Lake overflow threatens to flood Midwest businesses

MONTEZUMA, Ohio -- Water roared over a spillway Tuesday from a rain-bloated reservoir, flooding the area downstream and threatening businesses after the latest in a series of thunderstorms that have battered the Midwest.

Rivers hit record levels Tuesday in Indiana, and some roads in Ohio and northern West Virginia were closed by flash flooding and mud slides.

Grand Lake St. Marys, surrounded by a state park and vacation homes, "keeps rising and rising," said Wanda Dicke, deputy director of the Mercer County Emergency Management Agency. "It's just overflowing like you wouldn't believe. It's doing some major, major flooding."

Water spilling from 21-square-mile Grand Lake St. Marys threatened a doctor's office and radio station, Dicke said. No one had been evacuated from this northwest Ohio village of nearly 200 residents but "it's getting real close."

Thunderstorms swept across Indiana and Ohio into Pennsylvania and West Virginia on Tuesday. It was the fifth straight day of storms across the Midwest and the National Weather Service said more storms were likely this week.

Flooding and mud and rock slides closed up to 25 roads in northern West Virginia after heavy rain early Tuesday, and an estimated 125 people evacuated their homes, Monongalia County Emergency Services Director Ron Kyle said.

About 20 miles upstream from Rockford at Decatur, Ind., the St. Marys River hit a record flood level of 26.54 feet Tuesday, passing the mark of 26.5 feet set in 1913, Mayor Fred Isch said. Flood stage at Decatur, some 20 miles south of Fort Wayne, is 17 feet.

"We've got people leaving their homes, roads are flooded over and people can't get to certain people," Isch said. "We have some people in houses who are kind of on islands right now."

"We've got water in places I've never seen before," the 70-year-old mayor said. "We've been sandbagging now for two days."

Thousands of homes and businesses have lost electrical service during the days of rough weather, including 172,000 American Electric Power customers in central Ohio.

More than 58,000 customers across northern Indiana remained without power Tuesday.

Along the St. Marys in northwest Ohio, sandbagging was under way in the village of Rockford, where 50 to 60 residents of a mobile home park had left their homes Monday.

Several roads around Ohio were blocked by high water early Tuesday, and some county officials threatened to arrest anyone who ignored barricades and drove onto flooded roads.

In Illinois, more than 380,000 customers lost power during weekend storms in the Chicago area. Golf-ball-sized hail was reported in Arlington Heights and wind gusted to 100 mph at Rockford, Ill.

Ten inches of rain fell during the weekend on Kokomo, Ind., and as many as 400 people had to be evacuated by boat, the Red Cross said.

Farther west, another group of storms battered parts of Nebraska, Iowa and southern Minnesota during the night into Tuesday. Wind gusting up to 100 mph toppled a radio station tower at Ogallala, Neb., knocking KOGA off the air.

Three weekend deaths were blamed on the weather in Indiana. Seven people drowned along Lake Michigan beaches on Friday after thunderstorms churned up waves and riptides.