Ohio Rains

[MalahatTwo7]

I haven't been keeping up with the news on this one overly much... actually it sort of been "off the radar".... Just hope you guys 'n gals in Ohio and Iowa are keeping as safe as you can out there.

Washington, DC

MIDWEST FLOODING

Flooding Puts Ohio In State Of Emergency Midwest Storms Claim 22 Lives

POSTED: 4:21 am EDT August 22, 2007
UPDATED: 3:30 pm EDT August 22, 2007

Ohio's governor declared a state of emergency in nine counties as part of the state pushes through its worst flooding in nearly 100 years.

Authorities were shutting down schools and streets, and at least 500 people have been evacuated.

In Findlay, rescuers have set out to reach dozens of people trapped in flooded homes.

With only a few rescue boats available, neighbors were ferrying through the streets in their own canoes to help the stranded.

Emergency officials said about 100 people already had been pulled from their soggy homes and 100 more were waiting in Findlay.

Forecasters warn the Ohio town could see record flooding, with the Blanchard River close to 7 feet above flood stage. Forecasters expect it to rise a half foot more.

Flooding is also plaguing northern Iowa, as thunderstorms spill heavy rain across the water-logged region. A care center was evacuated in an Iowa town as water filled the basement.

The death toll from two storm systems -- the one in the Upper Midwest and another from remnants of Tropical Storm Erin farther south -- is up to 22.

Iowa Urges Evacuations

Some residents along the Des Moines River in Fort Dodge are being urged to evacuate their homes because of high water along the river.

KCCI-TV in Des Moines reported the water is near the top of levees north of Fort Dodge and that some homeowners are being urged to leave.

Webster County Emergency Management Coordinator Tony Jorgenson said residents in three neighborhoods are being told to leave. Flood stage in that area is 10 feet and by midmorning the river was at 14 feet -- and rising.

Elsewhere in Fort Dodge, water on the Des Moines River near the hydroelectric dam came very close to topping the levees. The river was rising rapidly because of heavy rain the past few days. Fort Dodge is in the middle of an area that has repeated heavy rainstorms pass over it.

Water threatened to top a levee by the hydroelectric dam early Wednesday morning. Residents near the dam were warned to get ready to leave if necessary. Greenwood said crews worked to reinforce the levee with large rocks. They also opened another gate on the dam to help release more water downstream.

To make matters worse, more rain was moving over the same area Wednesday morning and heavy rain is expected again overnight.

In Humboldt, a care center was evacuated Tuesday night as a precaution as water poured into the basement, threatening the electrical system. No one was injured.

Humboldt Mayor Steve Samuels said basements in the city are flooded by water seeping through walls and windows. He said he has had 14 inches in his rain gauge since Friday, including more than 5 inches Tuesday night.

More Rain Coming

Forecasts call for more rain in Wisconsin and Ohio on Wednesday, adding to residents' water-logged misery.

The National Weather Service said rivers in Ohio were already well past flood stage on Tuesday and are expected to crest on Wednesday.

Scattered showers are likely in Ohio, and Wisconsin could see up to 3 inches of rainfall. A flash flood watch remains in effect there.

Preliminary damage reports from the Wisconsin flooding alone top $38 million and are expected to go up. Gov. Jim Doyle has declared a state of emergency in five counties, beginning the process for requesting federal disaster assistance.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty is warning residents not to expect any miracles by way of government assistance even though many flood victims don't have insurance. He met with nearly 100 people affected by flooding in a sometimes contentious meeting.

Victims Check Wreckage

Southwestern Wisconsin's water-weary residents started counting their losses Tuesday as damage estimates from weekend's flash floods climbed to more than $38 million -- and it might not be over yet, Madison television station WISC reported.

Deb Holtz, of Gays Mills, said it's a "gut-wrenching" situation. She found the furniture shop she runs with her husband coated with mud after the flooding that hit when parts of the southwest got a foot of rain over the weekend.

Crawford County Emergency Management estimated that flooding caused $14 million worth of damage to roads, homes and businesses. Officials said that roughly 200 homes and 50 businesses have significant damage.

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle has declared a state of emergency in five counties and has begun the process for requesting federal disaster assistance.

About 80 members of the National Guard are helping with recovery and debris cleanup in those areas, WISC-TV reported.

The heavy rain and flooding also caused some hiking and bike trails to close. The Military Ridge Trail near the tunnel on the West Side of Verona is flooded and has been closed Tuesday.

Melissa Gardner

The Sugar River and Badger State trails have also been closed. Both trails have high water, washouts and downed trees, WISC-TV reported.

"It is going to take some time to clear the vegetation -- that's more labor intensive. We can't do a lot about this. We'll just have to wait for the water to go down. Unfortunately, we are looking at getting more water tonight. So I can't speculate in the near term when those two trails will open," said Greg Matthews, DNR public affairs manager.

Both the Sugar River and Badger State trails are closed until further notice while cleanup and repairs are under way.

Distributed by Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc. The Associated Press contributed to this report

[LEWTFL]

Yep. We got lots of water.
And most of it is running downhill.

[frenchfireball]

thoughts and prayers for the ohio and iowa inhabitants.flooding always sad.

[GFD748]

Yep. We got lots of water.
And most of it is running downhill.

I would gladly take some of your rain. We haven
t had any rain in mounths her in East TN.

[Hazmat91180]

I second these posts, it is wet in WI, no doubt about it.

first time I have seen flooded streets here.

another 2 inches tonight coming

[Weruj1]

http://www.sentinel-tribune.com/

[RspctFrmCalgary]

Holy crap, Joshie!

Noticed the headlines lately but didn't have time to post anything. Good to hear from you!

STAY SAFE OUT THERE!!

[Weruj1]

Findlay is about 45 mins directly south of us ................up here we are all good ......................for now.

[hwoods]

Glad to hear that everyone is OK out there. We've gotten several inches here, but it's been spread out over a week or more, so there's no flooding. We're still way below normal rainfall here, and I don't see a long term change coming.......

[RspctFrmCalgary]

YIKES!

Tornadoes compound Midwest flood misery

MSNBC and NBC News
Updated: 3:39 p.m. PT Aug 23, 2007

The mammoth storm system blamed for killing at least 26 people in the Midwest was bringing a new wave of misery as fierce winds and tornadoes hampered efforts to recover from record floods and shut down air traffic at two of the nation’s busiest airports.

At least three tornadoes were reported Thursday afternoon in the Chicago area, according to NBC affiliate WMAQ. Harsh winds blew the roof off a warehouse in suburban West Chicago, collapsing the structure and injuring at least 40 people, none of them seriously.

Jill Dillingham, who lives on the North Side of Chicago, described the storm as a “hellacious, black wall.”
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The conditions led authorities to shut down all arrivals and departures at O’Hare and Midway airports. The Chicago Department of Aviation said operations were suspended for only a brief time, but they warned travelers to expect serious delays and numerous cancellations at the airports, significant hubs where many travelers on their way to Labor Day weekend holidays would be expected to change planes.

Will County and southern Cook remained under tornado warnings late Thursday afternoon.

More Iowa flooding forecast
The tornadoes were spinoffs of storm systems that clobbered the Midwest this week, flooding thousands of residents out of their homes. The death toll across the Upper Midwest and from the remnants of Tropical Storm Erin that swept Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri over the past week rose to at least 26.

Another storm system was moving over Iowa and southern Minnesota, and much of Ohio was under a heat advisory, with temperatures in the upper 90s. Cincinnati schools closed because of the heat for the first time in at least 10 years.

Residents of southern Iowa towns were bracing for more flooding as up to 4 inches of new rain was expected to send the Blanchard River even higher, NBC WeatherPlus meteorologist Jackie Meretzky reported.

Work crews raced to pack sagging levees with sandbags and rocks along the river, a tributary of the Mississippi River that rose 18 feet in two days this week, cresting nearly 7 inches above its record level, recorded in 1913.

Chertoff, Paulison review Ohio damage
NBC WeatherPlus meteorologist Jeff Ranieri reported from Findlay, Ohio, the worst-hit town this week, that streets were just starting to dry out when the new forecast was announced.


NBC video
Minnesota dries out
Aug. 23: High water was disappearing in Minnesota, but what the residents are returning to was not pretty. NBC’s Lee Cowan reports.

Nightly News

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and David Paulison, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, toured Findlay to assess the damage from the worst flooding in at least a century.

“Hang in there. At least you’re safe,” Chertoff told a man who was waiting in line to apply for state aid.

Later, Chertoff and Paulison visited flood-stricken areas of southeastern Iowa, where Chertoff announced that President Bush had signed disaster declarations for three counties.

The Des Moines River, meanwhile, was not expected to reach its highest point for another 24 to 48 hours, Ranieri said, cresting about 12 feet above flood stage.

In the town of Lehigh, Dena Johnson watched the water inch closer and closer to her back door.

“I’m nervous. I’m nervous,” she told NBC News’ Lee Cowan. “I’ve had butterflies all day.”

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South's heat wave is back; 3 more deaths

But it is upriver in Fort Dodge where forecasters fear the worst damage may be.

'We just need it to stop raining'
Volunteers from a nearby community college gave up football practice to fill sandbags, hoping to shore up the levee near the town’s hydroelectric damn.

“We just need it to stop raining,” City Manager David Fierke said. “If it doesn’t rain anymore, we’ll be fine, and we really don’t need this extra work, but that’s not what the weather service is telling us.”
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Officials in town along the Des Moines River alerted residents that they may have to evacuate.

“The river is out of its banks, and there’s no holding it back now,” said Tom Heinold of the Army Corps of Engineers. “It’s going to do what it wants.”

Water contamination feared
NBC affiliate KWWL of Waterloo reported that so much raw sewage had seeped into water supplies that Black Hawk County officials officials issued warnings not to drink or cook with it.

“Kids like to play in it, and it can be fun, but it can be risky, especially if they have cuts or abrasions, broken skin,” said county Health Director Tom O’Rourke. “We advise that persons should treat all flood water as if it is chemically contaminated and capable of causing infectious diseases.”

Less rain was expected farther north, allowing flood victims to begin trying to piece their lives back together.

Roger Colbenson of Rushford, Minn., told NBC affiliate KIMT of Sioux City, Iowa, that his home, along with his $200,000 collection of baseball cards and comic books, was destroyed.

“We couldn’t believe what we were seeing,” Colbenson said. “We did take pictures when we went in, and believe it or not, I broke down about six times. It’s everything we worked for, gone.”

Along with dealing with the mess in the homes, authorities reported outbreaks of looting in empty houses. Fillmore County imposed a curfew, ordering all residents out of Rushford by 9 p.m.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said Thursday that he and legislative leaders had agreed to call a special session sometime next month to hammer out flood relief for southeastern parts of the state.


By Alex Johnson of MSNBC.com with Jeff Ranieri and Jackie Meretzky of NBC WeatherPlus, Lee Cowan of NBC News and Amy Robach and Tamron Hall of MSNBC. NBC affiliates in Chicago (WMAQ); Waterloo (KWWL) and Sioux City, Iowa (KIMT); and Rochester, Minn. (KTTC) contributed to this report.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20404925/

[MalahatTwo7]

And according to the news this morning, more rain on the way this weekend.

[doughesson]

That's good and it will flow down Memphis way.In Paducah,I am told there are almost 40 tows waiting to lock through because of low water.
A couple weeks ago,in Memphis I was taking a cement barge to a dock and when the pilot turned around to go up the channel where the dock is,I could hear the barge scraping the bottom.The barge was only loaded to an 8 foot draft.
It's bad that Ohio and environs are getting too much rain but we can't yet control where it goes and who gets it.It'll clear up soon.

And according to the news this morning, more rain on the way this weekend.

[MalahatTwo7]

That's good and it will flow down Memphis way.In Paducah,I am told there are almost 40 tows waiting to lock through because of low water.
A couple weeks ago,in Memphis I was taking a cement barge to a dock and when the pilot turned around to go up the channel where the dock is,I could hear the barge scraping the bottom.The barge was only loaded to an 8 foot draft.
It's bad that Ohio and environs are getting too much rain but we can't yet control where it goes and who gets it.It'll clear up soon.

True enough there, Doug. And here in the DC area, we are expecting temps to reach mid 90's tomorrow, with humidex of 105 - 110. We are doing more ladder work this weekend in Fire School..... I'm thinking theres gonna be a little crotch-pot cook'n go'n on.

[NWOhio157]

Weruj put some pictures of the Findlay, OH area on Rossford's site.
http://www.rossfordfire.com
http://rossfordfire.com/Findlay%20Flood%20pics.html

[firenresq77]

Now they just have the giant cleanup effort going on down there. The Sunoco and BP refinery Emergency Response Teams were sent down to Findlay on Thursday evening. They had a building leaking some kind of oil from cracks in the concrete. Nobody knew what it was or where exactly it was coming from. I guess it was heading for the Blanchard River so they were trying to get the booms out to contain it.....