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Federal officials are expanding a disaster declaration in Louisiana after devastating floods killed at least 11 people and caused widespread property damage.


Gov. John Bel Edwards announced Tuesday that 20 parishes are now under a disaster declaration with a "historic flood event" damaging some 40,000 homes and leading to the evacuation of 30,000 people from flood-soaked areas.

"Nobody has been forgotten," Edwards told reporters. "We understand there are still a lot of people who are suffering."

At the same news conference, Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate called the state a "very large disaster area."

, floods have crippled Louisiana since Friday as a storm system dropped more than 2 feet of rain in some areas. The latest additions to the disaster list include Avoyelles, Evangeline, Iberville and Jefferson Davis parishes.


WWNO's Ryan Kailath reports for our Newscast Unit on conditions in Ascension Parish, southeast of Baton Rouge:

With floodwaters retreating in some areas and remaining in others, officials are still in recovery-and-rescue mode with more than 8,000 people staying in shelters.

In Livingston Parish, the Associated Press reports, authorities there estimate that 75 percent of homes are a "total loss":

Disasters

Jason Slotkin

Author

Federal officials are expanding a disaster declaration to include more areas inundated by floodwaters. At least 40,000 homes have been damaged by floods since Friday.

More parishes declared disaster areas in Louisiana floods

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