The remnants of Tropical Storm Arthur battered parts of the southeastern United States with drenching rains and strong wind on Thursday, tearing through buildings, flooding homes and launching water rescues along the Gulf Coast.

Arthur was the first tropical storm of the season in the Atlantic basin, and although it quickly downgraded within a day of forming, the lingering system created dangerous conditions in Louisiana and Mississippi. In one rural Louisiana parish, more than 2 feet of rain fell in 48 hours and most of that soaking came Thursday, said Donald Jones, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Lake Charles.

It flooded at least 200 homes in Avoyelles Parish, about 70 miles northwest of the state capital, Louisiana state Rep. Daryl Deshotel said.

"Even by this region's standards, that's catastrophic rain," Jones said.

Life-threatening floods trapped people in a campground in Perkinston, Mississippi, while rescuers used canoe paddles to break through windows of RVs, and cars and mobile homes were washed away. A rain gauge in a town near Perkinston showed as much as 10 inches of rain fell Thursday morning. Some residents told CBS News that they barely escaped as the water began to rise. 

Nicole Jackson and her fiancé, Hayden, told CBS News that they barely managed to escape before head-high floodwaters swept through their home in Stone County, Mississippi. 

"It's insane how quickly it rose," Jackson said. "People that lived here a lot longer than us are absolutely shocked." 

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said in a social media post Thursday night that a worker on a county road crew in the southwestern part of the state had been killed while helping with storm cleanup operations. The cause of the death was not disclosed.

Thirty homes below the Anchor Lake dam in southern Mississippi were being evacuated as a precaution due to concerns that rising waters could overwhelm the spillways and compromise the structure, Reeves said. Residents in the area were being encouraged to seek higher ground.

Coni Dubois said several inches of water flooded her home overnight in Houma, southwest of New Orleans, but others in the community had worse damage. She's lived through many hurricanes and other storms, but never witnessed thunder and lightning like this.

"It was unbelievable, it literally sounded like hell broke open," Dubois said. "I thought for sure we had a tornado on top of us. The lightning and the thunder was so consistent, the whole house was lit up like daylight for about 20 minutes."

The National Guard and state wildlife officials were working with rescue crews, officials said.

One tornado had been confirmed in Avoyelles Parish, along with three others near New Orleans, the weather service said.

Amid relentless rainfall in central Louisiana, Cody Coco said he rescued stranded workers — waist deep in water — at a cypress sawmill operation he runs near his home in Avoyelles Parish. He said the water has continued to rise all throughout the day.

Coco, 40, said he also used a boat to rescue the four pigs he kept in a pen. Video he shared on his Facebook page shows the hogs swimming out of their enclosure in a torrent of murky water. Coco says they are now safe on higher ground.

"If I'd left them in the pen, they'd have drowned," Coco said. "They were happy to see me."

New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno posted a video on Facebook describing relatively minor damage and cleanup efforts. Ahead of the storm, police prepared boats and set up barricades in flood-prone areas. They also opened sandbag distribution sites across Louisiana.

Just across the Mississippi River in Avondale, Louisiana, a tornado wrecked four homes, Jefferson Parish spokeswoman Rachel Strassel said. Two people were hospitalized with minor injuries and later released.