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Flooding forces evacuations in Plains
2007-05-07
Flooding forced hundreds of people from their homes Monday and blocked streets and highways following a weekend of violent thunderstorms across the central Plains. Kim Moore, her two sons and their dogs were evacuated from their central Topeka home after water rose knee-deep in their street. "The rescuers brought rafts up to the houses," Moore said. "My car's flooded in right now." Authorities rescued more than 500 people from flooded homes around Topeka, said Shawnee County spokesman Dave Bevans. He said he had no reports of injuries, and added that water had started to recede by early afternoon. Eighteen people had to be rescued from rooftops in the small community of Wakarusa south of Topeka, authorities said. Flooding also blocked roads Monday in parts of Oklahoma, Nebraska and Iowa, and chased people from their homes. One man drowned in western Oklahoma when high water swept his car off a county road near Elk City, the Highway Patrol said. In southwest Iowa, emergency officials urged nearly 1,600 residents of Red Oak and all of tiny Coburg to evacuate because of the rising East Nishnabotna River and a creek. An estimated 5 inches of rain fell during the weekend at Red Oak and light rain continued Monday. Flood stage there is 18 feet but the river had already hit 25.7 feet, said Adam Wainwright, emergency management coordinator for Montgomery County. Wainwright said some homes had been flooded, but he did not immediately know how many. No injuries were reported. The Iowa State Patrol closed a 10-mile stretch of Interstate 29 north of the Missouri state line because of flooding, and traffic was detoured around a 30-mile stretch of I-29 in west-central Iowa. More than 6 inches of rain fell in 24 hours in southeast Nebraska, and flooding closed a number of roads in the area Monday. Gage County was among the hardest-hit areas after the Big Blue River spilled over its banks. Volunteers placed sandbags around the Gage County Historical Society outbuildings in downtown Beatrice, and residents spent the afternoon pumping water out of their basements. "Just a lot of water," Rhonda Lopez said as she and her nephew picked up worms outside her house. "Our lot has a garden spot. It's no longer a garden. It's a lake." Topeka had measured 6.73 inches of rain since Sunday morning, and more rain was expected, the National Weather Service said. Topeka resident Jennifer Bowen was awakened early Monday by rescue workers knocking on the door of her home near Shunganunga creek. Fire and police officers evacuated her and her daughter, Selma, by boat. Although Bowen has no flood insurance, she said she felt relatively lucky, compared to the plight of residents of Greensburg, the town about 200 miles to the southwest that was obliterated by a tornado. "I felt fortunate that we still have a house," Bowen said.
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