Environment

Violent remnants of Ike bring deaths, blackouts in Midwest

by Amy Judd | September 16, 2008 at 12:11 pm

492 views | 24 Recommendations | 6 comments

Now residents of the Midwest are suffering from the effects of Ike.

They are facing blackouts and flooded homes, and more than 2 million people could be affected.

The death toll has now risen to at least 39 in 10 different states.

As Ike faded and headed off toward the Northeast, combining with a weather system that arrived from the West, it dumped as much as 6 to 8 inches of rain on parts of Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. It spawned a tornado in Arkansas that damaged several buildings, and delivered hurricane-force wind to Ohio, temporarily shutting down Cincinnati's main airport during the weekend. Missouri had widespread flooding, and high water on the Mississippi River was expected to close a riverfront street later this week in front of the famed Gateway Arch of St. Louis.

"We've got flash flooding all over the place," National Weather Service hydrologist Mark Fuchs said of Missouri.

"We've never had flooding like this," said Tom DeGiulio, town manager in Munster, Ind. About 40 Indiana National Guard troops were activated Sunday to help with the evacuation of as many as 5,000 residents there.

About 2 million homes and businesses across Ohio had no electricity yesterday, Governor Ted Strickland said as he declared a state of emergency, which allows the Ohio Department of Transportation to help communities remove debris from roads. He said it would take days to restore power in all areas of the state.

About 450 Ohio school districts canceled classes yesterday, and the blackouts shut down one-third of the state's traffic signals, officials said.

Missouri is expected to experience major flooding this week, and seven people have already died from flooding in Indiana.
It is unknown still what path Ike will take and how strong it will remain.
Some of our other Ike coverage:

Houston - Galveston Update: President George Bush Pays a Visit
Over 3 million remain powerless after Hurricane Ike
4 Days after Ike

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recommend This comment thread is now closed

ACBert

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 14:44 on September 16th, 2008

Good Stuff=Amy. Bad Stuff=Floods. Boo hiss to flooding.

Christina 123

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 15:01 on September 16th, 2008

amyjudd, I like this story. It's good stuff. We were all prepared for the hurricane, but not for the aftermath, it seems.

Rhonda J Mangus

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 16:12 on September 16th, 2008

amyjudd, I like this story. It's good stuff.

fiver451

at 20:05 on September 16th, 2008

On Sunday afternoon, Sept. 14th, as Ike's rains began to let up, I went to a park by the river to see if Ike had made.an impact. Of course it had. Most of the park was flooded. Playground equipment had been turned into islands.

fiver451 has contributed a photo to this story.

sclayschneider

at 20:29 on September 16th, 2008

This is the Arkansas River in Downtown Little Rock, Arkansas on Sunday, about noon, 09.14.08, the morning after tropical storm Ike went through the area. The storm brought a great deal of rain.

8haron has contributed a photo to this story.

hjoew

at 02:57 on September 17th, 2008

This telephone pole fell over on Mears Avenue in Mount Washington - one of hundreds around Greater Cincinnati - during a windstorm with 75 mile-an-hour gusts and 50 mile-an-hour sustained winds. Power has been out on this street, like many others in the area, since Sunday as Duke Energy crews scurrying to get the power back on. Currently there are 327,000 Duke customers still without power - down from 1.2 million since the storm hit Sunday. Duke officials say this is the worst outage in the company's history.

hjoew has contributed a photo to this story.