Unusually widespread flooding across Louisiana, Mississippi

Bruce was among about 20 people in a Red Cross shelter in the Forrest County Community Center on Saturday, as creeks and rivers continued to rise after torrential rains pounded the Deep South.

Downpours — part of a system affecting Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee and Alabama — submerged roads and cars, washed out bridges and forced residents to flee homes.

Mississippi officials were still looking for two missing fishermen, but had no reports of injuries or deaths, said Lee Smithson, head of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, or MEMA.

In Petal, a suburb of Hattiesburg, Azri Oatis and two friends were steadily shoveling sand into white bags in hopes they could save his slightly raised auto paint and body shop from the waist-deep water in its parking lot.

The flooding could be the area's worst in more than 30 years, with the worst damage to low-lying areas in the southern and western parts of town, Petal Mayor Hal Marx said.

Floods closed highways across north Louisiana, along its western edge and across the southeast, according to a map on the state Department of Transportation and Development website.