13 Dead In Midwest Floods; Hundreds Flee
Residents of low-lying towns stacked sandbags or grabbed belongings and evacuated Wednesday after a foot of rain pushed rivers and creeks out of their banks in the nation's midsection. At least 13 deaths had been linked to the weather, and three people were missing.
Record or near-record flood crests were forecast at several towns in Missouri. Flooding was reported in large areas of Arkansas and parts of southern Illinois, southern Indiana and southwestern Ohio, and schools were closed in parts of western Kentucky because of flooded roads.
"We've got water rising everywhere," said Jeff Korb, president of the Vanderbugh County, Ind., commissioners.
The National Weather Service posted flood and flash flood warnings from Texas to Pennsylvania.
The weather played havoc with air travel, as more than 500 flights were cancelled today at the Dallas Fort Worth Airport, reports CBS News correspondent Hari Streenivasan. It wasn't even safe on the rails, as flood water under the tracks is the probable cause of a derailment near Vienna, Ill. Two crew members were injured.
After two days, rain had finally stopped falling by Wednesday afternoon in much of Missouri and Arkansas as the weather system crawled toward the Northeast, drenching the Ohio Valley and spreading snow over parts of northern New England. A parallel band of locally heavy rain stretched from Alabama and Georgia to the mid-Atlantic states.
Atlanta police closed some downtown streets in case the stormy weather knocked down more broken and debris from buildings damaged by Friday's tornado.
In Ohio and other areas, the rain fell on ground already saturated from heavy snowfall less than two weeks ago.
A foot of rain had fallen in sections of southern Illinois and at Mountain Home, Ark., and Cape Girardeau, Mo., while 6.2 inches fell at Evansville, Ind., the weather service said.
Five deaths were linked to the flooding in Missouri, five people were killed in a highway wreck in heavy rain in Kentucky and a 65-year-old Ohio woman appeared to have drowned while checking on a sump pump in her home. In southern Illinois, two bodies were found hours after floodwaters swept a pickup truck off a rural road.
Searches were under way in Texas for a teenager washed down a drainage pipe, and two people were missing in Arkansas after their vehicles were swept away by rushing water.
Searchers in Missouri found the body of Mark G. Speir Jr., 19, on Wednesday about 2 miles downstream from where he was reported swept into a creek the previous evening.
"He was going down the creek screaming and hollering," Lawrence County emergency management chief Mike Rowe said.
An estimated 300 houses and businesses were flooded in Piedmont, a town of 2,000 residents on McKenzie Creek. Dozens of people were rescued by boat.
Outside St. Louis, the Meramec River was threatening towns including Eureka and Valley Park, where Chandra Webster's kids ran bags of toys and clothes to the car while she moved boxes of belongings to the second floor and her husband moved furniture out of harm's way.
"It's a lot of work, but it's worth it to save your stuff," Webster, 34, said Wednesday. "In '82 we lost everything when I was a little girl. I don't want to put my kids through that."
The Meramec hit a record 39.7 feet that year; flood stage is only 16 feet. A levee completed just three years ago is designed to hold a flood of 43 feet, three feet above the crest forecast for later this week.
Valley Park alderman Steve Drake helped fill sandbags with other volunteers.
"We've got everybody working together," Drake said. "It's going to be interesting."
Widespread flooding in Arkansas had washed out some highways and led to evacuations in some areas, said Tommy Jackson, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management. The Highway and Transportation Department reported state roads blocked in 16 counties.
Some residents of southern Illinois had to evacuate. In Marion, firefighters in some cases used their own fishing boats to rescued 13 residents of the city's housing authority.
Key roads were closed in the Cincinnati area, where water 4 feet deep was reported in businesses in the suburb of Sharonville, police said.
Ohio rescue workers were busy helping people out of cars swamped by the flooding.
"The biggest problem has been people driving into floodwater," Young said. "There are a lot of stupid people. When that sign says 'Road closed, high water,' that's what it means."
© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Record or near-record flood crests were forecast at several towns in Missouri. Flooding was reported in large areas of Arkansas and parts of southern Illinois, southern Indiana and southwestern Ohio, and schools were closed in parts of western Kentucky because of flooded roads.
"We've got water rising everywhere," said Jeff Korb, president of the Vanderbugh County, Ind., commissioners.
The National Weather Service posted flood and flash flood warnings from Texas to Pennsylvania.
The weather played havoc with air travel, as more than 500 flights were cancelled today at the Dallas Fort Worth Airport, reports CBS News correspondent Hari Streenivasan. It wasn't even safe on the rails, as flood water under the tracks is the probable cause of a derailment near Vienna, Ill. Two crew members were injured.
After two days, rain had finally stopped falling by Wednesday afternoon in much of Missouri and Arkansas as the weather system crawled toward the Northeast, drenching the Ohio Valley and spreading snow over parts of northern New England. A parallel band of locally heavy rain stretched from Alabama and Georgia to the mid-Atlantic states.
Atlanta police closed some downtown streets in case the stormy weather knocked down more broken and debris from buildings damaged by Friday's tornado.
In Ohio and other areas, the rain fell on ground already saturated from heavy snowfall less than two weeks ago.
A foot of rain had fallen in sections of southern Illinois and at Mountain Home, Ark., and Cape Girardeau, Mo., while 6.2 inches fell at Evansville, Ind., the weather service said.
Five deaths were linked to the flooding in Missouri, five people were killed in a highway wreck in heavy rain in Kentucky and a 65-year-old Ohio woman appeared to have drowned while checking on a sump pump in her home. In southern Illinois, two bodies were found hours after floodwaters swept a pickup truck off a rural road.
Searches were under way in Texas for a teenager washed down a drainage pipe, and two people were missing in Arkansas after their vehicles were swept away by rushing water.
Searchers in Missouri found the body of Mark G. Speir Jr., 19, on Wednesday about 2 miles downstream from where he was reported swept into a creek the previous evening.
"He was going down the creek screaming and hollering," Lawrence County emergency management chief Mike Rowe said.
An estimated 300 houses and businesses were flooded in Piedmont, a town of 2,000 residents on McKenzie Creek. Dozens of people were rescued by boat.
Outside St. Louis, the Meramec River was threatening towns including Eureka and Valley Park, where Chandra Webster's kids ran bags of toys and clothes to the car while she moved boxes of belongings to the second floor and her husband moved furniture out of harm's way.
"It's a lot of work, but it's worth it to save your stuff," Webster, 34, said Wednesday. "In '82 we lost everything when I was a little girl. I don't want to put my kids through that."
The Meramec hit a record 39.7 feet that year; flood stage is only 16 feet. A levee completed just three years ago is designed to hold a flood of 43 feet, three feet above the crest forecast for later this week.
Valley Park alderman Steve Drake helped fill sandbags with other volunteers.
"We've got everybody working together," Drake said. "It's going to be interesting."
Widespread flooding in Arkansas had washed out some highways and led to evacuations in some areas, said Tommy Jackson, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management. The Highway and Transportation Department reported state roads blocked in 16 counties.
Some residents of southern Illinois had to evacuate. In Marion, firefighters in some cases used their own fishing boats to rescued 13 residents of the city's housing authority.
Key roads were closed in the Cincinnati area, where water 4 feet deep was reported in businesses in the suburb of Sharonville, police said.
Ohio rescue workers were busy helping people out of cars swamped by the flooding.
"The biggest problem has been people driving into floodwater," Young said. "There are a lot of stupid people. When that sign says 'Road closed, high water,' that's what it means."
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MORON!
Posted by easeup at 03:43 PM : Mar 19, 2008
=========================================
Actually you are the MORON. Anyone with half a brain would know that a helicopter can pull people out of trees and off roofs during a flood moron.
Also, the national guard is well trained and equipped to do those rescues moron.
That is what it has to do with the flood moron. Let me know if you need that typed in caps like you morons seem seem so fond of moron.
MORON!
Posted by easeup at 03:43 PM : Mar 19, 2008
=========================================
Actually you are the MORON. Anyone with half a brain would know that a helicopter can pull people out of trees and off roofs during a flood moron.
Also, the national guard is well trained and equipped to do those rescues moron.
That is what it has to do with the flood moron. Let me know if you need that typed in caps like you morons seem seem so fond of moron.
But its effort will have little effect on the ability of the average American to get a cheap loan for a new home, car or college education even as it has a large effect on U.S. banks'''' ability to fix their balance sheets by racking up fat profits.
If that sounds unfair, welcome to the latest episode of a brutal new American business ethic, in which the government bails out bad bets by risk-taking banking executives in New York with money that it borrows from middle-class families and foreign investors. The effort is gilded with fancy financial language and cloaked in the guise of a rescue that helps all citizens, but the reality is that Washington is essentially robbing the poor to help the rich.
In just the past few weeks, it has broken all of its own rules by providing hundreds of billions of taxpayer funds to brokerages at special auctions, opening a bigger "discount" window to permit a wider range of financial institutions to beg at the government till and accepting weaker-than-normal collateral such as iffy mortgage-backed securities. The Fed has put the government in the position of being the payday lender of last resort.
Is it killing people for their oil so Bush and Chaney can line their pockets and the oil companies can make record profits at the pumps or is it emergency food storage and rescue equipment?
For what the war in Iraq costs, each state in the union could buy 3 rescue or life flight helicopters per day. That would add up to 5475 helicopters so far over 5 years.
Thank about that war mongers as you and your children are swept away in the floods and disasters that get worse each year. It is Gods wrath.
Posted by AntiZion at 03:35 PM : Mar 19, 2008"
*** does the war have to do with this??? You could have a million fricking helicopters and it wouldn''t matter--it was a FOOT of rain!!
MORON!
Is it killing people for their oil so Bush and Chaney can line their pockets and the oil companies can make record profits at the pumps or is it emergency food storage and rescue equipment?
For what the war in Iraq costs, each state in the union could buy 3 rescue or life flight helicopters per day. That would add up to 5475 helicopters so far over 5 years.
Thank about that war mongers as you and your children are swept away in the floods and disasters that get worse each year. It is Gods wrath.
.
How long must we sit idly by while our mother continues to suffer from the warming taking place at a feverish pace? How long must our mother suffer before we have proper c02 taxes put into place? How long must the destruction of mother earth take place before we finally put responsible plans into action?
.
We the people call upon the governor to implement a comprehensive antiglobal warming strategy at once and work in coordination with state and federal officials; these tornadoes and storms continue to worsen and the quicker we stop the warming the sooner we will see these storms cease. We need action now.