Brad Gilbert, left, helps his friend Mike Abel with his flooded business in Amite, La., picking up anything that is salvageable before the water gets higher, Friday, Aug. 12, 2016. Heavy downpours pounded parts of the central U.S. Gulf Coast on Friday, forcing the rescue of dozens of people stranded in their homes by waist-high water and leaving dead one man who was trapped by floodwaters.
In this aerial photo over Robert, La., Army National Guard, vehicles drive on flooded U.S. Route 190 after heavy rains inundated the region, Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards says more than 1,000 people in south Louisiana have been rescued from homes, vehicles and even clinging to trees as a slow-moving storm hammers the state with flooding. (AP Photo/Max Becherer) 
A member of the St. George Fire Department assists residents as they wade through floodwaters from heavy rains in the Chateau Wein Apartments in Baton Rouge, La., Friday, Aug. 12, 2016.BATON ROUGE, La. – Robert and Gwen Arceneaux endured a sleepless night Sunday after noticing floodwater creeping into their home – in a neighborhood that had never seen water before.
They gathered up their dogs and a few bags of belongings and fled out the back door, eventually wading through waist-deep water to a passing National Guard truck. Now safe at a movie studio-lot-turned-shelter their worries weren’t over, as they tried to get medication for Robert, who suffers from lung cancer.
“We need to get somewhere safer,” Gwen said, as her dogs panted heavily under the hot sun.
Across southern Louisiana Sunday, residents scrambled to get to safety as rivers and creeks burst their banks, swollen from days of heavy rain that in some areas came close to two feet over a 48-hour period.
In high-water vehicles, boats and helicopters, emergency crews hurried to rescue scores of south Louisiana residents as the governor warned that it was not over.