BATON ROUGE - D'Arcy Pintye and her family weren't worried when the rain started May 17, as they had never flooded before, but in just a few hours, they had 14 inches of water in their home.

"We sat on the back of our couch for about 10 hours waiting for the water to recede," she said.

Their story is similar to almost everyone in the Morning Glen neighborhood, which sits along Ward Creek off Siegen Lane.

The creek, typically able to handle a lot of water, was inundated by historic rainfall levels in May.

"You can't tell me when you get 14 inches of rain that fall on this area in two hours that that's normal," said the city-parish drainage director Fred Raiford. "No way in the world, and certainly it's why some people today were frustrated by the flooding event. It was one of those unusual events that we're dealing with."

Tuesday, the city parish announced an initiative to try and make sure it doesn't flood again, widening a 400-ft portion of the creek.

"This will significantly reduce flood water evaluations upstream along ward creek in areas like the Morning Glen and Audubon Terrace neighborhoods which saw flooding two months ago when we were hit with 14 inches of rain in just a few hours," Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome said.

According to the models, it could lower levels by two feet during a 100-year rain event. That would've kept the water out of the Pintye's neighborhood and reduce flooding in Dawson Creek and Bayou Duplantier.

Once approved by the metro council, construction will begin late next year and take about six months to complete.