Flooded Midwest Battered Again

The Midwest and Great Lakes states are in for more of just what they don't need: rain.

CBS News meteorologist George Cullen says another round of intense thunderstorms will be developing Friday, a day after intense storms which dumped as much as five inches of rain in some parts of Illinois, producing winds as high as 80 miles per hour, and leaving 310,000 homes and businesses in the dark, including 62,000 in Chicago.

In some areas north of Chicago, according to the local utility, it could take days to restore power.

The death toll across the Upper Midwest and from the remnants of Tropical Storm Erin that swept Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri over the past week has risen to at least 26. In one Ohio county alone, the tally of damaged homes is over 700.

In Oklahoma City Thursday, divers pulled the body of a 17-year-old runner from a swollen lake a day after he was caught in a current while trying to cross a flooded trail.

In Findlay, Ohio, water from the worst flood in nearly a century began receding Thursday, as it did elsewhere in the Midwest, allowing some of the more than 1,000 homeowners who had been displaced to get a look at the soaked photo albums, boxes of clothes and furniture in their basements.

Peeking into her waterlogged basement in Findlay, Gail Leatherman didn't break down until she saw a soggy photo of her and her husband, taken for their 17th wedding anniversary.

She salvaged the picture, but not her treasured Christmas decorations. Next door, her son lost all of his 1-year-old boy's winter clothes.

And that wasn't the worst of it.

"A year ago, our insurer told us we could drop our flood insurance," she said. "So we did."

Elsewhere Thursday, funnel clouds were spotted in the suburbs west of Chicago and storms lashed Iowa and Minnesota.

At least one tornado was reported about 50 miles northeast of Grand Rapids, Mich., as thunderstorms pelted the state for a second day. No injuries were reported.

At Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, about 500 flights were canceled Thursday evening and others delayed for more than 2 1/2 hours, said Chicago Aviation Commissioner Nuria Fernandez. Delays at Midway Airport averaged 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Storms rattled and soaked northern and west-central Illinois, splitting trees and damaging buildings and adding to the rising water in several rivers, which crews rushed to sandbag. A roof collapsed at the dock area of an industrial building in the suburbs, injuring 40 people but none seriously, police said.

In southwestern Wisconsin, the National Guard pumped water to relieve pressure on at least one dam, said Mike Goetzman, a spokesman for Wisconsin Emergency Management. The earthen dam suffered erosion earlier this week when water from weekend thunderstorms overflowed it.

Firefighters in Wheatland, Wis., had a hard time putting out a house fire because the building was surrounded by flood water, authorities said. They had to take small boats out with pumps and draft from the surrounding water. No one was injured and the cause had yet to be determined.

Even in spots where the storms had passed, the intense sun prompted a heat advisory, with temperatures expected to hit the upper 90s throughout Ohio. Cincinnati schools closed because of the heat for the first time in at least 10 years.

In Findlay, hundreds of residents were making their way home a day after firefighters and volunteers in boats and canoes navigated waist-deep water to rescue people and pets. Generators hummed as residents pumped out water; it was too soon to start cleaning up the debris.

Some residents were still stuck in a shelter where 200 people slept Wednesday night. They were among those who had a foot or more of water in their homes.

John Treece could wade to only within a block of his home and saw water still covering the porch. His basement flooded in January, but it was nothing like this.

"We thought that would be the worst case scenario," Treece said.

He and his wife didn't have insurance. "We couldn't afford it," he said. "I'm out of work."

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland has declared nine counties to be in a state of emergency, making flood victims there eligible for a maximum of $1,500 per family.

Findlay, a city of 40,000, is a mix of factories and small businesses and home to Cooper Tire & Rubber Co.

In a neighborhood a few blocks from the Blanchard River, water pumped out of homes rushed down the streets.

Leatherman put together a contraption of plastic tubes and hoses to draw water from her basement, which gave off the stench of sewage. She and her husband will likely drain their retirement savings to replace the furnace and water heater.

"We're not alone in this," she said as sweated dripped from her glasses in the 90-degree heat. "Everybody's suffering."

Floodwaters have filled a few downtown stores near the river. Water rose through a crawl space and buckled the floor at Uncle Buck's, a Mardi Gras-themed bar with a Hurricane Katrina souvenir T-shirt hanging on the wall.

The damage surprised Larry MacKenzie, who was helping the bar's manager with the cleanup.

"I was thinking it would take only a few days," he said. "But it may be a couple of weeks."