2021 brings record rainfall to Baton Rouge, family of drowned Tiki-Tubing clients demand action

The Advocate's Top Headlines

with Jennifer Wadsworth | Assistant metro editor

Good afternoon and welcome back to your midday news roundup.

Record rainfall

With four months left before year's end, 2021 has already brought more rainfall than the capital region saw in all of 2020. "It's an odd anomaly," one climatologist told us in this piece by Ellyn Couvillion.

'My husband drowned'

Relatives of some of the people who've died while tubing on the Amite River tuned into the Livingston Parish council meeting Thursday to demand action and some accountability for Tiki Tubing, whose customers keep getting stranded or submerged.

"My husband drowned in your parish and no one offered their condolences,” Lisa Hilliard, the wife of one drowning victim, said in the Zoom session. “Not Tiki Tubing. No one."

Reporter James Finn has the story.

A political insider looks back

From U.S. Sen. Russell Long to Gov. Kathleen Blanco, LSU professor Robert Mann had a front-row seat to Louisiana politics for decades. He writes about them and his own journey in his new memoir, "Backrooms and Bayous: My Life in Politics." Read about it here.

Here to help

They thought their work was done. But when COVID roared back, BR Answer the Call reignited its efforts to feed health care workers and help out local restaurants.

Find out what they're doing now in this story.

Thanks for reading!