This is so sad.
BBC Sunday, 10 June, 2001, 06:58 GMT 07:58 UK
Thousands stranded in
US floods
A family waits to be rescued from their driveway
Thousands of people have been forced from
their homes in Texas and Louisiana, as
torrential rains continue to batter the southern
coast of the United States.
President George Bush has declared 28
counties of south-east Texas a disaster area,
ordering federal aid to supplement local efforts.
At least three people
have been killed in the
floods caused by
tropical storm Allison,
one of them a woman
who drowned in a
flooded lift in a building
in the Texan city of
Houston.
The first floor is completely underwater
Emergency officials in the city used boats and
helicopters to rescue thousands of residents
trapped by rising waters.
Visiting alligator
"There are more people out there on rooftops
than we can possibly even count, much less
help," said a Coast Guard spokesman, Rob
Wyman.
Nine of the city's major
hospitals have declared
internal emergencies,
many of them affected
by power failures.
All the main roads into
Houston were flooded
to some degree, and
many drivers were
stranded as their cars
either sank or floated
in the flood waters.
Some were rescued by
long-haul truck drivers.
In Louisiana, alligators agitated by the storm's
thunder and lightening, wandered into
residential areas.
Officials in two parishes reported capturing 40
alligators during the week.
I'll release them back into the swamps unless
they are big and aggressive," said Richard
Roussel IV, an alligator nuisance control officer
for St John Parish.
Forecasters are predicting more rain for
Sunday.
-- Anonymous, June 10, 2001
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/161/nation/In_midst_of_flood_record_fi
sh_:.shtml
In midst of flood, record fish caught with lasso instead of rod and
reel
By Associated Press, 6/10/2001 17:05
ANGOLA, La. (AP) The fish measured nearly 7 feet long and would have
been a state record in Louisiana, except for one problem thanks to
flooding, it was dragged out of an overflowing ditch instead of being
hooked with a rod and reel.
The fish, a scaly, toothed creature called an alligator gar, was
caught on the grounds of the Louisiana State Penitentiary in the
midst of flooding caused by remnants of Tropical Storm Allison.
Elsewhere, snakes and other reptiles swam in high water that flooded
parts of Houston.
Inmates caught the 6-foot-9-inch, 164-pound gar at the maximum
security prison farm for Warden Burl Cain on Friday.
According to the state Wildlife and Fisheries Department's Web page,
the two biggest alligator gars ever caught in Louisiana weighed 179
and 134 pounds. Both were caught in the Red River in 1997.
But this one doesn't rate an entry in the record books, Cain said.
''I called the state to see if it's a record,'' he said. ''They said
it had to be caught on a rod and reel. We caught him with a hay
string, like you bale hay with. The inmates got a little old rope
around his neck and dragged him out.''
The high water also helped Cain and an inmate catch a 5-foot
alligator Friday to show Billy Bob Thornton and other members of a
crew filming scenes for the movie ''Monster's Ball'' at Angola.
''The convict rassled him down. I had him on the head and neck, the
convict had him on the tail. The convict let him go and he whomped me
with his tail,'' Cain said.
In Texas, snakes and lizards floated in 3 feet of water that stood in
the home of Al Guillen, so he and his family moved to their second
floor in the Houston subdivision of Hunterwood Village.
''We were having a battle with them last night. I kept telling
them 'This is my house, get out,''' Guillen said Sunday after being
rescued by the National Guard.
-- Anonymous, June 10, 2001