Story highlights Louisiana governor requests more parishes be declared disaster areas

More than 6,000 homes damaged by flooding in Louisiana, authorities say

Red Cross appeals for help as more rain forecast for the area

(CNN) Texas authorities diverted hundreds of vehicles off eastbound Interstate 10 in anticipation of closing the highway because of flooding near the state line with Louisiana, the emergency management office in Orange County, Texas, said Tuesday.

And the Louisiana Department of Transportation confirmed on its website Tuesday afternoon that westbound I-10 was in fact closed at the Sabine River, near the border with Texas.

The road was among the latest problems created by floods that have struck the Deep South. In Louisiana, rain and high water have damaged about 6,143 homes over the last few days, the state emergency preparedness office said Monday night.

Floodwaters threatened to send as many as 100 caskets floating down the Sabine River after cemeteries were inundated, Calcasieu Parish coroner's investigator Zeb Johnson told CNN. Surface vaults in older cemeteries are susceptible during major flooding because water gets underneath the vaults, causing them to float, or water gets inside the vaults causing caskets to dislodge concrete lids above them, Johnson said.

The vaults "become buoyant, like a boat and end up in the Sabine River or off in the woods somewhere," Johnson said The vaults can also turn upside down with the caskets still inside them, and Johnson and his team were securing one grave in particular. "It's the second time with this particular person, that we've had to go retrieve her," he said.