Pat Shingleton for Sunday, June 17, 2012

For many years, Baton Rouge has certainly experienced its share of flooding rain. Torrential rains on this date in 1815 created so much mud at Waterloo that Napoleon delayed his attack on the British for six hours. It gave the British, with the help of Prussian reinforcements, the assistance they needed to defeat the French. During the retreat from Gettysburg, Pa., during the Civil War, storm-swollen streams stopped the pursuit of Confederate troops. In 1856, lightning struck St. Jean Church on the Mediterranean island of Rhodes. Exploding gunpowder, stored in the basement, killed more than 4,000 villagers. On May 6, 1937, the dirigible Hindenburg burst into flames over Lakehurst, N.J., because of electrical flickering from a thundercloud, igniting a mixture of air and hydrogen.
Fastcast: Afternoon showers and thunderstorms .