Flooding Forces Evacuations in Midwest
Pastor Dale Morgan
Flooding Forces Evacuations in Midwest*
Monday May 7, 2007 5:16 PM
By JOHN HANNA
Associated Press Writer
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Flooding forced hundreds of people from their homes
early Monday and blocked streets and highways following a weekend of
violent thunderstorms across the central Plains.
Kim Moore, her two sons and their dogs were evacuated from their central
Topeka home after water rose knee-deep in their street.
``The rescuers brought rafts up to the houses,'' Moore said. ``My car's
flooded in right now.''
Shawnee County emergency management reported 490 water rescues from
homes and vehicles by 8 a.m. Monday.
High water also blocked roads and chased people from their homes Monday
in parts of Nebraska and Iowa.
In southwest Iowa, emergency officials urged nearly 1,600 residents of
Red Oak and all of tiny Coburg to evacuate because of the rising East
Nishnabotna River and a creek. An estimated 5 inches of fell during the
weekend at Red Oak and light rain continued Monday. Flood stage there is
18 feet but the river had already hit 25.7 feet, said Adam Wainwright,
emergency management coordinator for Montgomery County.
Wainwright said some homes had been flooded, but he did not immediately
know how many. No injuries were reported.
The Iowa State Patrol closed a 10-mile stretch of Interstate 29 north of
the Missouri state line because of flooding, and traffic was detoured
around a 30-mile stretch of I-29 in west-central Iowa.
More than 6 inches of rain fell in 24 hours in southeast Nebraska, and
flooding closed a number of roads in the area Monday.
Several county roads were washed away, said Keya Paya County, Neb.,
Sheriff Jeremiah Harmon. Weekend tornadoes in the area destroyed one
house and damaged others, Harmon said.
Topeka had measured 6.73 inches of rain since Sunday morning, and more
rain was expected, the National Weather Service said.
Topeka resident Jennifer Bowen was awakened early Monday by rescue
workers knocking on the door of her home near Shunganunga creek. Fire
and police officers evacuated her and her daughter, Selma, by boat.
Although Bowen has no flood insurance, she said she felt relatively
lucky, compared to the plight of residents of Greensburg, the town about
200 miles to the southwest that was obliterated by a tornado.
``I felt fortunate that we still have a house,'' Bowen said.
At the Army's Fort Riley, west of Topeka, traffic was being rerouted
around the base's western gates because an empty coal train derailed on
a trestle that collapsed because of high water Sunday.
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Associated Press writer Eric Olson in Omaha, Neb., contributed to this
report.