Residents flee in boats as floods inundate Midwest

ELKHART, IND. — Crews used boats to help residents flee their homes in northern Indiana after rainstorms sweeping across the Midwest on Wednesday combined with melting snow to flood rivers, roads and other low-lying areas in several states.

The storm system starting pushed heavy rain, snow and ice into the region this week, and the weather has already been blamed for hundreds of car crashes and several fatalities, including the deaths of four people in a crash along a slippery interstate in Nebraska.

About 19 people had been moved to safety from homes in Elkhart, a town just east of South Bend, by early Wednesday, said Mayor Tim Neese.

Local schools were closed because of the flooding and an emergency shelter was set up to help evacuees overnight, the Elkhart Truth newspaper reported.

“This city has not seen flooding like this in the last 45 years,” Neese said. “We also had record snowfall in addition to consistent rain.”

Homes and streets also were flooded in the South Bend area, and forecasters predicted that the swollen St. Joseph River wouldn’t crest until Thursday.

The National Weather Service has issued flood warnings for parts of several states in the central and southern U.S., spanning from Texas to Illinois and Ohio to Arkansas, where strong winds topped power lines and damages buildings. Winter weather advisories also were issued, including in for Oklahoma and Kansas.

In Michigan, flooded streets stranded motorists and a school bus in Flint, and a washout from heavy rains may have caused two freight train engines to derail near Grand Rapids. No injuries were reported there.

Residents in Mattawan, in the southwestern part of the state, used sandbags to protect homes and businesses as a nearby river rose above its banks.

“We just got to wait for it to go down,” Terry Teeter, who installed pumps to keep water away from his house, told WOODTV. “It’s going to be a couple of days like this.”

In Illinois, the fear of rising water along the Illinois River forced the evacuation late Tuesday of the LaSalle County Nursing Home in Ottawa.