Associated Press reporter Melinda Deslatte says that although the floodwaters are beginning to recede in some of the hardest-hit areas, parts of the state remains under the threat of rising water.
“As the water is moving southward and draining, there are still other areas of the state that have threats of water rising before it heads to the Gulf of Mexico,” Deslatte says.
Cell phone towers were damaged in the storms, making it difficult for families to get in contact and locate loved ones.
“People are still trying to get in touch with folks, but also you have people who were rescued from houses by boats and sent to shelters,” Deslatte says. “So its just the process of figuring out where people were dispersed to.”
So far, the disaster relief response seems to be going somewhat smoothly, Deslatte says. But this comes as the state is recovering from additional flooding earlier this year.
“Sadly, Louisiana already had FEMA staff on the ground because there are parishes that had flooding in the spring, in March,” she says. “The recovery had finished in some other parts of the state from that so FEMA happened to be here on the ground already.”
Listen to the full interview in the audio player above.
