Culled from quotes by residents and officials in the Louisiana flood area. August 16, 2016
We haven’t been rescuing people,
we’ve been rescuing subdivisions.
It never slowed down last night.
It hasn’t even stopped and
nobody knows what’s going on.
The water’s going to rise.
The Amite River is continuing to rise.
The damage is unreal,
and the water is still coming up.
Muddy, nasty bayou water.
I’m not going to lie, I cried uncontrollably.
I kept picking and hitting and prying.
Please help me. She said they were
going to evacuate, but no one could
get to them. Swim for the boat.
They could hear the baby screaming.
He went under the water. She was
not conscious and not breathing.
Snakes were everywhere. None of
these places are in a “flood zone.”
We tried to save him, but we couldn’t.
The heaviest rain is behind us.
We won’t know the death toll for sure
for several more days. We’ll just let
God show us what we need to do.
First appeared at the journal Public Pool in August 2016.