High water prompts early vacation for Louisiana students

PIERRE PART, La. – High water has prompted an early summer vacation for students at Pierre Part Elementary School in Louisiana’s Assumption Parish.

School officials said Tuesday marked the last day of school for them. The roughly 550 students in Pre-K to 8th grade will not have to report Wednesday and Thursday as previously scheduled.

The school is in a low-lying section where continued high water on the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers has caused backwater flooding in the Lake Verret Basin. Pierre Part sits on the edge of that 400,000-acre (625 square-mile) swamp basin.

Assumption Parish’s homeland security director, John Boudreaux, tells The Advocate the school isn’t at risk of flooding but some smaller state highways and parish roads have had floodwater on them for a while, making school bus passage difficult.

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Information from: The Advocate, http://theadvocate.com