Ann Chapman from the Louisiana State Animal Response Team carries a dog she helped rescue.

It’s only as the waters slowly start to pull back, that the full scope of what’s happened in Louisiana is becoming clear.

As the receding floodwaters continued to expose the magnitude of the disaster the state has been enduring, Louisiana officials said Tuesday that at least 11 people had died, and that about 30,000 people had been rescued. Gov. John Bel Edwards acknowledged that the state did not know how many people were missing, but he said that nearly 8,100 people had slept in shelters on Monday night and that some 40,000 homes had been “impacted to varying degrees.”

The scale of the disaster is hard to comprehend. And while the incredible deluge in Louisiana came without the punishing winds of a hurricane, the flooded streets and submerged houses look all too similar to the levee failures in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. However, there's a big difference in the FEMA response.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards says he's not concerned that President Barack Obama has not yet visited Louisiana to see the flood crisis first-hand. "I'm not complaining in any way about our federal partnership," Edwards said during a news conference on Thursday.

President Obama is not there, causing the kind of traffic jams and security requirements a presidential visit brings. Those requirements could ground helicopters and block roads still urgently needed in search and rescue activity. Instead, the head of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency head Craig Fugate are on the ground.