Residents of low-lying towns stacked sandbags or grabbed belongings and evacuated Wednesday as a foot of rain pushed rivers and creeks out of their banks in the nation's midsection.
Ten deaths had been linked to the weather and four people were missing. Record and near-record flood crests were forecast at several towns in Missouri. Widespread flooding was reported in parts of Arkansas, southern Indiana and southwestern Ohio, and schools were closed in parts of western Kentucky because of flooded roads.
"We've got water rising everywhere," said Jeff Korb, president of the Vanderbugh County, Ind., commissioners.
The National Weather Service (web|news) posted flood and flash flood warnings from Texas to Pennsylvania.
After two days, rain had finally stopped falling by Wednesday afternoon in much of Missouri and Arkansas as the weather system crawled toward the northeast, drenching the Ohio Valley and spreading snow over parts of northern New England. A parallel band of locally heavy rain stretched from Alabama and Georgia to the mid-Atlantic states. Atlanta police closed some downtown streets in case the stormy weather knocked down more broken and debris from buildings damaged by Friday's tornado.
In Ohio and other areas, the rain fell on ground already saturated from heavy snowfall less than two weeks ago.
A foot of rain had fallen at Mountain Home, Ark., and at Cape Girardeau, Mo., and Evansville, Ind., had measured 6.2 inches, the weather service said.
Four deaths were linked to the flooding in Missouri, five people were killed in a highway wreck in heavy rain in Kentucky and a 65-year-old Ohio woman apparently drowned after checking on a sump pump in her home.
Searches were under way in Texas for a teenager washed down a drainage pipe and for one man in Missouri, and two people were missing in Arkansas after their vehicles were swept away by rushing water.
The man missing in Missouri was swept away by rushing water. "He was going down the creek screaming and hollering," Lawrence County emergency management chief Mike Rowe said.
An estimated 300 houses and businesses were flooded in Piedmont, a town of 2,000 residents on McKenzie Creek. Dozens of people were rescued by boat.
Outside St. Louis, the Meramec River was threatening towns like Eureka and Valley Park, where Chandra Webster's kids ran bags of toys and clothes to the car while she moved boxes of belongings to the second floor and her husband moved furniture out of harm's way.
"It's a lot of work, but it's worth it to save your stuff," Webster, 34, said Wednesday. "In '82 we lost everything when I was a little girl. I don't want to put my kids through that."
The Meramec hit a record 39.7 feet that year; flood stage is only 16 feet. A levee completed just three years ago is designed to hold a flood of 43 feet, three feet above the crest forecast for later this week.
Valley Park alderman Steve Drake helped fill sandbags with other volunteers.
"We've got everybody working together," Drake said. "It's going to be interesting."
The James River was approaching record levels of more than 33 feet above normal at the small Ozarks hilltop town of Galena west of Branson, flooding a commercial strip and homes near the town, Stone County emergency management chief Tom Martin said.
Widespread flooding in Arkansas had washed out some highways and led to evacuations in some areas, said Tommy Jackson, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management. The Highway and Transportation Department reported state roads blocked in 16 counties.
Residents of South Lebanon, Ohio - a town of about 2,800 people - were urged to get out as the Little Miami River was expected to crest at 28 feet, 11 feet above flood stage and the third highest on record, said Frank Young, emergency management director in Warren County.
"That would put half of South Lebanon under water," Young said.
Key roads were closed in the Cincinnati area, where water 4 feet deep was reported in businesses in the suburb of Sharonville, police said.
Ohio rescue workers were busy helping people out of cars swamped by the flooding.
"The biggest problem has been people driving into floodwater," Young said. "There are a lot of stupid people. When that sign says 'Road closed, high water,' that's what it means."
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Associated Press writers Terry Kinney in Cincinnati; Paul Weber in Dallas; Chuck Bartels in Little Rock, Ark.; Marcus Kabel in Springfield; Jim Salter, Cheryl Wittenauer and Christopher Leonard in St. Louis; and Chris Blank in Jefferson City contributed to this report.
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