Midwest floods worsen overnight, 15 now dead

LAKE DELTON, Wis. - Storms overnight added to swollen rivers and caused new levee breaks that threatened several Illinois towns — part of a week of severe weather that's claimed 15 lives and is expected to continue in the nation's heartland, impacting food prices across the country.

In Wisconsin, engineers kept watch over rain-deluged dams Tuesday after a major collapse nearly emptied Lake Delton in a torrent that washed away houses and a highway.

The National Weather Service said several levee breaks were seen along the Embarras and Wabash rivers in Illinois, causing widespread flash flooding of nearby areas — including Lawrenceville, a town of 5,000, and several smaller communities.

The flooding was caused by violent, drenching weekend thunderstorms that displaced thousands of residents in several states.

The downpours flooded corn fields and made it difficult for farmers to plant, pushing corn prices to record highs on commodities exchanges this week.

New storms during the night knocked out power to more than 50,000 customers in Ohio, utilities reported Tuesday. Michigan utilities said about 247,000 customers were still blacked out because of the weekend storms.

Second time around for town
Residents of Gays Mills, about 70 miles southwest of Lake Delton, stood on the edge of their ruined town, so close to finally turning the corner before this latest flood.

For nearly a year, the tiny southwestern Wisconsin village along the lake has struggled to survive after a devastating flood. The new deluge may have sealed its fate.

Flash floods inundated the town of 625 over the weekend, just 10 months after residents worked to rebuild their homes and businesses.

The swollen Kickapoo River engulfed nearly the entire town Monday morning, forcing about 150 people to evacuate. By evening, the village was a grid of canals with cars submerged up to their windows and parking lots looking like lakes, just as it was in August.

"I can't believe this is happening again," said Liz Klekamp, 23, who said she grabbed her cat and fled Monday morning when water poured into her house. "It's really, truly sad."

Asked if this was the end of the town, Village President Larry McCarn just stared and said: "It could be."

By Monday morning, flooding at eight sites in central and southern Indiana had eclipsed levels set in the deluge of March 1913, which had been considered Indiana's greatest flood in modern times, said Scott Morlock, a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Indiana.

The weekend's heavy rain and the threat of more heavy rain later this week could push corn prices even higher, analysts say, likely adding to Americans' growing grocery bills. The price of corn for July delivery jumped to a record of nearly $7 a bushel Monday on the Chicago Board of Trade, up from around $4 a year ago.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels asked U.S. Agriculture Secretary Edward Shafer to declare farm disasters in 44 Indiana counties because of crop and livestock losses blamed on the flooding and other storms this month.

The weekend death toll included eight in Michigan, three in Indiana and one each in Iowa and Connecticut. Authorities said wet roads contributed to the deaths of two motorists in separate accidents Monday in Oklahoma, where more than 4 inches of rain fell.