Rain ends, flood toll and threats still rise

MIAMITOWN — Two people who drove into rushing waters were killed in Ohio, bringing to three the death toll from flooding still causing problems and threats across the state Thursday under sunny skies.

Slow-moving storms finally were gone for the first day of spring. But from the capital of Columbus, where the morning commute was disrupted when some busy roadways were submerged, to river communities such as Miamitown in southwest Ohio where dozens of families had to grab belongings and flee their homes, Ohioans reeled from a one-two winter weather punch.

Rivers were cresting or still rising well above flood stage across the state, where ground was already saturated after snowfalls of a foot to 20 inches in many areas less than two weeks ago.

Gov. Ted Strickland spent part of Thursday evening viewing flood damage and talking to residents of South Lebanon, where dozens of people have been encouraged to leave their waterlogged homes in recent days, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

“I came to express my condolences and pledge to the folks here that whatever we can do under the law, we’ll do,” said Strickland, who represented the village northeast of Cincinnati during his 12 years in Congress.

The Scioto River was climbing in southern Ohio, where residents of the small, flood-prone town of Yellowbud left their homes.

“The river is still coming up. It’s still rising, hasn’t crested yet,” Ross County Emergency Management Director David Bethel said.

At Piketon, the Scioto was forecast to rise to about 26 feet by Friday morning, nearly 8 feet above flood stage, the weather service said Thursday

The rainfall across the Midwest this week spurred President Bush to declare a major disaster in Missouri. The overall death toll in the region was at least 15.

In Ohio, Clinton County authorities said Cindy George, 54, died at Clinton Memorial Hospital in Wilmington. Her vehicle began to sink Wednesday after she drove into a flooded area near Maple Grove Campgrounds, where she lived.

Authorities said she clung for hours to a tree after escaping from the vehicle. Sheriff’s Maj. Brett Prickett said she was rescued by firefighters impeded by rushing creek waters. Prickett said the cause of death was believed to be hypothermia.

Authorities said a man, 53, who drove his pickup truck into floodwaters in southeast Ohio was swept away and later drowned. David Cottrill’s vehicle was swept away near Vinton; he managed to get out but died early Thursday.

A 65-year-old woman apparently drowned early Wednesday in Hamilton County’s Whitewater Township after checking on her home’s sump pump, authorities said.

Scores of vehicles were swamped by flood waters, and numerous traffic accidents were reported Thursday morning after wet roads iced. Near Toledo, a sport-utility vehicle hit a patch of ice and collided with a county-owned bus, injuring nine children and two adults, authorities said.

State transportation officials reported nearly 100 road closures or restrictions across the state Thursday.

Some 4 miles of one side of Interstate 70, a major east-west highway, was closed temporarily Thursday morning by water in central Ohio’s Licking County. Morning commuters trying to reach downtown Columbus from the south were detoured off heavily traveled U.S. 23 because its northbound lanes were flooded.

Three southwest Ohio counties — Butler, Hamilton and Warren — declared emergencies, as did Tuscarawas County officials in eastern Ohio.

Steve Binkley, a foreman at Durbin Nursery in Miamitown along the Great Miami River, was scraping mud off his office’s cement floor Thursday afternoon after flood waters receded in western Hamilton County. He had removed furniture and records Wednesday.

“Being on the river, it happens from time to time,” he said.

He marked the high-water mark at about 15 inches on his doorjamb, similar to a flood about five years ago.

The Great Miami crested at 25.85 feet here Wednesday. That’s the fourth highest level since 1959, when record-keeping began at that location, the National Weather Service said.

The area got six inches of rain Tuesday and Wednesday.

Near southern Ohio’s Chillicothe, Yellowbud resident Roy Cash walked through water in hip-high boots to get back to his house on Thursday. He left Wednesday to stay with his parents but returned to make sure everything in his house was up off the floor.

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