Multi-day rainstorm stresses region with high water, downed trees and outages (2024)

Near-constant rainfall over more than 24 hours strained the Shreveport-Bossier region Wednesday with flooded streets and yards, waterways pressing their banks, ongoing power outages due to high wind and downed trees.

The rain started around 5 p.m. Monday and didn't let up until about 10 a.m. Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service Shreveport office. More rain fell Wednesday night, but by then the downpour already had created challenging conditions.

Rainfall Tuesday broke the region's previous record for April 9 with 3.43 inches. The previous record for that date, set in 1913, was 2.06 inches. Between 6-8 inches of rain fell in total between about 5 p.m. Monday and 10 a.m. Wednesday, according to the NWS.

Southwestern Electric Power Company customers experienced widespread outages throughout the Ark-La-Tex beginning Monday night. While most were expected to have power restored by Wednesday, some in the region could be in the dark until Saturday.

Local waterways, including Wallace, Caddo and Cross lakes, Red River and various bayous,rose under the pressure from rain, fast-flowing streams and runoff. Though no major flooding had been reported Wednesday morning, neither had the waters stopped rising.

The inclement weather lead to road closures, class and event cancelations and other delays.

Across the area, high water swamped streets and winds brought trees down into roadways. Both an inconvenience and a hazard, clearing them— or at least keeping people from driving through them— was a major priority Wednesday.

The rain Wednesday night wasn't as heavy or constant as in the days before, but public officials in Caddo and Bossier parishes expect to have their hands full until the weather dries out into the weekend.

Rising waters

It was not a surprise to the experts that so much rain would put local waterways at risk of spilling their banks.

"Anytime you get that much rain within that kind of timeframe, you're going to get flooding, you're going to get rises on local creeks, bayous and area waterways. And that's what we're seeing," said NWS Meteorologist Davyon Hill.

Along Lakeshore Drive in Shreveport Wednesday morning, Cross Lake was spilling over its banks.

Cross Lake rose from about 170 ft around 5 p.m. Monday to about nearly 174.5 ft by 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, according to data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Cross Lake enters flood stage at about 173 ft. It was expected to crest overnight at 175 ft.

"There's a lot of people that live around that lake," said Deputy Director of Homeland Security for the Caddo Parish Sheriff's Office Robert Jump. "At that elevation, we have seen a few low-lying lake homes that did get impacted."

Jump said high water issues around the parish were not expected to reach the level of flooding impacts from 2015 and 2016, though rising waters Wednesday remained a safety hazard. But he said emergency responders generally know where flooding will happen.

"You see 7-10 inches in 24-48 hours, a lot of communities have a hard time dealing with it," Jump said. "But we kind of know that. We're not going to get any elevations like we saw in 2015 and 2016 when we had homes inundated. At least we don't think so at the moment."

But around Wallace Lake, Jump said roads in and out of several neighborhoods were likely to be cut off by high water.

"Riding Club Lane down there, there's just one road in and that road is already under water," Jump said. "Homes aren't getting flooded, but the ability to come and go is impacted and we don't want people to drive through floodways."

Bossier Parish Administrator Butch Ford spent the early part of Wednesday morning touring areas prone to flooding. While Red Chute Bayou and Flat River still were flowing fine, he said folks living around Lake Bistineau needed to stay alert.

"Bistineau rose a foot-and-a-half last night and it's going to rise some more. It's rising pretty quickly. Bistineau is an issue and people need to be prepared with their boats and boat houses and things like that," Ford said.

Ford said there were a number of roads in the parish underwater Wednesday morning and warned motorists them to be cautious. Drivers are advised not to risk high water and to seek alternative routes when they're unsure.

"There's water across state roads, parish roads, all throughout the parish and the public needs to be very careful crossing them. You're not supposed to go through it, you're supposed to turn around," Ford said.

Ford said the parish is making more sandbags to distribute to residents but also has about 10,000 on standby positioned throughout Bossier. Many were delivered Wednesday to areas in Haughton where flooding was severe in 2016, Ford said.

Shreveport Public Works Director Gary Norman said the city handed out about 1,500 sandbags Tuesday and continued distributing them Wednesday, though he said demand had decreased overnight.

"We've still got quite a few that are made up but we aren't see a lot of activity this morning. It's probably a little too late at this point," Norman said.

Norman said areas around Cross Lake were the biggest concern Wednesday morning. He said the city would be putting up high water signs and barricading roads to keep motorists off the flooded streets.

"As water continues to rise, we'll continue to block streets," Norman said.

Downed trees

High winds that came with the rain brought down trees across the Caddo-Bossier area. On Wednesday, public officials were doing their best to clear them from roadways and SWEPCO continued to repair the powerlines brought down by falling trees.

"We've got trees down all over the parish. Big trees," Ford said. "This morning and last night, our main focus was to get the roads clear of trees and that way everyone can get home from work and get home from school."

Ford said many of those trees have fallen into roadways. Norman said his crews in Shreveport were dealing with the same problem.

"Our biggest concern we're having right now is we're having a lot of trees fall. As a matter of fact, I just got a call and we had one fall on one of the garbage trucks," Norman said. "We've got somewhere in the neighborhood of 20-plus trees down at this point."

In Greenwood, Police Chief Shayne Gibson said a large tree fell across Highway 80, two smaller trees went down on Greenwood Road at different times and a tree obstructed Kelly Lane, a neighborhood street.

"It's calm right now. We've got a few people doing a little bit of cleanup around town, but that's about it," Gibson said.

Outages

About 25,000 SWEPCO customers in the Ark-La-Tex still were without power around 11 a.m. Wednesday, according to a news release. That number was down to about 20,600 by 1:15 p.m. At the peak of the storm, about 35,000 customers were without power.

Around 1:15 p.m. Wednesday, nearly 6,000 Caddo Parish SWEPCO customers and about 1,300 Bossier Parish customers were without power, according to the SWEPCO outage map.

SWEPCO reported widespread damage with downed power lines, significant flooding and fallen trees and limbs throughout the area.

You can view SWEPCO's outage map here.

Additional crews from SWEPCO's Fayetteville, Arkansas, district and from sister operating companies AEP Texas and Public Service of Oklahoma, are assisting in restoration efforts.

"While SWEPCO employees and contractors are working quickly and safely to restore service, the additional lines of storms brought a second day of damaging winds and intense lightning that slowed progress and impacted transmission and distribution infrastructure. As always, SWEPCO crews will not stop until the last customer who can receive power is restored," the news release said.

SWEPCO reported Wednesday it expects it won't be until Saturday that restorations in Louisiana are complete. Here are the restoration expectation timelines for most Louisiana customers:

By 10 pm. Wednesday

• Bossier City area
• Vivian area
• Plain Dealing area

By 10 pm. Thursday

• Shreveport area

Noon Saturday

• Mansfield area
• Natchitoches area
• Hornbeck area