Rivers rising in Indiana’s catastrophic flood zone as new storms threaten Midwest
By Meteorologists Dakota Smith, Briana Waxman, Chris Dolce, and CNN’s Kate S. Petersen
(CNN) — More heavy rain is headed to flood-ravaged Indiana, where water rescues and evacuations are still underway following historic rainfall this week.
Parts of the state experienced a 1-in-1,000 year rainfall event on Wednesday that sent floodwater rushing into homes and left roads impassable. Now, major flooding is happening along rivers across the eastern part of the state. Indiana Gov. Mike Braun has declared a statewide disaster emergency and mobilized the Indiana National Guard.
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The catastrophic flooding began one day after a deadly derecho — a rare, unusually long-lasting windstorm — tore through the Midwest. The region will not get a meaningful break from the storms until this weekend.
Here’s the latest:
- More flooding to come: More than 17 million people from Iowa to West Virginia are in flood watches for additional bouts of rain that are expected to sweep through Thursday and Friday. Saturated ground and swollen rivers will make it easier for even modest rainfall to cause new problems.
- Rivers still rising: At least three rivers have hit major flood stage in eastern Indiana. One of those is the White River in Anderson, Indiana, where a record crest over 24 feet is forecast for Thursday night — the highest in more than 100 years. A level that high would likely bring
- Flash flood emergencies: Parts of seven counties in eastern Indiana were under the highest level of flood warning Wednesday. Parts of the region have seen multiple months’ worth — 6 to nearly 12 inches — of rain so far this week.
- Widespread outages persist: More than 250,000 homes and businesses are without power in Indiana as of Thursday evening, according to PowerOutage.us. Just under 400,000 customers remain in the dark across the Midwest and Ohio Valley for the second consecutive day. A utility serving northern Indiana experienced its most widespread outage ever due to this week’s storms and estimates power won’t be fully restored for more than a week.
‘Catastrophic’ flooding grips Indiana
In Muncie, about an hour northeast of Indianapolis, officials are working to evacuate neighborhoods along the White River, which rose more than 3 and a half feet above major flood stage late Thursday morning.
Evacuations have not been ordered, but hundreds of people are in the impacted area and most are leaving, the city’s Fire Chief Dan Burford told CNN Thursday. Rescues are ongoing in Muncie and other parts of Delaware County, Burford said, including many drivers stranded in floodwater.
“I’ve been with the department for 29 years, and I’ve never seen flooding like this,” Burford said.
Water is deep enough in the streets that rescuers are using motorized boats. In some residential areas, Burford estimates floodwater is 9 feet deep. More than half of the homes in one 30-square-block area of Muncie had likely flooded to some extent, he added. The local utility has cut power to affected areas for safety.
The city said its infrastructure has “experienced failures,” with the flooding leaving one sewer facility inoperable and another running at maximum capacity. The last storm of this magnitude was in 1913, when the city decided to construct a levee system. About 4 billion gallons of rain has fallen on the city in the last 24 hours – roughly eight times what the drainage systems can handle well, the city said.
Elsewhere in Delaware County, authorities have been searching for an 18-year-old missing after jumping into a river Wednesday night, the county sheriff’s office said in a statement to CNN.
Sheriff’s deputies responded to a report that four teens had jumped from a bridge into the water at around 8:30 p.m. ET. Three were found and rescued, according to the sheriff’s office. Authorities resumed search operations Thursday morning but have had to pause again until conditions improve, officials said.
“Our focus remains on locating the missing individual while ensuring the safety of the first responders involved in the search,” the sheriff’s office said.
Yorktown, also in Delaware County, declared a local disaster emergency Thursday afternoon, with first responders working around the clock to assist with evacuations. Drone footage shared by the city showed houses, vehicles and roads submerged in muddy floodwaters.
In nearby Anderson, Indiana, the mayor declared a local disaster emergency and issued evacuation orders Thursday along the White River and other waterways.
Fire departments in Anderson’s Madison County “have been busy all day” with evacuations and “some water rescues,” and more than 300 animals are being evacuated from a flooded animal shelter, Sheriff John Beeman told CNN Thursday night.
To the south in hard-hit western Wayne County, Indiana, crews have rescued people from rooftops, the tops of vehicles and places surrounded by floodwater, according to the county emergency management agency.
More than 30 people were rescued or evacuated by Wednesday afternoon, with 12 more water rescues reported overnight Thursday, the agency said. Most of these were by boat in Cambridge City, a town about an hour east of Indianapolis, Wayne County Emergency Management Agency spokesperson Todd Harmeson told CNN Thursday.
Cambridge City reported “catastrophic” flooding by late Wednesday morning. Video obtained by CNN shows floodwater covering large sections of the town, with water levels well past many houses’ windows and cars almost entirely submerged. Most roads there were impassable, Harmeson said.
The town also warned residents in a social media post to be prepared to potentially lose utilities for “a number of days” and is currently under a boil-water advisory. The county has shut off electricity and gas service in some flooded areas as a safety measure and asked residents to conserve water.
Timothy Hicks, a father of six who lives in Cambridge City, told The Associated Press it was a “panic to get out of here” when floodwaters began pouring into the family’s house on Wednesday morning.
“Just started grabbing the kids, they’re still asleep. I just started grabbing them, running them out to the car without even getting shoes, clothes or anything like that,” he said.
“It just crushes me. My kids’ house is gone,” Hicks added.
Flooding also damaged the westbound lanes of Interstate 70 in Wayne County. The Indiana Department of Transportation estimates the interstate will reopen by Friday.
In nearby New Castle, Indiana, crews evacuated over 120 people from an apartment complex using boats and humvees on Wednesday, according to the city fire department.
New Castle received more than 11 inches of rain in 32 hours – a 1-in-1000-year rainfall rate. This only has a 0.1% chance of happening in given year, under normal circumstances. But extreme rainfall is becoming more common as the atmosphere warms.
Further south, the city of Connersville, Indiana, was divided in two by flooding from the Whitewater River, CNN affiliate WKRC reported, with drivers having to travel more than 10 miles in a horseshoe-shaped route to reach the other side of town. City officials said early Thursday the water had begun to recede but traveling should be restricted to essential trips only.
Deadly storms hit Midwest on Tuesday
Wednesday’s storms came a day after a deadly line of severe weather swept through Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.
A 4-year-old boy died in southeastern Indiana on Tuesday after a tree fell on a house in Geneva Township, according to Cody Low, chief deputy for the Jennings County sheriff’s department.
One person was found dead Tuesday in Portage, Indiana, from an apparent explosion and house fire after the derecho moved through the area. The cause remains under investigation, but police suspect trees knocked down by the storm may have damaged natural gas lines.
In Ohio, about 375 were forced to flee their homes as waters rose, Gov. Mike DeWine said. “Many of them will never be able to return to those homes,” he said at a news conference Thursday.
Punishing week of storms continues
Iowa and Illinois, flood-ravaged Indiana and parts of the Appalachians are at risk for more flooding rain on Thursday and Friday.
A complex of ongoing storms has pushed into the Ohio Valley bringing downpours to parts of southern Indiana and northern Kentucky.
These storms will eventually run out of steam, but new ones in their wake will likely form by late Thursday in Iowa and Illinois. Those storms could build eastward across parts of Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia through the overnight hours into Friday morning.
A Level 3 of 4 risk of flooding rainfall has been issued in parts of Indiana, southwest Ohio and north-central Kentucky through early Friday. Another 1 to 3 inches of rain is likely across this already water-logged area, but much higher totals up to 6 inches in spots are possible if storms stall out over the same areas for too long.
Storms could also stall out elsewhere in the Midwest and cause significant flooding late Thursday into Friday; Iowa, northern Illinois and Ohio have the greatest potential for that.
In a news conference Thursday evening, DeWine warned residents in western Ohio to stay alert for “a dangerous situation that very well may develop tonight … while you are asleep.”
The heavy rain threat could finally ease by Friday afternoon in the hard-hit Ohio Valley, but the Upper Mississippi Valley and parts of the Great Lakes could see more downpours through Saturday.
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CNN’s Sarah Dewberry, Dalia Faheid and Avni Trivedi contributed to this report.
