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U.S. NEWS Tuesday 16 July 2019

Final blast of torrential rains unleashed by weakened Barry

By KEVIN McGILL and JEFF overnight. He spent part of
MARTIN Monday gathering infor-
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — mation on businesses and
Tropical Depression Barry homes that took on water.
spared New Orleans and In Evangeline Parish, north
Baton Rouge from cata- of Lafayette, KLFY television
strophic flooding, but even showed scenes of water-
as it weakened and moved covered streets and flood-
north through Arkan- ed cars in the town of Ville
sas, its trailing rain bands Platte.
swamped parts of Louisi- For much of Monday a
ana with up to 17 inches continuous line of showers
(43 centimeters) of rain extended from the south-
and transformed part of west to the northeast.
the Mississippi Delta into "an "Please don't drive through
ocean." these flooded areas," Cal-
As of Monday evening, casieu Parish Sheriff Tony
with the center of the storm Mancuso pleaded with
about 105 miles (170 kilo- motorists.
meters) northwest of Little "I noticed our rivers coming
Rock, the National Weath- up real quick," Mancuso
er Service said flash flood said in an interview aired
watches remained in effect on KPLC-TV . "It's just very
in southeast Texas through serious right now."
the lower Mississippi Valley. In Mississippi, forecasters
Forecasters said the storm said 8 inches (20 centime-
was expected to produce ters) of rain had fallen in
up to 4 inches (10 centi- parts of Jasper and Jones
meters) of rain — and in counties by Monday, with
isolated spots as much as several more inches pos-
8 inches (20 centimeters) sible.
— across Arkansas, western "The South Delta has be-
Tennessee and Kentucky, come an ocean," Mississip-
southeast Missouri, and pi Gov. Phil Bryant wrote on
northwest Mississippi. Twitter on Monday.
No fatalities or serious inju- He's calling on the federal
ries reported from Barry. government to build pumps
Some of the earliest fears to drain water from the
that the storm posed didn't confluence of the Yazoo
play out: A shift in its path and Mississippi Rivers. The
decreased the possibility People walk on a street during a downpour at the French Quarter in New Orleans, Sunday, July EPA shelved the project in
of major Mississippi River le- 14, 2019. 2008 amid concerns about
vees being overtopped at Associated Press wetlands and wildlife. The
New Orleans, where cata- Trump administration has
strophic levee breaches out very, very differently," least 11 parishes, Edwards estimated northern parts said it might reconsider that
along canals devastated Gov. John Bel Edwards said. of the parish got 17 inches decision.
the city after Hurricane said. "We're thankful that And the problems persisted (43 centimeters) in a few The Edison Electric Insti-
Katrina in 2005. And the the worst-case scenario did long after Saturday's land- hours. Two people had to tute, a trade association,
torrents of rain forecast- not happen." fall — when Barry came be rescued from swamped estimated that there were
ers had said were possible But the storm was still a ashore as a weak hurri- cars and 19 others were more than 325,000 power
— portending repeats of huge headache for many. cane. Deluges hit parts of moved from residences outages reported in mul-
catastrophic Baton Rouge Levees were overtopped southwest Louisiana late threatened by high water, tiple states over the course
area flooding in 2016 — along waterways in some Sunday into Monday morn- he said. of the storm, and that
didn't happen. coastal parishes. More than ing. In Oakdale, Louisiana, May- about 33,000 remained
"This was a storm that obvi- 90 people were rescued Calcasieu Parish emergen- or Gene Paul estimated 14 without power as of Mon-
ously could have played because of high water in at cy director Dick Gremillion inches (36 centimeters) fell day evening.q