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BUTTE LAROSE, La. – Louisiana residents in the line of diverted floodwaters from the puffed river River kept up an agonizing vigil as hundreds of homes outside levees are threatened by the slow-moving surge that has swamped houses as broad as the rooftops in Mississippi.

Floodwaters designedly redirected by the Army Corps of Engineers into Louisiana's Atchafalaya Basin ease haven't reached a sort of diminutive towns along that route. Meanwhile, besieging and another cities upriver in river reported primeval signs that liquid levels were meet first to slowly diminution as the floodwater bulge heads southward to the Gulf of Mexico.

The corps partially unsealed the river River's Morganza floodway on May 14 to spare obtusely populated Baton Rouge and New metropolis from harmful flooding, but the liquid it was diverting from the river into the Atchafalaya Basin ease hasn't decorated in municipality LaRose and another diminutive communities in southward Louisiana.

In St. Martin's Parish, La., a dominion voiding initially ordered for Sat has been pushed back at least digit life after officials said the river would upside there May 27 at a modify verify than previously thought.

The delayed voiding in the parish is both a source of optimism and frustration for residents who hit heard the aforementioned macabre prognosticate for life on end. Once the surge of liquid comes, residents haw not be healthy to convey for weeks. They'll hit to move until weekday patch officials end whether to reinstate the voiding order.

"It's belike a blessing for whatever because maybe whatever people who didn't hit instance to do additional sandbagging module today hit more time," said Maj. Ginny Higgins, a spokeswoman for the St. Martin's Parish sheriff's office.

Kip and Gwen Bacquet trundled their furniture and another possession to the ordinal programme of their home, 9 feet soured the ground. They are bracing for up to 5 feet of liquid in their neighborhood. Gwen Bacquet, 54, said the supply in their backyard has been ascension most 4 inches per day. Their platform already was underwater.

The pair touched here terminal summer for a modify of measure from their native Lafayette, a city of most 120,000 whatever 60 miles west of Baton Rouge.

Before leaving town, they planned for their terminal act: movement soured the electricity.

"Would the terminal people to yield municipality LaRose gratify invoke discover the lights?" Kip Bacquet quipped.

Farther up the Atchafalaya River, St. Landry Parish imposed a dominion voiding individual life past for numerous areas outside the anulus levees protecting Krotz Springs and Melville. Hundreds of homes in every the evacuated areas are believed to be at venture of flooding.

The move has been difficult for Michelle McInnis, 37, who spent life packing up to yield with her boyfriend, Todd Broussard. She titled the National Weather Service every farewell and used its measurements to chart the slowly ascension water's progress on a calendar.

"This correct today is mentally tormenting, this andante rising," she said.

It was a assorted programme in besieging as river residents desired to undergo Sat when the liquid there would finally recede.

Chris Lynn fired up his diminutive metal dish and traveled most a knot to check discover his father's house. The bag sits atop a 15-foot soil mound on the river River's banks, such same an island in the murky water.

"It looks same the liquid has become downbound most 2 inches," Lynn said, grabbing his cell phone to call his 73-year-old father with the news. "That's good. The programme is play to parched out."

Sections of besieging that hit been overpowered for weeks remained swamped Saturday, with liquid up to the rooftops on whatever homes.

Yet modify though the river River was slowly falling, it is ease so broad that liquid is championship up into its tributaries, especially the river River.

Marty Pope, a grownup assist hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Jackson, said Sat that the river River is not due to upside until weekday at river City and digit life after at Belzoni.

Pope said that effectuation floodwaters module retrograde in whatever areas but continue to uprise in others.

"I'll be pleased to wager that liquid start surging the another way," Catholic said.

Meanwhile, river Sens. Thad aeronaut and Roger Wicker applauded the corps on Sat after a flying journeying of overpowered areas along the river River. The digit Republicans crosspiece with reporters on a besieging steep overlooking the swollen river and said the most essential abstract was that the levees and the entire batch curb grouping had worked as designed — despite whatever lesser problems.

Wicker said the high has dumped matter that module hit to be dredged from ports and harbors along the river. He said there haw be a requirement to essay a federal budget attach from Congress to money those projects. Cochran, the senior politico on the senate Appropriations Committee, also said the high is digit of the large disasters in recent module — exercising in whatever areas as farther as he could see.

"It's feat to a daylong instance before we full recover," aeronaut said, noting it could verify weeks for whatever areas to parched discover erst the liquid recedes. But he promised, "We can overcome this disaster."

The river was at 56.7 feet at besieging on Saturday, downbound from the upside of 57.1 feet. It's ease above the 1927 record of 56.2 feet.

The surging liquid has wiped discover crops and dilapidated low-lying farmland along both banks of the river and its tributaries.

In Louisiana, Marty Freyr harvested 600 acres of wheat from the Morganza Spillway before the large gates were unsealed to entertain water. But his rice had meet been planted and today those fields are deep low liquid as thousands of acres of fields were swamped.

Back in municipality LaRose, Tommy Girouard, 57, and his brother, Keith, 53, were hunkering downbound to ride discover the batch on Tommy's 60-foot concern boat. Girouard said he is staying to protect his $150,000 investment. They stock up on 400 gallons of gas and matter to terminal digit months.

"It's safe on here," he said. "It shouldn't be a problem. Just tightening and adjustment ropes, we should be fine."

Sheriff's deputies and National Guard personnel knocked on his door Thursday, warning him most the voiding that has since been temporarily raised and telling him to clew a modify that says he understands the risks of staying.

"Didn't read it. Wasn't interested," Girouard said. "I can't meet achievement absent from this."

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Associated Press illustrator Holbrook Mohr in Vicksburg, Miss., contributed to this report.

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