Parts of the Gulf Coast are still underwater after potentially record-breaking rainfall inundated homes, businesses, and vehicles, prompting evacuations and water rescues. At least five people have died since the active weather began Sunday. More rain is forec
Water rose fast enough to trap vehicles, shut down roads, and turn roads into channels—then it kept coming. By Friday morning, more parts of the Gulf Coast were under fresh flash-flood threat even as residents tried to recover from a week of inundation that forced evacuations and rescues.
Since the active weather began Sunday, at least five people have died. The deadliest moments came as flooding killed two people in Texas earlier in the week before Tropical Storm Arthur’s moisture fueled catastrophic flooding in Louisiana and Mississippi.
Louisiana and Mississippi recorded more than a foot of rain in 12 hours or less this week, and the deluge has reached beyond streets and homes. Evacuations, water rescues, and multiple flash flood emergencies have been reported in Louisiana and Mississippi since Thursday.
On Friday morning. another flash flood emergency—at the highest level of flash flood warning—was issued for Seminary in Covington County. Mississippi. after up to 11 inches of rain fell there. Floodwater trapped multiple vehicles, shut down two roadways, and damaged four homes. Brennon Chancellor, the county’s emergency director, said no injuries had been reported.
Just south of Seminary. about 50 residents in the Sanford area were advised to evacuate Friday morning due to concerns about rising water in Okatoma Creek. Covington County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Ricky Lott said. Lott also said at least one rescue was carried out at a home near rising water. In that same county. three businesses were flooded with about 2 feet of water as of Friday morning. though Lott said there were no reports of water in homes.
The flooding risk spread farther than the newest emergency areas. Evacuations were lifted late Thursday for about 30 homes downstream of southern Mississippi’s Anchor Lake Dam after fears floodwater would cause the dam to fail and unleash a dangerous deluge. Officials remained on site monitoring the dam. and the Pearl River County Office of Emergency Services said in a Facebook post that it had “high confidence in the dam’s structural integrity.”.
Governor Tate Reeves declared a state of emergency Friday evening for areas of Mississippi affected by storms. noting more heavy rainfall is possible. The warning cadence matches what emergency managers have been watching all week: flash-flood conditions don’t require extreme totals when the ground is already saturated.
Across the rest of the region, the storms left more than one kind of disaster behind. Two men died and two others were injured in Georgia Friday morning after an oak tree, with roots in ground saturated by heavy rain, fell onto a passing pickup truck, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office said.
Earlier in the week, two people died in flooding in Texas. And in Mississippi, a county road worker died while helping to clean up after the storm, Reeves said Thursday on X. Water rescues also took place in neighboring Harrison County on the Gulf Coast, Reeves said.
Louisiana’s damage has been measured in flooded homes and shaken infrastructure. On Thursday evening, Governor Jeff Landry issued a state of emergency to respond to storm damage across the state. About 200 homes were flooded as of Friday morning in Avoyelles Parish in east-central Louisiana. according to Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness Director Joey Frank. Frank said about 60 residents were evacuated from a nursing home in the parish.
The week also included rescues from water that rose into living spaces. On Tuesday, fire crews rescued a family, including an infant, from a home with knee-deep water, Picayune Fire Department Chief Joshua Abercrombie said. He said floodwater was waist deep on the road outside the home.
Arthur’s remnants didn’t only bring water. They also produced multiple tornadoes in southeast Louisiana. An EF1 tornado struck Avondale—just south of New Orleans—early Thursday morning. destroying four homes and causing minor damage to around a dozen others. Jefferson Parish spokesperson Rachel Strassel said.
Strassel said a mobile home was blown off its cinder blocks and struck a neighboring modular home. sending two people to the hospital. She also said a woman in a third home told officials the storm blew her out of bed and shattered the windows. Office buildings were damaged, and a stationary train was blown off its tracks elsewhere in the parish, Strassel added.
Tornadoes also spun up in Terrebonne and St. Tammany parishes in southern Louisiana. Homes were damaged and streets flooded in the city of Houma near the Gulf Coast. Authorities said “multiple high water evacuations out of homes” were conducted in St. Tammany northeast of New Orleans.
The incoming forecast is forcing officials and families to watch the same maps again. Through Saturday evening, more rain is expected across much of the same Gulf Coast areas that have already been drenched. While the upcoming rain isn’t expected to be as extreme as Thursday’s. the risk is being driven by how incapable the already-soaked ground is at absorbing more water.
Any steady rain could cause flooding. and an additional 1 to 3 inches is expected for much of the Gulf Coast through Saturday. Some areas could record 4 inches or more. That could mean more rain in Louisiana. which has picked up more than 2 feet of rain—29.06 inches—since Sunday. much of which fell on Thursday alone and could challenge records.
Plaucheville’s 22.53 inches could challenge Louisiana’s decades-old all-time rainfall record for a 24-hour period, though research is needed to confirm it.
Even as officials assess the flooding’s spread, the math of risk is already built into how emergencies are being issued. The flash flood emergency areas likely experienced at least 1-in-50-year to 1-in-100-year floods—meaning a 2% or 1% chance, respectively, of happening in a given year.
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the extent of the tropical storm watch. It extended through Morgan City, Louisiana.
Gulf Coast floods Louisiana flooding Mississippi flooding flash flood emergency evacuations water rescues Tropical Storm Arthur Anchor Lake Dam tornadoes