Raging Rains swamp Indiana; Severe Storms pelt Wisconsin
Pastor Dale Morgan
Raging Rains swamp Indiana; Severe Storms pelt Wisconsin*
* Story Highlights
* NEW: Tornadoes injure at least five people in Wisconsin
* Flash-flood warnings were issued in 15 counties
* Emergencies declared in four central counties
* Interstates were closed; some dams were close to collapse
FRANKLIN, Indiana (AP) -- Storms dumped as much as 10 inches of rain on
already-soggy central Indiana on Saturday, threatening dams, inundating
highways and sending the Coast Guard to rescue residents from swamped homes.
Two men in a fishing boat make their way through high waters near
Indianapolis, Indiana, on Saturday.
Flooding was also a problem in Wisconsin after storms blew through with
damaging tornadoes that injured at least five people.
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels declared an emergency in 10 counties as the
Coast Guard was called in from the Great Lakes to help with flooding
that has forced hundreds of people from their homes. No injuries or
deaths have been reported.
"At this point, mercifully, we believe all Hoosiers are secure," Gov.
Mitch Daniels said. "We hope that will continue."
Ninety percent of the small town of Paragon, southwest of Indianapolis,
was underwater, State Homeland Security Director Joe Wainscott said.
Water reached the first floor of Johnson Memorial Hospital in Franklin,
but no patients had to be moved, county Commissioner Tom Kite said. Cars
were submerged up to their windshields in the county government building
parking lot.
"We have dams failing in the Prince's Lakes area," threatening the town
of Nineveh, about 30 miles south of Indianapolis, Kite said. See photos,
video of the flooding »
Indiana State Police reported evacuations in the Lake Lemon area, about
10 miles northeast of Bloomington. Dams near Gold Point were close to
collapse, police said.
Near Martinsville, southwest of Indianapolis, Ben Pace watched
motorboats rescuing neighbors. The rain didn't appear that bad when he
woke up, Pace said, but he then watched water rise 6 to 8 inches in his
backyard shed.
"Then I realized that it's worse than it's ever been," he said.
A rescuer came by boat to his front door to get him. He managed to grab
some clothes and his dog, leaving the home with knee-deep water in his
bedroom.
Interstate 70 was closed in Clay County in west-central Indiana, and
Interstate 65 and another major route, U.S. 31, were closed near Franklin.
Residents of Helmsburg, about 40 miles south of Indianapolis, were taken
by bus to a YMCA in Nashville, said Wayne Freeman, the Brown County Red
Cross chairman.
In western Indiana, water more than a foot deep surrounded homes on
Terre Haute's east side. U.S. 41 was the only route open into Terre
Haute, and it was down to one lane by midafternoon.
J.D. Kesler, deputy director of the Vigo County Emergency Management
Agency, said that more than 200 people had to be rescued from their
homes, vehicles and nursing homes there.
"The ground is just saturated. When you get this much rain, it's
flash-flood time," Kesler said.
Peter Perdoue, 35, a mortgage broker from Terre Haute, heard a trickle
Saturday morning and checked his daughter's basement room. The water had
risen above the window.
"It was almost like I was standing inside an aquarium," he said.
Within a few hours, sewage started backing into his basement, and it
wasn't long before the waters had filled his basement up to the 10-foot
ceiling.
More than 30,000 electricity customers lost power, the Indiana Utilities
Regulatory Commission said.
A powerful line of storms in Wisconsin dropped baseball-size hail on
central and southeastern parts of the state, blowing roofs off homes and
knocking down trees and power lines. Heavy rains also pelted the area,
causing flash flooding.
Authorities said a camper was hurt in Rio and four more people suffered
minor injuries after a house had its windows blown out near the Village
of Randolph. Authorities also said a tornado spun a police car around.
"We're still trying to assess the damage; we've gotten call after call
after call, and we're trying to dispatch responders out for downed power
lines and down trees," said Kathy Johnson, spokeswoman for emergency
management in Columbia County, north of Madison.