Flooding fills tunnels leading to Detroit airport

ROMULUS, Mich. -- Heavy rain temporarily closed a busy airport terminal outside Detroit.

Areas in Southeast Michigan got more than 5 inches of rain by Thursday morning, resulting in street flooding in the Detroit area, including tunnels leading to Detroit Metropolitan Airport in the suburb of Romulus, officials said. Officials reopened the airport's McNamara Terminal on Thursday afternoon.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer activated the State Emergency Operations Center on Thursday evening to provide support to affected communities "as they respond to the impacts of flooding."

"We were getting rainfall rates above an inch an hour, which is pretty significant," said Brian Cromwell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Detroit.

Cromwell added that more severe thunderstorms with torrential rains were possible over the region Thursday evening.

Up to 8 inches of rain also hit some areas of north-central Ohio, according to Brian Mitchell with the National Weather Service in Cleveland. The northeast part of the state saw at least 5 inches from midday Wednesday into Thursday morning, with winds reaching up to 60 mph in some areas.

Lorain County, which received around 6 inches of rain, canceled its county fair Thursday because of "storms, flooding, closed roads and damage."

In Lakewood, Ohio, 10 people were rescued from seven cars on a section of Interstate 90 on Wednesday night after their vehicles got stuck in the water that reached to the windows, Capt. Gary Stone said. The highway was shut down in both directions at one point. No one was hurt.

"It was a bad mess down there," Stone said, noting while Lakewood is often hit by bad storms coming off of Lake Erie, this kind of flooding was unheard of.

In Las Vegas, a fast-moving storm flooded parts of the city, including the strip. Police started getting calls shortly before 9 p.m. Wednesday for help and rescued one person, Metropolitan Police Department Lt. Miguel Ibarra told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. But he said another person was believed to be missing.

Police attempted a rescue around 9:30 p.m., but were unsuccessful and were still searching, Ibarra said. He said there may be two other victims. A message seeking further comment was left with the department.

Accumulations were less than an inch, the National Weather Service said. More rain was in the forecast Thursday.

"We do have so much moisture" lingering from tropical storms Hilary and the remnants of Harold, meteorologist Jenn Varian said Thursday morning.

Meanwhile, it was the heat -- not rainfall -- causing problems in the Midwest and forcing children across the country to learn in hotter classrooms or go home early. Des Moines Public Schools in Iowa announced is was dismissing classes three hours early on Thursday, the second day of the fall semester.

Schools officials said in a news release most district buses are not air-conditioned, and several drivers had to be monitored for heat exhaustion at the end of Wednesday's routes. The forecast for Thursday was equally bad, with the National Weather Service predicting a high of 99 that would actually feel more like 109 because of the humidity.

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Associated Press reporters Samantha Hendrickson in Columbus, Ohio, Rick Callahan and Ken Kusmer in Indianapolis and Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas, contributed to this story.