Rain ends in the Midwest, but flood waters continue to rise

by Amy Judd | March 20, 2008 at 08:24 am

3481 views | 0 Recommendations | 15 comments

The rain may have stopped, for now, but rivers are still bursting their banks and major flooding is occuring all across the United States.

People are today assessing the damage done to their homes and property, and reliving what it was like to experience that amount of rainfall.

Jeff McCord, who lives in Dallas, told NowPublic that local meteorologists had been warning the city for a few days that heavy rains were coming, but that nothing could have prepared him for what actually fell from the sky. "It was a rainy morning but nothing atypical" he writes, "until around noon, where the skies literally opened. I, just like hundreds if not thousands of other Dallasites, was driving to a lunch appointment when the heavens opened and I literally had to pull onto the side of the highway. You couldn't see 10 feet ahead of you and it was truly an unbelievable experience. He writes that he does not know how much rain fell exactly, "but I know we received inches of rain in less than 2 hours" he states.

Sylvia Mason, who lives in Witts Springs, Arkansas, says that today is a beautiful day today, and that many people in her neighbourhood are out assessing the damage done to their homes. "Thankfully we don't have much damage," she tells NowPublic, "because we are on the top of a hill, but people in the low-lying areas, near the creek bed are having to fix a lot of damage. There are many bridges out," she says, "especially low bridges, and Buffalo National Park is closed, and many fences have been washed away." Ms. Mason has lived in the area for 32 years and hasn't seen this kind of rainfall since 1982. "We had to bail water out of our basement while it was raining," she says, "but it's mostly the back roads that are flooded and have bridges washed away. The river has risen to only 6ft lower that the level of the Buffalo Bridge," she tells us, "and I've never seen the water that high, ever."

Stephanie Dowdy from Illinois tells NowPublic that she had 14 inches of water in her basement. We are still checking to see if our washer, dryer, hot water heater, and deep freeze are going to work" she says. "We had furniture and tools down there that are probably a total loss too." But she insists that they are lucky compared to some of their neighbours.  "A guy three doors down had four feet of water in his basement," she tells us, and "our next door neighbor had it pouring in their front door when cars would try to drive by." She gives all the credit to the rescue workers and volunteers in her town. "We are a very tight community and we will pull through this" she says.

Hopefully today is the beginning of some much needed sun to dry out the water-logged land in the Midwest.

While the first day of spring brought much needed sunshine Thursday to Ohio and other states, authorities warned that many rivers would crest well above flood stage.

Flooding also was reported Wednesday in parts of Arkansas, southern Illinois, southern Indiana, Missouri and Kentucky.

The storms moved on toward the Ohio Valley and Northeast, spreading snow over northern New England. A parallel band of heavy rain stretched from Alabama and Georgia to the Mid-Atlantic.

On Thursday morning, high water closed the eastbound lanes of Interstate 70 -- a major east-west highway -- for about 4 miles in central Ohio's Licking County, the State Highway Patrol said. The flooding was receding by midmorning, but there was no estimate of when the lanes would reopen.

13 people have died since the storms started a few days ago and many people are still missing.

Authorities warned that many rivers would crest well above flood stages, causing further worries for residents dealing with swamped homes. Several days of rain that followed melting of up to 20 inches of snow in some parts of the state caused the flooding.

In southwest Ohio, where most areas received more than 4 inches of rain, a 65-year-old woman apparently drowned Wednesday in Hamilton County's Whitewater Township after checking on her home's sump pump, authorities said.

About 4 miles of one side of Interstate 70, a major east-west highway, was closed Thursday morning by water in central Ohio's Licking County, the State Highway Patrol said.

The interstate flooding was receding by midmorning, but there was no estimate of when the lanes would reopen, said Kate Stickle, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Transportation.

Morning commuters trying to reach downtown Columbus from the south were detoured off heavily traveled U.S. 23 because its northbound lanes were flooded.

Numerous traffic accidents were reported early Thursday in the Dayton area when water on roadways froze. The American Red Cross provided hotel vouchers for eight people who were flooded out of their apartments Wednesday in the Dayton suburb of Kettering.

Storms that dumped as much of a foot of rain on the Midwest Wednesday caused more than a dozen deaths.

253

3 See all footage | View Slideshow

Share: email story | add to any | | facebook | stumbleupon

recommend This comment thread is now closed

punkjordane

at 11:03 on March 20th, 2008

View from the road of Big River on Hwy W in the High Ridge/ Eureka Missouri area.

punkjordane has contributed a photo to this story.

AHockenbrock

at 11:21 on March 20th, 2008

Flooding on Sunnen Lake at the YMCA of the Ozarks in Washington County Missouri.

AHockenbrock has contributed a photo to this story.

karne144

at 11:56 on March 20th, 2008

by the time we took these pictures, the water had already receded 2-3 ft.

karne144 has contributed a photo to this story.

wmchamberlain

at 12:32 on March 20th, 2008

The Elk River was over 20 feet above flood stage when my wife took these pictures.

wmchamberlain has contributed a photo to this story.

INDIANAMOM

at 12:53 on March 20th, 2008

The rain started Tuesday morning, we didn't know exactly how many inches we were going to get. Everyone in my area is usto small streem flash flooding so it seemed like no big deal, that was untill my children's bus driver called me at work at noon and asked if I had heard if my road was passable because school was getting out two hours early so they could get all the kids home safetly. I arrived home at 2:30 just after the kids and we had alot of water all around us.

INDIANAMOM has contributed a photo to this story.

the_white_pelican

at 13:09 on March 20th, 2008

Grand falls on Shoal Creek after 24 hours of rain. The access road was closed from both directions as water poured over it from a nearby field to the right (out of frame).

the_white_pelican has contributed a photo to this story.

nebulagirl

at 13:21 on March 20th, 2008

I wanted to document some of the flooding so I went down Paul Kramer Field near the Ohio River.

nebulagirl has contributed a photo to this story.

tbmerritt

at 14:37 on March 20th, 2008

i was traveling on Hwy 23 AR known as the "pigtrail" to take a look at what the rain and flooding had done in this nearby state park.
many trees were down over the roadway. the AHTD were out removing the debris.

tbmerritt has contributed a photo to this story.

susangetsnative

at 14:53 on March 20th, 2008

RAPTOR, Inc., a rehab center for birds of prey in Cincinnati, Ohio, had to evacuate their birds to higher ground when Mill Creek in Mount Healthy rose over its banks behind the facility.
Some of these birds are unable to fly and would have drowned if left in their cages.

susangetsnative has contributed a photo to this story.

Aymee A

at 17:11 on March 20th, 2008

This is where the river ran up over the park. Luckily, the water did not run over the bridge that runs south of town.

Aymee A has contributed a photo to this story.

Thomas Johnson

at 17:48 on March 20th, 2008

This photo was taken in Jerome, Missouri at around 8 in the morning of the Gasconade River on March, 20th 2008. Since taking the photo of the sunrise on the flood waters that road has now been shut down to high flood waters.

Thomas Johnson has contributed a photo to this story.

giginstl

at 12:51 on March 21st, 2008

Taken March 18th from the bridge at Twin Rivers rd, looking at the Big river. This is just 5 miles south to Eureka Missouri.

giginstl has contributed a photo to this story.

PhotogOnFire

at 13:11 on March 23rd, 2008

Winton Lake is a man-made resevoir for storm water runoff that usually swells after sustained downpours but in it's history it has never flooded as severely as it did on March 20, 2008. People from all around the northern part of Hamilton county drove past the lake to gawk and take pictures of the historic high water.

PhotogOnFire has contributed a photo to this story.