MUNSTER, IND. — A father and son drowned in northwest Indiana while trying to rescue children from a flooded ditch as heavy rains from the remnants of Hurricane Ike forced hundreds of evacuations across the Midwest today.
The two men were killed while helping kids escape a ditch in Chesterton, about 35 miles southeast of Chicago, Fire Chief Warren Highwood said. None of the children were injured. One death was also reported in Arkansas, where a 29-year-old man was killed when a tree fell on a mobile home as he was preparing to leave, authorities said.
The remnants of Ike dumped as much as 6 to 8 inches of rain in parts of Indiana, Illinois and Missouri, spawned a tornado Arkansas that damaged several buildings, and delivered hurricane-force winds to Ohio, forcing Cincinnati’s main airport to temporarily shut down.
Dozens of residents were rescued by boat down streets with thigh-high water in Chicago and flooding in Missouri closed the street in front of St. Louis’ famed Gateway Arch.
In the northwest Indiana town of Munster, 700 homes were evacuated because of flooding. Munster Town Manager Tom DeGuilio said it would likely be several days before they could return home.
Across the state line, Saturday’s rainfall of 6.64 inches at O’Hare International Airport set a record for a single calendar day. The previous record was 6.49 inches, recorded on Aug. 14, 1987. Climate records for Chicago date from 1871.
Several Chicago area rivers, including the Des Plaines, Fox, Kankakee and Little Calumet, were at or above flood stage Sunday, threatening homes, businesses and schools, the National Weather Service said.
In Missouri, winds as high as 60 mph and torrential rains of up to 7 inches raised new concerns about swelling rivers. Major flooding was expected along the Mississippi from Ste. Genevieve to Cape Girardeau by late this week, the National Weather Service said.
In Arkansas, storms bands knocked out power to more than 200,000 customers and brewed a tornado in the central region of the state, the National Weather Service said.
The twister damaged the roof of an apartment building, destroyed a self-storage unit, tore up metal buildings, knocked down business signs and took down a number of utility poles, the weather service said.
Strong winds prompted the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport to evacuate it’s control tower and cancel about 40 flights before resuming air traffic, airport spokesman Ted Bushelman said.
Strong gusts ripped off part of the roof from a Delta Airlines hangar and damaged another airport building, Bushelman said. He said winds were up to 74 mph.
In Middletown, gusts knocked down a tree, which landed on a nearby house and suspended a truck in mid-air.
“The tree is leaning on our neighbor’s house, and then the root lifted up the back end of my husband’s truck. It’s about 8 feet in the air,” resident Barbara Ray said. “We’ve been out here for 17 years and we’ve never had winds like this.” In Cincinnati, Findlay Market — the state’s oldest public marketplace — and several adjacent buildings caught on fire. More than 542,000 Duke Energy customers were without electricity in southwest Ohio and northern Kentucky, officials said Sunday.
Warren County emergency officials said their 911 center was shut down, likely due to wind damage.
