HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) – As the Leaf River rose north of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, 26-year-old Rebecca Bruce and her fiancé grabbed what they could and left the shed where they live. The water was more than 2 feet deep indoors when they left, she said.
“We lost everything,” Bruce said Saturday. “I’ve got a book bag full of dirty clothes, and I was lucky to get that.”
Bruce was among about 20 people in a Red Cross shelter in the Forrest County Community Center on Saturday, as creeks and rivers continued to rise after torrential rains pounded the Deep South.
Downpours – part of a system affecting Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee and Alabama – submerged roads and cars, washed out bridges and forced residents to flee homes.
At least three people have died in Louisiana alone. Mississippi officials were still looking for two missing fishermen, but had no reports of injuries or deaths, said Lee Smithson, head of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.