LAFAYETTE, LA (KLFY)– Consistent rain and already saturated ground have made a mess of Lafayette traffic Monday. Several drivers were left stalled in deep water trying to cross the Hub City’s major roadways.
On Ambassador Caffery and emergency responders were kept busy. One firefighter said he had helped half a dozen stranded drivers within just a few hours.
“Dude, ain’t stopping. I have not got back to the station yet. I am on number six, and we’ve got every truck rolling the same thing. People are panicking. They’re trying to drive through high water, and they’re dying out. Tow trucks, they don’t have enough,” the firefighter said while making a driver abandoned his vehicle.
That driver was Jarrell Colvin. He was trying to make a Waitr delivery when his car died waiting for the light to change at a busy intersection.
“It’s bad. I mean I’m new here. I’m from Minnesota. I haven’t driven these roads. Man, my car is filling up with water”, Jarrell stated mid-interview. “I’ve never been in this situation before.”
All down Ambassador Caffery drivers risked the rising waves or pulled over afraid of getting stuck.
“If we could get that road, we could go home. I don’t know what we’re going to do,” lamented Aisha Parzivand, who pulled over into someone driveway at the intersection of Ambassador Caffery and Eraste Landry to avoid the rising floodwaters.
Her husband, Dr. Ali Parzivand said until Lafayette’s government develops some long-term solutions, there needs to be a detour system to find safer roads.
“Looks like the city has to do something because Ambassador is the main road here, and if you cannot pass Ambassador, that’s the main road here, so you are locked,” he said.
The demand for tow trucks could not meet the need. With more rain on the way, some fear what the week holds ahead.
One man was making the most out of the Latest South Louisiana flood, wakeboarding behind a truck while the rain poured.
He told News 10, “It’s flooding. We’re trying to have a good time.”
A flash flood warning did put a flash flood warning in effect Monday evening until 1:00 A.M. The National Weather Service warned not to travel unless you were fleeing a flood or under an evacuation order.
