Widespread flooding in southern Louisiana has prompted the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to postpone the alligator lottery and commercial hunt information meetings for Joyce, Manchac, Maurepas Swamp and Pearl River Wildlife Management Areas until August 24.
The lottery meeting will begin at 10 a.m. with the commercial meeting to follow at 1 p.m. in the Louisiana Room of the LDWF headquarters at 2000 Quail Drive, Baton Rouge. Licenses and tags will be provided after each meeting.
Also cancelled was the Louisiana Saltwater Series Delacroix event with no plans to reschedule at this time.
Extreme flooding conditions across much of south Louisiana sent LDWF agents on search and rescue missions for people and animals, beginning around 4 a.m. August 12.
Search efforts took them to the most heavily flooded areas in the Tangipahoa, Washington, Livingston, St. Helena , East Baton Rouge, Iberia, Lafayette, East Feliciana, West Feliciana and Vermilion parishes.
Heavy rain also has flooded parts of Wildlife Management Areas, forcing closure of some roads and walk areas. Closed are Boyce Tower Road on Maurepas Swamp WMA, Swamp Walk at Joyce WMA, and the south end of Oil Well Road at the Pearl River WMA.
The Maurepas Swamp WMA is also closed. The WMA includes property in Ascension, Livingston, St. John the Baptist, St. James and Tangipahoa parishes. For more information on the WMA, go to http://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/wma/2791.
Joyce WMA located in southern Tangipahoa Parish about five miles south of Hammond in the Pontchartrain Basin is also closed. For more information on this WMA, go to http://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/wma/2774.
Pearl River WMA located in St. Tammany Parish, five miles east of Slidell, is closed. For more information on this WMA, visit http://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/wma/2789.