NEW ORLEANS (AP) — South Louisiana residents squeegeed Tropical Storm Lee’s floodwaters from their floors as floodgates were opened and the Red Cross handed out flood cleanup kits Tuesday, following the storm’s passage. The state’s northwest needed the rain but got only winds that whipped up wildfires and put firefighting helicopter crews to work dousing the flames and other hot spots.
Red Eubanks of Gonzales used a floor squeegee at Red’s Restaurant and Bar in Maurepas. His parking lot was rescue central, headquarters for Livingston Parish sheriff’s deputies and their amphibious rescue boat as Lee hit the central Gulf Coast.
“I had the sheriff’s Water Buffalo and about six deputies congregated in the parking lot, high and dry. The only dry spot around here,” he said. Then, as the Amite River rose on Monday, water began creeping up into his parking lot about 9:30 p.m. His son and several friends put the refrigerator, freezers and salad display boxes on cinder blocks before water seeped into the restaurant.
“This makes the fifth time I’ve had water in this building in 31 1/2 years,” he said.
Eubanks said his kitchen and bar area stayed dry, but he got about 2 inches in the dining hall and 5 ½ to 6 inches in the back of the building.
Winds from the storm whipped up nine wildfires in Caddo Parish on Monday without providing any rain to help put them out. But all of the fires were under control Tuesday and two National Guard helicopters with huge water buckets were checking for hot spots, said State Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain.
Strain said north Louisiana is so dry that fires start and move quickly. At least 15 fires have started since Friday, consuming thousands of acres of land, killing livestock and destroying at least 10 homes, he added.
“Fires would get into the canopies, the tops of trees, and would run along the tops of trees. Fires jumped highways,” Strain said.
In Livingston Parish, where floods forced hundreds of families out of their homes over the weekend, the Red Cross was giving out cleanup kits at the volunteer fire station in Maurepas.
Mike Hood, a fire district board member, said about 125 people picked up 180 to 200 cleanup kits — those with trucks big enough to get through the water took kits for housebound neighbors. He said his own house stayed dry but Tuesday was the first day since Saturday that he’d been able to get out.
The Amite has crested but is falling so slowly that it’s not expected to drop below flood stage at Maurepas and French Settlement until Thursday afternoon or night, National Weather Service meteorologist Gavin Phillips said.
“We had a combination of things going on over there” — storm surge and winds kept the river from draining, he said. “It was almost like putting a cork in a