Boats being used to help residents amid flooding
Rainstorms combined with melting snow causing havoc across the Midwest
ELKHART, Ind. — Crews used boats to help residents evacuate 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 started pushing heavy rain, snow and ice into the region this week. The weather has already been blamed for hundreds of car crashes and several fatalities, including a crash that killed four people along a slippery interstate in Nebraska.
About 19 people had been evacuated from homes in Elkhart, where emergency crews used boats and an armored vehicle to respond, Mayor Tim Neese said early Wednesday. Schools were closed in the northern Indiana city because of the flooding and an emergency shelter was set up, 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.”
In Elkhart and nearby Goshen, local officials declared a state of emergency, and asked that traffic be limited to first responders and emergency personnel. 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.
State police said a 1-year-old girl was found dead Wednesday in standing water from rains and snowmelt in her backyard in central Michigan’s Fairplain Township.
Evacuations grew elsewhere across the Midwest after heavy rains and snowmelt sent rivers and streams out of their banks.
Authorities in Lansing, Mich., recommended the evacuations of at least six neighborhoods Wednesday ahead of the expected cresting of the Grand River at more than 3 feet above flood stage Thursday night. Firefighters in Lake Station, Ind., about 30 miles southeast of Chicago, evacuated some residents Wednesday after about 2 to 3 feet of water surrounded 15 to 20 homes.
In Illinois, authorities issued an evacuation order Wednesday for residents in the city of Marseilles who live near the Illinois River. The fear of rising water along the river forced the evacuation late Tuesday of the LaSalle County Nursing Home in Ottawa. Two days of rain in southern Wisconsin swelled waterways, leading to a handful of high-water rescues for people stranded in their vehicles.