Storm cleanup continues

As cleanup began Thursday, some school systems closed while hundreds of homes and businesses remained without power.

Sam Russo, 77, was found dead in his bed by rescue workers, said Major Johnny Blanchard of the Iberville Parish Sheriff’s Office.

The first of the two upper-level disturbances began moving through the area Wednesday afternoon. The second storm system formed around 5 a.m. Thursday, said Tim Destri, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Slidell.

“It moved at a pretty good clip today,” Destri said of the second storm system.

More than 6.5 inches of rainfall was recorded at Baton Rouge Metro Airport since Wednesday afternoon, breaking rainfall records on Wednesday and Thursday, said Bob Wagner, another meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Slidell.

In Iberville Parish, Blanchard said skies darkened about 8:30 a.m. Thursday.

Neighbors noticed the tree had fallen on the trailer, parked on a lot on Gum Street, and couldn’t find Russo. They ran to Town Hall, about a block away, and called 911.

Rescue workers found Russo’s body when they were clearing debris.

Grosse Tete Mayor Michael Chauffe said Russo had slept at a neighbor’s house Wednesday night, but went to the mobile home Thursday morning to get his medication.

The mobile home was next to a line of trees, but only the large pecan tree was toppled.

Russo was a Livonia native, and had been in business there before moving to Iberville Parish, where he operated a gas station in Rosedale and a store in Ramah before retiring.

Cleanup from the storms began in earnest Thursday in and around Baton Rouge.