BATON ROUGE - The Louisiana National Guard says they have rescued close to 500 people and 61 pets during search and rescue operations following heavy flash flooding in seven different parishes.

All of the rescues came within the past 24 hours with 15 of them carried out by air.

More than 1,000 Guard members have been mobilized along with 170 high-water vehicles. They are responding to flood conditions in East Baton Rouge, Lafayette, St. Helena, St. Tammany and Tangipahoa parishes.

The LANG has also distributed more than 313,000 sand bags to Ascension, Livingston, East Feliciana and EBR parishes. MREs were also distributed in East Feliciana and St. Helena.