Parish’s 1,000-Year Flood

The people of East Baton Rouge Parish (pop. 440,000) experienced the greatest natural disaster in its history Aug. 12-14 when the parish received in some areas a record 30 inches of rain, followed by record flooding of the Comite and Amite rivers. More than 59,000 residences and 3,501 commercial buildings received damage, causing more than $6 billion in losses, most of which was uninsured. Parishwide about 227-square miles  were inundated. This issue of the Capital City News is devoted to this tragedy with a focus on the City of Central and what happened there.