Homeowners return to find mess; others wait for crest

The Associated Press, July 11, 2003

WILLSHIRE, Ohio, July 11 -- President Bush issued a disaster declaration Friday for 25 counties in storm-ravaged Indiana as flood water began receding from hundreds of homes there and in neighboring Ohio. The disaster declaration triggered the release of federal money to help victims of the heavy rain, tornadoes and flooding that have plagued northern Indiana and Ohio.

After a week of thunderstorms, the area's forecast was finally improving Friday, said Indiana Emergency Management Agency spokesman Alden Taylor.

"We are holding our own," he said. "It's not getting worse, and it is getting better, but it is getting better slowly."

The St. Marys River had dropped to about 25 feet Friday morning at Decatur, Ind., after cresting at 27 feet Wednesday, and the National Weather Service said it should fall below its flood stage of 17 feet on Sunday.

"IT'S JUST A MESS"

Ten miles to the southeast, in the St. Marys River town of Willshire, wooden pallets and steel drums from the town's general store floated by as Rhonda Hunt surveyed the muddy water that flowed through her back yard.

Returning home Thursday for the first time in two days, Hunt found the flooding had ruined air conditioners, snow blowers and other equipment she was forced to abandon in her garage.

"It's just a mess. It's upsetting," Hunt said. "You don't want to give your home up."

Flooding from the St. Marys damaged about 1,300 homes in Indiana, many south of a line stretching roughly from Fort Wayne to Lafayette.

"How do you clean this up?" asked Jim Hopkins as he poured fuel into the pump draining water from his flooded basement. "What do I do about my furnace, my water heater, my washer and dryer? How do you even clean those things up and use them? I don't know."

South of Willshire in Mercer County, where 100 people have been evacuated, more than 15 inches of rain had fallen since last Friday, officials said.

NEW DEATH IN INDIANA

In Ohio, no major injuries or deaths were reported. Indiana, however, has had four storm-related death since July 4.

On Thursday, Edward Bowman, 30, died after he tried to rescue the driver of an all-terrain vehicle that was swept away by floodwaters on the Wabash River south of Fort Wayne, authorities said. The ATV's driver managed to climb out of the water.

Almost 3,000 homes scattered across Indiana and Ohio were evacuated. Hundreds of acres of low-lying areas were covered in water.

Indiana and Ohio residents living next to rivers other than the St. Marys weren't lucky enough to see the waters go back into their banks.

In the suburbs north of Indianapolis, the White River was at 17 feet and was expected to crest Friday. About 30 people were asked to leave their homes Thursday just north of Indianapolis in Noblesville.

NOT OVER YET

Officials expected similar situations in coming days downstream to the south. Along the upper Wabash River in northern Indiana, the scenario was much the same.
"The people along the river have to wait a while yet," said Al Shipe, a National Weather Service hydrologist.

Shipe expected much of the flooding along the White would be limited to riverside farmlands.

Rainfall amounts were less than an inch Thursday for much of both states, and more relief was in sight Friday.

That optimistic forecast was giving many people hope, but not Kevin Krick. He said the sandbags piled five high around his mother's home in hart-hit Decatur, about 20 miles south of Fort Wayne, were not coming down until the river returned to its banks.

"Who says that it won't come right back with the next rainfall?" he said. "Anyone who takes the sandbags down before then is crazy."