BATON ROUGE, Louisiana, Dhu-AlQa’dah 12, 1437, August 15, 2016, SPA -- Thousands of people in southern Louisiana were staying in shelters Monday, forced from their homes by intense flooding. At least six people were killed, according to Devin George, the state registrar for vital records. The weather had improved from the torrential downpours that began Friday but rivers and creeks in many areas still were far above flood stage, and people downstream watched the deluge with concern. Across southern Louisiana, residents have been scrambling to get to safety as rivers and creeks burst their banks, swollen from days of heavy rain that in some areas came close to 61 centimeters over a 48-hour period. Rescuers evacuated over 20,000 people since the flooding started and more than 10,000 people were in shelters as of Sunday evening, Lieutenant Governor John Bel Edwards said. The low pressure system moved into Texas, but the National Weather Service (NWS) warned that there still is danger of fresh floods, as swollen rivers drain toward the Gulf of Mexico. NWS said that rivers in the Baton Rouge area have started to fall, but still remained above flood stage setting record levels over the weekend. The U.S. government declared a major disaster, specifically in the parishes of Tangipahoa, Saint Helena, East Baton Rouge, and Livingston. --SPA 19:29 LOCAL TIME 16:29 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w