wild weather

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it seems there's been tornadoes everyday the last month....

 

 

Midwest copes with floods, East warned of heat

 

Residents dig out early Sunday morning, June 8, 2008, in the Omaha, Neb. suburb

of Millard, after a storm passed through, causing damage to homes and downing

trees and power lines. Nati HarnikBy JIM IRWIN (Associated Press Writer)

From Associated Press

June 09, 2008 11:56 AM EDT

INDIANAPOLIS - Military crews joined a desperate sandbagging operation Monday as

Indiana streams flooded to record levels, while the East Coast turned into a

steam bath with temperatures simmering toward the century mark.

 

Eight deaths had been blamed on stormy weekend weather, most in the Midwest.

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle declared an emergency for 29 counties and President

Bush late Sunday declared a major disaster in 29 Indiana counties. Iowa Gov.

Chet Culver said nearly a third of his state's 99 counties need federal help.

 

Flooding was expected to be a continuing problem this week in the Midwest as

rivers are swollen with the runoff from heavy weekend rainfall, topped by the 11

inches that fell Saturday in Indiana.

 

" This thing came on fast with such a radical deluge of water that people were

describing going from a feeling of security to waist-deep water in a matter or

15 or 20 minutes, " said Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who canceled a trade mission

to Japan.

 

A new storm system was headed toward the Ohio Valley from the southern Plains on

Monday - Oklahoma got up to 6 inches of rain by late morning and utilities

reported nearly 5,000 customers blacked out - and the National Weather Service

said as much as 3 inches of rain could fall on already waterlogged Indiana late

Monday.

 

Some 200 Indiana National Guard members and 140 Marines and sailors joined local

emergency agencies Monday in sandbagging a levee of the White River at Elnora,

about 100 miles southwest of Indianapolis. The White River was forecast to crest

Tuesday at nearby Newberry at 16 feet above flood stage.

 

Local officials said they wanted to raise nearly a mile of levees as much as 3

feet.

 

By Monday morning, flooding at eight sites in central and southern Indiana had

eclipsed levels set in the deluge of March 1913, which had been considered

Indiana's greatest flood in modern times, said Scott Morlock, a hydrologist with

the U.S. Geological Survey in Indiana.

 

Those sites included Newberry, where the White River reached 28.04 feet Monday

morning, topping the record of 26.98 feet set in March 1913.

 

While the Midwest fought to cope with flooding, the East was locked in a sauna.

Heat advisories were posted Monday from the Carolinas to Connecticut, with

temperatures expected to hit 100 from Georgia to New York, the National Weather

Service said.

 

" It's just crazy. ... It's really, really hot, " said New York City street worker

Jessica Pena as she swept a midtown Manhattan street at around 8:15 a.m. The

temperature already was in the upper 80s.

 

About 17,000 customers in and around New York City were blacked out by

thunderstorms that struck late Sunday and the rising demand for electricity

Monday to run air conditioners, utilities said. A subway system power outage

disrupted some morning rush hour service.

 

New York City opened 300 cooling centers Monday, said Office of Emergency

Management spokesman Chris Gilbride. District of Columbia officials declared

Monday and Tuesday Code Red days for poor air quality, and schools in parts of

Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania were closed early as class rooms heated

up.

 

The flooding in Indiana was just part of the result of intense thunderstorms

that pounded the Midwest during the weekend.

 

Michigan was hit by wind up to 80 mph and more than 5 inches of rain, and

utilities said some 200,000 homes and business were still blacked out Monday.

Flood warnings were posted Monday for much of western Lower Michigan, the

weather service said.

 

In western Wisconsin, about 250 people were evacuated in nine counties, said

Mike Goetzman, a spokesman for Wisconsin Emergency Management. Prison inmate

crews helped fill sandbags Monday in Baraboo and Fall River in south-central

Wisconsin, he said.

 

Officials warned that Wisconsin's Kickapoo River could crest 6 feet over flood

stage sometime Monday, but some small towns had already become isolated islands.

 

" It ain't normal, " said Monte Sheldon, 47. The weekend rain washed out part of

his yard outside Viroqua, Wis., depositing his trees across a highway.

 

Rushing water in southeastern Minnesota washed out some roads and recently

planted crops, and officials urged residents of the Winnebago Valley to

evacuate.

 

Downstream, the Winnebago River rose to a record 18.7 feet late Sunday at Mason

City, Iowa. The surge burst a levee, shutting down the city's water treatment

plant, and Mason City's nearly 30,000 residents were told not to drink the water

or flush toilets.

 

The weekend death toll included six in Michigan, one in Indiana and one in

Connecticut. One man was missing in Indiana.

 

---

 

Associated Press writers Todd Richmond in Gays Mills, Wis., Tom Murphy in

Indianapolis, and Ula Ilnytzky in New York City contributed to this report.

 

 

“We now know that a neo-conservative is an arsonist who sets the house on fire

and six years later boasts that no one can put it out.†- Bill Moyers