Historic Louisiana floods measured from space
Digital Reporter
Friday, August 19, 2016, 4:59 PM - Between August 8 and 14, heavy rain pummeled Louisiana, damaging more than 40,000 homes and displacing thousands of people.
Officials say a staggering 6.9 trillion gallons of rain fell between August 8 and 14, enough to fill more than 10.4 million Olympic-size swimming pools.
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That amount of water can be difficult to visualize, but new measurements from NASA provides some context into how much rain accumulated:
The animation shows rainfall totals every three hours between August 12 to 14, a time period that saw 1,270 mm of precipitation.
Worst U.S. disaster since Hurricane Sandy
On Friday, the Red Cross declared the Louisiana floods the worst natural disaster since Hurricane Sandy, the deadliest and most destructive storm of the 2012 Atlantic Hurricane Season.
Brad Kieserman, the Red Cross' vice president of disaster services operations and logistics, told CNN clean-up efforts will cost at least $30 million, but that number is expected to climb significantly as the magnitude and scope of the damage becomes more apparent.
So far, 13 people have been killed in storm-related incidents.
PHOTOS: HISTORIC FLOODING IN LOUISIANA:
Courtesy: NOAA
