St. Tammany Parish President Pat Brister says rivers in the western portion of the parish that flooded in 2016 are in danger of reaching similar levels again due to rain from Hurricane Barry.
"Especially residents who live in low lying areas and residents who are in the flood warning areas issued by the National Weather Service, that is, the Tchefuncte, the Bogue Falaya, and Bogue Chitto river basins, to prepare for heavy rain and wind event, as well as elevated water levels," said Brister. "That is our biggest concern right now."
Brister said the National Weather Service told them to expect river levels similar to the flooding that happened about three-and-a-half years ago.
"They are predicting that we will have the same level of water in our rivers on the western part of the parish as we did on March 2016, and at that time we had over 700 flooded structures," Brister warned.
And with high tide coming on the lake this evening, Brister said it will take longer for that water to flow out of those rivers.
"With the lake, high tide will be around 6:00 tonight as I understand it, and that means water can't drain out of our rivers into the lake," Brister said, "so it all backs up."