At least three people have died and thousands have been rescued after "historic" flooding swamped the US state of Louisiana.
The National Guard and emergency teams have used helicopters to rescue people stranded in their homes or cars.
Searches are continuing for missing people, as the rain is expected to continue over the weekend.
The heavy rainfall started on Friday where some areas received more than 17ins (43cm) of rain.
The neighbouring states of Alabama and Mississippi are also experiencing severe weather.
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency on Friday. On Saturday he said: "This is an ongoing event. We're still in response mode."
He and his family were relocated after water flooded their basement.
"This is a flood of epic proportions," JR Shelton, the mayor of Central City told The Advocate newspaper. "When we talk about floods now, we'll talk about the great flood of 2016. everything else pales in comparison."
Shanita Angrum, 32, called the police when she realised her family were trapped in their home. An officer arrived and carried her six-year-old daughter to safety.
"Snakes were everywhere," she told Associated Press. "The whole time I was just praying for God to make sure me and my family were OK."
John Mitchell, a 23-year-old Louisiana resident, was forced to swim to safety with his girlfriend and her one-year-old daughter. They were rescued by police officers in a boat.
"This is the worst it's been, ever,'' Mr Mitchell said. "We tried to wait it out, but we had to get out."

Several rivers in Louisiana and Mississippi are overflowing. Gov Edwards expects some of the rivers will rise 4ft (1.2m) above previous record levels.
Baton Rouge, Louisiana's capital, is one of the worst hit areas where as much as 11.3in (28cm) of rain was reported. New Orleans has reported 2.34in (6cm).
While the worst of the rain appears to have passed, the weather system is expected to move north on Sunday, hitting central and northern Louisiana.
The state is prone to bursts of extreme weather; thousands of acres of Louisiana was flooded in 2011 to divert water from the flooded Mississippi River and to spare cities, including Baton Rouge and New Orleans, that lie downstream.
In 2005, New Orleans suffered one of the worst natural disasters in US history, when Hurricane Katrina hit the city. The storm killed nearly 2,000 people and displaced one million. Thousands of homes were flooded and destroyed in Louisiana and along the Gulf coast.

Used to be 8.7", this July we had 16.2".

Slowly, residents began to return to water-ravaged homes in Baton Rouge on Tuesday after heavy rain submerged large stretches of southern Louisiana, killing 11 people, damaging entire neighborhoods and prompting tens of thousands of rescues.

Yet as floodwater flowed downstream, officials warned that the danger was far from over. In communities to the south — still in rescue mode — residents were urged to stay in their homes or evacuate.

The devastation was severe. In Livingston Parish, just east of Baton Rouge, officials estimated that as many as 75% of the area’s 52,000 homes had been damaged by floodwaters. Southeast, in Ascension Parish, water had seeped into one of every three homes.

“We’ve been through Hurricane Gustav, Katrina, Isaac and Rita, but this without a doubt is the roughest we’ve ever had in this parish,” said Livingston Parish Sheriff Jason Ard.

By Tuesday morning, more than 40,000 people across Louisiana had registered for federal emergency aid. Here’s a look at the effects of Louisiana’s flooding by the numbers.
As many as 20,000 of the parish’s 141,000 residents had to be rescued after the area endured 25 inches of rain in just three days, Ard said. About 5,000 residents were in shelters.

“At least 75 of my deputies no longer have a home,” Ard said. “What do you tell them? It’s heartbreaking to see a man have an emotional moment, wipe his tears away, and then get back on his boat and take off. He knows his people need him.”

Sheriff’s Sgt. Gene Higginbotham continued to work 12-hour shifts at the local Emergency Operations Center in Livingson Parish, helping with rescue efforts as his own home was engulfed in almost knee-deep water.

On Saturday, the 42-year-old was injured when his police SUV was overtaken by flood water as he tried to move his wife, daughter and mother out of their one-story brick home. After visiting a local emergency room to get stitches on his arm, he was soon back at work, coordinating shelters at local schools and churches.

“It’s not easy,” he said of staying at his in-laws' place and leaving his wife to venture back home to rip up baseboards.

“You know you’re feeling lost, but you just have to try to put some of that stuff in the back of mind when you’re at work,” he said. “It’s just one of those things. You worry about your family, and you worry about your home. At same time, you’ve got a job to do. You kind of carry on.”

Some of his colleagues, he said, had as much four to six feet of water in their homes. “It’s total destruction, and they were back at work, putting their gear on and rescuing people,” he said. “Our sheriff, he told us: ‘We’re going to get through this.’”

On Tuesday, President Obama expanded the federal disaster declaration for Louisiana to 20 parishes. More than 60,000 people across the state had already registered for federal aid.

“This is a historic flooding event,” Gov. John Bel Edwards said Tuesday. “When you have a storm that is unnamed — it wasn’t a tropical storm, it wasn’t a hurricane — a lot of times people underestimate the impact that it would have.… But this is historic. We are seeing unprecedented flood levels as the waters move south.”

Edwards estimated that more than 40,000 homes had been damaged by the heavy rainfall and floodwater. About 8,000 people were taking refuge in shelters, he said, noting that the number is shifting as residents return home, relocate with family or move into motels.

With sporadic looting, dawn-to-dusk curfews and more than 30,000 homes and businesses without power, it was clear the disaster was not over.

 djones520 wrote:
This has been an insanely wet summer. July, we set 3 new rain fall records here at Ft. Campbell, to include almost doubling our monthly rain fall total. Used to be 8.7", this July we had 16.2".

 reds8n wrote:


Dreadful news.

Hang on in there folks, this too shall pass.

That dog looks happy though eh ?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/08/15/coffins-float-down-louisianas-flooded-streets-as-residents-warne/

 Goliath wrote:
Commiserations to those affected by the flooding.

On a slightly less dreadful note, it has produced this headline:

Man who claims God punishes gays with floods has his home destroyed in flood of ‘biblical proportions’

While he's going through something that no-one should have to go through; it *is* somewhat ironic.

 Dreadclaw69 wrote:
And our prize? saturated ground so the sump pump can't keep up, and now cleaning up the overflow that came back through the toilet.

 Dreadclaw69 wrote:
Sorry about your family's home. I'm glad that you at least had insurance (even if it was compulsory)

 Goliath wrote:
Commiserations to those affected by the flooding.

On a slightly less dreadful note, it has produced this headline:

Man who claims God punishes gays with floods has his home destroyed in flood of ‘biblical proportions’

While he's going through something that no-one should have to go through; it *is* somewhat ironic.

Mathew 5:45 wrote:That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

 Ouze wrote:

 Dreadclaw69 wrote:
And our prize? saturated ground so the sump pump can't keep up, and now cleaning up the overflow that came back through the toilet.

I once had my septic tank back up and start expelling itself via the toilet. The horror of seeing that lava-like flow will be seared into my memory for the rest of my life.