At least four people in Louisiana have died and hundreds more have been left with damaged homes after flash flooding tore through the Lake Charles area in a storm the mayor said will “absolutely eclipse” last year’sHurricane Laura.

“It will eclipse what we traditionally consider a 100-year event,” Hunter reportedly said, adding that the week’s rainfall was “the third-heaviest rain event” in the city’s history.

The Louisiana Department of Health said that thetotal numberof storm-related deaths is up to four as of Wednesday morning.

Victims include a61-year-old manwho was found in a vehicle submerged underwater, and a33-year-old manwho was found in a flooded vehicle after the water receded in Baton Rouge, the health department said.

For some residents, like Jennifer Eastwood, evacuations meant they had to spend a night taking shelter in places like the Trinity Baptist Church campus.

Eastwood toldThe Advocatethat she was forced to leave her home with her mother-in-law and her 9-month-old son Peyton, who was born premature and relies on an oxygen tube.

RELATED VIDEO: Hurricane Laura Makes Landfall in U.S. as a Category 4 Storm

“I basically swam through the water to get him out and get [her mother-in-law] and then she fell down into the water,” Eastwood said. “We just went out there and we still can’t get in there. The water is even deeper.”

Added resident Thomas LeBlanc to the outlet: “I don’t think anybody expected this. We have no idea what it’s going to be tomorrow either. I have not seen water like this in a really long time … It’s just been so much, so quick.”

One woman toldCBS Newsthat she was able to get her children and a few belongings out of her first-floor apartment before it filled up with chest-high water, but that “everything is gone.”

“It was terrifying,” another survivor told the outlet.

Gov. John Bel Edwardsissued a state of emergency declarationin southwest Louisiana on Monday due to the “severe weather,” and theNational Weather Servicesaid Wednesday morning that flash and river flooding is still a concern over east and south Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, eastern Oklahoma and southwestern Mississippi.

source: people.com