NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — The flooding caused by Friday’s storm was high enough to stop traffic on many streets and several drivers needed to be rescued from the cars.
Parts of New Orleans East to Gentilly and the West End saw some of the worst of it.
“Very unexpected, I didn’t expect the weather conditions to be this tough,” said Ricky Stephens, a man driving through New Orleans.
A cluster of thunderstorms dumped inches of rain across the city.
Cars were swamped and streets were flooded.
“All this water coming down Dwyer, Canal that’s fixing to go into that canal down there – it’s coming into our streets, flooding our vehicles out, potentially flooding some of these homes out,” said Sage Michael Pellet, a New Orleans East resident.
He spent his day walking along the street looking for people in distress.
“A neighbor just tried to push his son’s car out of the water,” said Pellet. “We did everything we could – shovels and cones. People are desperate out here.”
Not to mention the rain caused his own set of problems.
“Now I got to spend the whole day filing insurance claims on my car that flooded out,” he said.
Pellet says New Orleans East doesn’t have enough resources to handle this kind of flooding and is calling on the mayor to step up.
“Work with the community. Mayor, see our problems. See our issues. We shouldn’t be dealing with this. We need better in New Orleans.”
