Tagged: severe weather

Tuesday's freezing rain and sleet closed Grambling State University early, canceled flights, sent drivers skidding and broke power lines in north Louisiana.

Police in both Shreveport and Monroe closed ramps onto Interstate 20.

Grambling sent students home at noon Tuesday but Louisiana Tech stayed open. Northwestern State canceled evening classes but said it would open Wednesday. Ouachita, Richland, East Carroll, Madison, Union, West Carroll, Morehouse parishes and Monroe city schools were closed Tuesday.

The National Weather Service says the Concordia Parish town of Clayton got 7.2 inches of rain Wednesday and Thursday.

Mayor Rydell Taylor says the town of 700 looks like a lake, and water got into six to 10 homes. Taylor says a waterworks employee carried about a dozen children across flooded yards to their school bus, and he himself carried a disabled woman to the bus that takes her to work.

Taylor says nobody has been hurt, and water levels were dropping by late Thursday morning.

Louisiana may have a day or two of sun after the storms that swamped the state, but forecasters say rivers and streams will still be high and the ground will still be soggy when the next round of rain hits over the weekend.

Christopher Bannan, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Slidell, says storms probably will start late Saturday in north Louisiana and work southward through the state Sunday and Sunday night. He says the next round of storms likely won't be as potent as those that occurred Wednesday and Thursday.

Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a statewide emergency Thursday after storms rolled across Louisiana, dumping huge amounts of rain and causing flooding in some areas.

The declaration lets Louisiana use state money to help local governments deal with flooding and storm

A slow-moving storm system dumped almost a foot of rain in some areas as it moved east, causing rivers to swell and flooding streets in some urban areas.

No injuries were reported, though authorities suspect a tornado may have been the cause of damage at an industrial plant near Baton Rouge.