INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — With more rain in the forecast, residents in central and southern Indiana were preparing Tuesday for another storm while trying to recover from heavy rainfall that flooded roadways and local business a day earlier.
Officials were handing out sandbags and requesting National Guard assistance after 4 inches of rain combined with a winter's worth of snowmelt saturation on Monday and pushed many rivers out of their banks. Several cities and counties reported flood-blocked roads, intersections and bridges.
Flooding along the Mississinewa River in Marion blocked access roads leading to about 250 homes in the Stonecrest mobile home park, though residents weren't in immediate danger, Grant County officials said. The river was still rising Tuesday afternoon.
"It's going up so slow that we're really concerned that when it does crest, it will go down just as slow," said Bruce Bender, director of Grant County Emergency Management Agency.
The county requested a National Guard standby vehicle to begin patrolling the area by early evening because the flooding had not receded. It wasn't immediately clear Tuesday afternoon whether the request had been granted.
Another round of storms is expected in Indiana beginning Friday, though the National Weather Service isn't expecting more than an inch of rain.
But that's just enough to cause a flood because the ground will remain saturated for several days with water from Monday's storm, forecasters said.
The river levels "are going to drop, but it's not going to take too much for them to go right back up because even if the soil's moist or still wet, it'll be bad," said Tara Dudzik, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Indianapolis. "But the fact is there's still going to be water (on the ground) as well."
Floods also affected the city of Portland in Jay County, where officers had to rescue three people by boat. No injuries were reported.
The Salamonie River that runs through the city had crested and started to recede Tuesday, leading to a drop in water levels and allowing some downtown businesses to reopen. But most storeowners spent the day cleaning the damages caused by more than a foot of water in some parts of city, said Ralph Frazee of the Jay County Emergency Management Agency.
Frazee said he and his crew are beginning to fill sandbags to get citizens geared up for the predicted weekend rain.
"We're just making announcements and trying to get prepared to make sure we got enough sandbags if we need them," Frazee said.
Emily Norcross, a spokeswoman for the Indiana State Department of Homeland Security, said the agency is accepting wind and flood damage reports, ranging from uninsured structural damage to homes and personal property damage.
The agency will gather all the reports of damage and determine if they are eligible for any individual-based assistance from the federal government.
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