Thousands of Louisiana Homes Flooded; Death Toll at 6

A second day of torrential rain in the New Orleans area flooded thousands of homes Wednesday in this suburb, forcing some people to swim out their windows to safety.

The death toll rose to six when New Orleans city workers found the body of a child in water flowing to drainage pumps.

Boats, dump trucks and National Guard trucks carried people to drier ground, cruising Slidell streets filled with rushing, murky water that lapped at window ledges. One shelter had to be evacuated when it too was flooded.

Slidell received 14 inches of rain Wednesday on top of seven inches the day before. Picayune, Miss., about 30 miles northeast, received 19 inches by noon. The New Orleans suburb of Metairie had 18 inches on Monday night.

Slidell, a middle-class bedroom community, is surrounded by marshland at the eastern end of Lake Pontchartrain, about 30 miles east of New Orleans. While New Orleans has canals and huge pumps to suck water from its below-sea-level sections, Slidell’s drainage systems have struggled to keep up with population growth.

Misery was compounded for residents by alligators, poisonous snakes and floating mounds of ants that have drifted into several areas west of New Orleans and the outer edges of Orleans Parish.

“It’s like these flooded canals are superhighways for every undesirable critter in the swamps outside our levees,” said a sheriff’s deputy from the Jefferson Parish.

President Clinton declared St. Charles Parish a major disaster area, and the White House said more counties may be added after damage surveys are completed.

The action makes federal funding available that can include disaster housing grants, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses and other programs to help individuals and businesses.

Heavy rains are expected to continue intermittently in the New Orleans area east to Mississippi at least until midday today, the National Weather Service said. A spokesman said he did not know how much more rain to expect.

Thunderstorms boiling up along the Gulf of Mexico also flooded suburbs on the north side of Lake Pontchartrain and communities through coastal Mississippi and Alabama into the Florida Panhandle. Mobile, Ala., received up to 10 inches of rain by midday. Water was 2 1/2 feet deep on the streets of Atmore, Ala.

At least 800 people were evacuated in Slidell and about 5,000 homes were flooded, Police Chief Ben Morris said. Some people had to swim out their windows, he said.

Evacuation centers set up to handle 800 people quickly ran out of blankets and cots, Red Cross official Joseph Edwards said.

“I didn’t want to leave my house, but when the water started coming over the mattress of the bed, I decided it was time to get me and my 90-year-old mother out of here,” Slidell resident Marie Pierce said.

Mark and Kelly Johnston woke up to find 18 inches of water in their Slidell apartment.

The couple slogged three miles through two feet of water to reach a shelter at the Municipal Auditorium. Then they and about 200 others had to be moved to another shelter when three inches of water covered the floor.

Flooding around Slidell closed parts of Interstate 59, a major north-south route into Mississippi, and I-12, connecting Baton Rouge and Slidell. I-10 east out of Slidell was closed in Mississippi.

Hundreds of people were evacuated in coastal counties in adjoining Mississippi, and National Guards were ordered out to help. Hardest hit was Picayune, a town of 10,000 about 30 miles from Slidell.