LDEQ Looks Back at the 2016 Flood

BATON ROUGE, LA. – The temperature didn’t quite make it to 90 that Thursday, unusual for Baton Rouge in August. It was overcast all day, and a light rain set in just before 10:30 a.m. By afternoon, the daytime heating managed to push the temperature to 87, plenty hot enough to generate some storm energy and change light rain to strong showers and thunderstorms.

South Louisiana gets 60 inches of rain a year on average. People who live here are used to wet weather. But that summer day was the beginning of a 3-day event that they had never seen the like of before.

The next day, Friday, Aug. 12, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Weather Prediction Center described the heavy rain event as “an inland sheared tropical depression.” The event was a very slow-moving low pressure system that combined with extreme tropical moisture, and the radar signature of the storm system looked very like a hurricane with the familiar counterclockwise rotation of clouds and rain.

By midday Friday, the steady, hard rain filled ditches, swelled rivers, flooded streets and forced closures.

According to the World Weather Attribution website, “The unnamed storm would eventually shower Louisiana with an estimated 7.1 trillion gallons of water — more rain than Hurricane Isaac in 2012, and three times as much rain as Hurricane Katrina in 2005.”

By the time the storm began to let up Saturday, Aug. 13, some areas in northern East Baton Rouge and Livingston parishes had experienced 55 consecutive hours of intense rainfall with some locations recording more than 30 inches of rain. Flooding was widespread across multiple parishes in southeast Louisiana and counties in southwest Mississippi.

 When residents were finally able clear their homes of water damaged goods and materials, debris were 
heaped high along streets in Baton Rouge and other areas hit by the Flood of 2016.

The Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Planning reports that 26 of Louisiana’s 64 parishes received Federal disaster designations after the storm.

According to the National Weather Service (NWS), record flooding was observed in the Amite/Comite River Basin, Tickfaw River Basin, Natalbany River Basin and the Tangipahoa River Basin.  The flooding led to closures on Interstates 10 and 12 for several days.

A report commissioned by the Louisiana Department of Economic Development and released in September assessed the flood’s economic impact, finding that “over 109,000 housing units flooded in Louisiana.”

Additionally, “at  least  13  deaths  were  reported  across  the  state,  and  tens  of  thousands  of residents   were rescued  or  evacuated  from  their  homes or sought  refuge  in  shelters.” Some 90,000 automobiles, the report found, were damaged by flood waters. 

Landfills worked at a steady pace to try to stay ahead of the inflow of flood debris.

Almost instantly after the rain cleared, area residents began to clear their homes of flood damaged materials. Streets in subdivisions were walled in by high, long piles of debris along every curb: ruined furniture, appliances, clothes, electronics, carpet, tile, cardboard, gypsum wallboard, paper and many, many black plastic garbage bags. As the sun reappeared and heat built, a recognizable odor of mildew and mold hung in the sweltering air everywhere.

“The 2016 flood was a defining event for South Louisiana, and for many of us at LDEQ it was personal as well. I experienced flooding firsthand, which only strengthened my appreciation for the resilience of our communities and the importance of being prepared. Over the past decade, LDEQ has continued to enhance our emergency response capabilities, strengthen partnerships with local, state, and federal agencies, and ensure our staff are ready to deploy whenever disaster strikes. Whether responding to floods, hurricanes, industrial incidents, or other emergencies, our mission remains the same: protect Louisiana's people and environment by providing timely, science-based environmental response and supporting the safe recovery of our communities,” LDEQ Assistant Secretary for Environmental Compliance Jerry Lang said.

Following LDEQ guidance, people impacted by the flood separated the debris into six piles containing different kinds of waste: household trash, vegetative debris, construction and demolition debris, white goods, electronics and household hazardous waste. Each of these waste streams had a separate destination. It helped speed up the removal process, but the piles were slow to shrink. Complaints mounted. Something had to be done.

LDEQ decided to expand the definition of construction and demolition debris (C&D) to include carpet and furniture. That allowed the disposal of that storm generated waste stream in C&D landfills. It allowed the process to continue to be protective of the environment, yet it eased the pressure on the other types of landfills.

The piles dwindled, but the flow was still constricted. LDEQ authorized the opening of a number of staging areas where removal contractors temporarily stored debris before moving it to available landfills. This step expedited curbside removal. The piles began to disappear more quickly.

Still, it was a long road to normalcy. Many residents had to wait for an insurance settlement or FEMA reimbursement before they could even begin restoring their homes. Businesses were also struggling to reopen and some roads and streets were closed by flood damages.

Eventually the debris piles were gone. Area residents returned to work. But some houses were never repaired, and some businesses and stores were shuttered for good. It took years for all the scars to be erased. A decade later, only a few reminders remain. People who live here are used to wet weather. Those who were here in 2016 paid a price. They still look up with a hint of anxiety when the skies turn dark and rain begins to fall in torrents.