Midwest, Plains residents try to recover from flooding, storms blamed for 20 deaths

RUSHFORD, Minn. -- Across southeastern Minnesota, surreal sights greeted the weary residents who returned to water-logged homes hoping to retrieve pets or medicine.

Orange Xs marked buildings that had been searched for survivors. Canoes lay in the streets. At a campground in Houston County, picnic tables hung from trees.

Storms in the Midwest and the Plains over the weekend flooded streams and roads, caused sewage treatment system to overflow in Iowa and left one town temporarily cut off in Missouri. At least 20 people died in three states, six of them in Minnesota.

The remnants of Tropical Storm Erin swamped buildings in Oklahoma, leaving six dead there. In Texas, eight deaths were blamed on the storm, and authorities were scrambling to recover before Hurricane Dean's heavy rain slaps the state.

More storms Monday brought wind gusts of up to 82 mph and golf-ball-sized hail to Nebraska. Trees and power lines were down and substantial street flooding was reported in Fremont and Omaha. Thousands of people were without power.

In Minnesota, a dive team and a National Guard helicopter searched for Jered Lorenz, 37, whose overturned car was found lodged in the rocks along a creek near Lewiston.

Fifteen miles south of there, the National Guard controlled access to the city of Rushton, escorting residents in Monday just long enough for them to grab pets, clothing, medicine and other emergency supplies.

Mud several inches deep covered the streets in parts of Rushford, and some sidewalks had collapsed. Just 24 hours earlier, there had been water in the streets.

"Some people had to cut holes in their roofs to get out, the water was so deep," said Jack O'Donnell, chief deputy with the Fillmore County Sheriff's Office.

City administrator Windy Block estimated that at least a third of the town's 1,800 residents suffered flood damage from the flooding of Rush Creek, which divides the town.

Hundreds of people fled their homes in southwestern Wisconsin as the deluge turned the countryside in Vernon, Crawford and Richland counties into bogs, drowned crops and strained dams nearly to the breaking point. Damage estimates hit nearly $30 million and were expected to keep climbing.

Southwestern Wisconsin was under another flash flood watch Tuesday night and today, with a chance of rain through Friday, said National Weather Service meteorologist Rod Swerman.

The town of Soldiers Grove, Wis., lost part of a road to flooding. In nearby Gays Mills, flooding covered downtown in waist-deep, peanut butter-colored water. Mason Evans Jr., said the storm left 8 feet of water in his house in Gays Mills.

"It broke me," Evans said. "I lost everything."

In northeast Ohio, heavy rain caused Wolf Creek to overflow its banks, flooding streets and buildings. The ground floor of a housing complex for senior citizens was flooded, and about 70 residents were evacuated.

In all, about 200 people in the Akron suburb were evacuated due to high water, and most went to stay with friends or relatives, Barberton police Chief Mike Kallai said. No injuries were reported.