LaJack said while several roadways throughout the parish were flooding, nearly a dozen rescue operations needed to take place.

ST. LANDRY PARISH, La. (KLFY) -- As flood waters rose during Wednesday's storms, big trucks like "Gary Paul" gave the St. Landry Parish Sheriff's Office the ability to travel across the parish and conduct search and rescue missions to save lives.

"If you don't have something like this, you have to have a boat, a regular truck won't be able to go," Gary LaJack of SLPSO's Search and Rescue said. "A regular truck might go, but you're going to get water all in your transmission, and that happened to me already."

LaJack said while several roadways throughout the parish were flooding, nearly a dozen rescue operations needed to take place.

Leslie Doucet and her family were rescued after water completely submerged their road in Grand Prairie.

Doucet said this is actually the second time they dealt with flooding issues at their home.

"In August 2016, our house did flood," Doucet said. "So once it gets to a certain point, we know we can't get out on our own."

The rain experienced this week presented more challenges than those in 2016, for the family and the deputies trying to help.

"My husband was actually at work, so I didn't even have a truck," Doucet said. "And the first time they tried to get to us, they couldn't, they were in a three-quarter ton kinda high truck. They had to back out and go get the big rig to even attempt to get to us."

"We carry a little boat with us as well just in case we have to go to the house," LaJack said.

With the use of the sheriff's big rigs, "Gary Paul" and "Big Bob", a team of four deputies were able to return to the neighborhood and get through the high waters, getting Doucet to safety along with her four kids and two pet rabbits.

The family has returned home, and Doucet is thankful for the safety of both her family and her home.

"No damages, just memories for the kids that they had to ride in the back of a truck, 'a really big truck' as the youngest one said," Doucet said.

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