U.S.

Soggy States Get More Flood Warnings

May 14, 2002 / 3:48 PM EDT / AP

Four Indiana counties already were in a state of flood emergency, and the worst was yet to come along the Wabash River south of Terre Haute, the National Weather Service said Tuesday.

Flood warnings were issued for the entire Wabash, from Lafayette, Ind., to Mount Carmel, Ill., through Saturday as the floodwater from recent heavy rains continued rising. In central Indiana, a flood warning through Wednesday morning for White River anticipated the highest levels there since December 1990, the weather service said.

White River was near crest in the Muncie, Noblesville, Nora, Indianapolis and Centerton areas Tuesday morning and appeared to have crested at 14.6 feet at Anderson.

The weather service said the worst flooding will be south of Terre Haute, and flood levels at Vincennes will be the highest since April 1994. Extensive flooding from the White River also will affect the Vincennes area.

At Lafayette, the Wabash was at 17.4 feet Monday night and was expected to crest near 17.8 feet early Wednesday, more than 6 feet above flood stage. At Terre Haute, the river was at 22.0 feet early Tuesday, 8 feet above flood stage, and at Vincennes, it will crest near 26.7 feet Wednesday night, almost 9 feet above flood stage.

No new deaths were reported from the flooding. Three people have died since Sunday.

States of emergency were declared in Greene, Sullivan, Vermillion and Hamilton counties, the first step for seeking help from the State Emergency Management Agency. If asked, the state can send the National Guard to help with sandbagging, barricades from the Indiana Department of Transportation and water rescue support from the Department of Natural Resources.

"We've got quite a few roads under water, and lots of hidden damage to culverts," Greene County emergency management director Roger Axe said.

The National Guard hadn't been deployed for sandbag duty as of Monday night, but several counties — including Vigo, Orange, Jackson, Monroe and Morgan — had begun such efforts on their own, officials said.

In central Indiana, one of the first major road closings in Indianapolis came around 7 p.m. Monday, when police called for barricades to close an intersection near the White River that is used by trucks leaving the area.

Elsewhere:

Some southwest Michigan residents were drying out after heavy weekend rains flooded basements and led to the release of millions of gallons of primary-treated sewage into the St. Joseph River. By Monday morning, the river had surpassed its 11-foot flood stage in Niles and was covering most of Island Park and parts of Riverfront Park in the downtown area. The river was expected to crest in Niles at 12.8 feet early Tuesday.

Powerful thunderstorms left thousands without power in North Carolina. About 95,000 customers were without electricity late Monday from central North Carolina to the coastal plain. By Tuesday morning, the outages had been trimmed to less than 10,000. Duke Power reported 9,421 customers without power and Carolina Power & Light Co. reported 214 outages.

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