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Midwest Storms Bring Tornadoes, Flooding

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The Associated Press

Published: June 9, 2008

INDIANAPOLIS - Wicked weekend storms pounded the country from the Midwest to the East Coast, forcing hundreds of people to flee flooded communities, spawning tornadoes that tore up houses and killing at least eight people.

Rescuers in boats continued to pluck people from rising waters in Indiana on Sunday, a day after more than 10 inches of rain deluged much of the state.

In Iowa, pumps and thousands of sandbags were sent to the Iowa City area, where officials fear a reservoir could top a spillway and flood the city of about 63,000 by Tuesday.

The Indiana flooding killed at least one person, a man who drowned in his vehicle about 50 miles south of Indianapolis. Another person was reported missing after falling off a boat about 30 miles southwest of Indianapolis.

In Michigan, two delivery workers for The Grand Rapids Press drowned early Sunday when their car became submerged in a creek that washed out a road near Lake Michigan in Saugatuck Township, the newspaper said.

Two other people in the state were killed by falling trees, one man drowned and a woman died when high winds blew a recreational vehicle on top of her, authorities said.

And lightning struck a pavilion at a state park in Connecticut, killing one person and injuring four.

At least one tornado hit the Omaha, Neb., area with little to no warning Sunday morning, damaging several dozen homes and businesses. No major injuries were reported.

"I'd say it was a miracle no one got killed," said Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey as he toured a heavily damaged neighborhood in the west Omaha area of Millard.

Iowa saw some of its worst flooding in more than a decade, Gov. Chet Culver said in a statement as he declared an emergency in nearly a third of the state's 99 counties, freeing up state resources.

Officials said water levels on the Iowa River at Iowa City could be like those during the historic floods of 1993, which put much of the state underwater.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said many flood victims told him how quickly floodwaters rose, catching them off guard.

"This thing came on fast with such a radical deluge of water that people were describing going from a feeling of security to waist-deep water in a matter or 15 or 20 minutes," he said Sunday.

Residents of Chicago's northern and southern suburbs spent Sunday cleaning up from at least seven tornadoes the night before. The storms tore roofs off homes, toppled power lines and overturned tractor-trailers.

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