascension Parish spokesman Lester Kenyon
told The Weather Channel.
"It's sad, sad," one man told WAFB while surveying the flooded streets around him. "People [are] out here in boats and stuff. You don't need a car now, you need a boat to get out here."
"When I woke up this morning it was like someone pouring buckets of water, I mean we had water in the house," resident Catherine Thompson told WAFB. "We've had water [before], but not this much."
According to The Weather Channel, some southern parts of the Bayou State saw more rain on Wednesday than they had for any single day in nearly 20 years, with Lafayette, Louisiana receiving nearly seven inches of rain between 12 a.m. and 5 p.m. Wednesday – equivalent to what they usually experience from March through May overall.
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