Severe weather kills 5; water rises in Indiana
6/8/2008 MARTINSVILLE, Ind. Rescuers in boats continued to pluck people from rising waters
in Indiana on Sunday, a day after more than 10 inches of rain
deluged much of the state.
In Iowa, pumps and thousands of sandbags were sent to the Iowa
City area, where officials fear a reservoir could top a spillway
and flood the city of about 63,000 by Tuesday.
The Indiana flooding killed at least one person, a man who
drowned in his vehicle about 50 miles south of Indianapolis, said
John Erickson, a spokesman for the state Department of Homeland
Security. Another person was reported missing after falling off a
boat about 30 miles southwest of Indianapolis.
In Michigan, two delivery workers for The Grand Rapids Press
drowned early Sunday when their car became submerged in a creek
that washed out a road near Lake Michigan in Saugatuck Township,
the newspaper said.
A woman was killed when a small trailer blew onto her about late
Sunday afternoon west of Lansing, Sheriff Mike Raines told the
Lansing State Journal.
And lightning struck a pavilion at a state park in Connecticut,
killing one person and injuring four, state environmental spokesman
Dennis Schain said.
At least one tornado hit the Omaha, Neb., area with little to no
warning as people slept Sunday morning, damaging several dozen
homes and businesses. No major injuries were reported.
"I'd say it was a miracle no one got killed," said Omaha Mayor
Mike Fahey as he toured a heavily damaged neighborhood in the west
Omaha area of Millard.
Paul Higgins, 87, said the front door blew open and he was
knocked down when he checked on the storm around 2:30 a.m.
"At the time you couldn't see anything" outside, Higgins said.
"It was like a fog. So much stuff blowing around."
Higgins said he and his wife sought shelter in their basement,
emerging to find a tree against a house across the street and a
neighboring house missing its roof.
Iowa saw some of its worst flooding in more than a decade, Gov.
Chet Culver said in a statement as he declared an emergency in
nearly a third of the state's 99 counties, freeing up state
resources.
A levee broke along the Winnebago River in Mason City, and its
water treatment plant was shut down. Residents of the city of
nearly 30,000 have been asked to avoid water use.
Officials said water levels on the Iowa River at Iowa City could
be like those during the historic floods of 1993, which put most of
the state underwater. The University of Iowa plans to move several
classes starting Tuesday.
In areas of Minnesota near the Iowa border, officials asked
residents in the Winnebago Valley to evacuate. More than 60 people
were being taken to a shelter in Caledonia from a campground.
In Wisconsin, more than a dozen homes near the swollen Kickapoo
River in La Farge were evacuated.
In Morgan County, southwest of Indianapolis, about 150 residents
were taken out of a flooded nursing home.
Floodwaters that were moving south to eventually drain into the
Ohio River led officials to move more than 250 patients and
employees from Columbus Regional Hospital in southern Indiana.
Workers pumped water out of the basement, and a couple inches of
mud covered the first floor of the center, which was forced to
close.
Jack Elkins, 67, said his condominium near the hospital was
inundated with water in a matter of minutes Saturday night. Once
the storm drains filled up, it took 15 minutes for about 8 inches
of water to ruin his place.
"It looked like a river in front of my house," he said as he
took a break from ripping up carpeting and flooring.
Hundreds of thousands of customers lacked power across the
region.
Gov. Mitch Daniels said many of the flood victims told him how
quickly floodwaters rose, catching them off guard.
"This thing came on fast with such a radical deluge of water
that people were describing going from a feeling of security to
waist-deep water in a matter or 15 or 20 minutes," he said Sunday.
The rising White River also forced officials in the southern
city of Seymour to order the evacuation of more than 100 homes.
Daniels said that there had been some looting reported in the
city but that extra police had been sent to prevent it from
happening again. In western Indiana, Terre Haute also was dealing
with serious flooding.
A Johnson County dam was breached by the high water but had not
failed, Erickson said.
"It's in bad shape," Erickson said.
Residents of Chicago's northern and southern suburbs spent
Sunday cleaning up from tornadoes the night before. The storms tore
roofs off homes, toppled power lines and overturned
tractor-trailers. Several minor injuries were reported.