New Orleans Streets Flooded on Mother's Day as Heavy Rains Slam City (Pictures, Video)

Heavy rains Saturday night and into Sunday (May 12, 2019) have slammed the New Orleans area, causing multiple city streets to flood throughout the city and leading to a messy Mother's Day that shut down all public streetcar and bus service.

Images emerged Sunday morning of stranded and flooded cars and water pouring into streets while inching toward homes and businesses with heavy rain still falling, with more problems developing. Flooded streets were all over the metro area, including Mid-City and downtown.

Flooding was so widespread and significant that New Orleans' Regional Transit Authority suspended all bus and streetcar service Sunday morning.

"The Regional Transit Authority's number one priority is the safety of our passengers and operators," the agency said in a statement. "Due to safety concerns and upon recommendations from the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, the RTA is temporarily suspending all services. Service will resume as soon as city emergency officials announce it is safe to do so."

"My neighbor's poor car didn't make it," tweeted one New Orleans resident Sunday morning, showing photos of a car half-submerged in water.

The National Weather Service said Sunday morning at 8:30 a.m. that New Orleans and the surrounding metro area was under a flash flood warning as "one more round of storms" was moving into the area producing up to an inch more of rain, likely exacerbating significant flood problems that city residents woke up to. Areas expected to experience flooding included New Orleans, Avondale, Metairie, Harvey and many more towns in the metro area. See more photos of the New Orleans flooding (May 12, 2019) below in the story.

Meanwhile, in a precautionary measure late this week, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened the Bonnet Carré spillway north of New Orleans in a precautionary move to relieve potential stress on the city's levees, which protect from catastrophic flooding.

The spillway is 28 miles north of New Orleans. Most of the city is at or below sea level, so it is protected by levee systems. New Orleans suffered deadly flooding in Hurricane Katrina when levees were breached.

The Mississippi River, due to heavy regional rainfall, has risen 6 inches in the past 24 hours, according to the U.S. Corps of Engineers, and with more rain expected through the weekend, the river is nearing dangers levels – exceeding April flooding levels which were the worst since 1973.

"These rains could elevate the Mississippi River above 17 feet with a peak as high as 17.5 feet at the Carrollton Gage," the Corps said in a release on Friday. "In an abundance of caution the operation date is being moved forward to ensure the safe passage of this high water by limiting the elevations downriver of the spillway. Operation of the structure will relieve pressure on main levees, maintain river stages, and regulate the flow downriver from the spillway."