Floodwaters submerge Midwest neighborhoods bracing for more severe storms

▶ Watch Video: Dozens need rescuing in Indiana as streets turn to rivers amid flooding emergency

Flooding submerged Indiana neighborhoods in water for the second day in a row, as parts of the state saw Wednesday the highest daily rainfall totals ever recorded in their areas.

Some braced for more severe weather still ahead, as meteorologists warned Thursday that Indianapolis faced the greatest threats of storms slated to bring heavy rain to the Midwest throughout the rest of the week. 

Upwards of 36 million people were under flood alerts Thursday across the region, according to the National Weather Service. Its forecast offices in Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Tennessee warned that rainfall across each state could be persistent and widespread, potentially drenching parts of each state with another 4 inches or more. 

The expected round of rainfall could bring strong winds, large hail, and additional flash flooding to communities recovering from extreme weather that has already wreaked havoc in recent days. 

Since Monday, 277 flash flooding incidents have been reported across the Ohio Valley, according to CBS News meteorologist Nikki Nolan, as deadly storms and tornadoes slammed the region. Since Tuesday, leaders in the region have declared seven different flash flood emergencies. On Thursday, Indiana Gov. Mike Braun declared a disaster emergency as 250,000 people in his state and Illinois woke to power outages caused by the storms.

“Our state response is fully mobilized, resources are moving where they’re needed, and we will continue working around the clock to support every impacted community,” Braun said in a statement.

At least three deaths have been confirmed in connection with the severe weather, including two in Ohio and one in Indiana, officials said. All three happened on Tuesday.

“The rain never stopped”

In Anderson, Indiana, located northeast of Indianapolis, the White River burst its banks, forcing 70-year-old Charlie Simmons to wade through chest-deep water. He had finished renovating his home two months ago. But it was completely flooded this week.

“Financial-wise, I’m cooked,” Simmons told CBS News Thursday. “Start again, 70 years old, start over, what are you going to do.”

Tony Smith of Anderson also lost his house and his business.

“We are totally devastated,” Smith said. “We’ve had five feet plus of water in all of our homes here.”

The East Madison Fire Territory, a fire agency in Madison County, Indiana, which includes Anderson, wrote on social media that it had responded to “historic levels of flooding and so many calls to help people out of harm’s way.”

The department said that more rain was possible Thursday night, warning residents who “live near rising water” to “make a plan and be ready to evacuate while you can still get out of your neighborhood.”  

Many people had to be rescued by boat in Cambridge City, Indiana, after catastrophic floods on Wednesday left them stranded. Water filled city streets, rising several feet in the hardest-hit places and seeping into, at best, the ground floors of local homes. Some residents faced harsher conditions, with the deluge completely covering the roofs of their cars or crashing into their homes through doors and windows. 

One man desperately clung to a light pole in Cambridge City as muddy, brown water swirled around him, before he was eventually rescued. Another, Christian Corder, of nearby New Castle, Indiana, evacuated his home after it flooded and told “CBS Mornings” that dealing with the aftermath has been “very overwhelming.”

“A lot of stuff is ruined,” Corder said, recalling how “the rain never stopped — it just kept coming and coming.”

New Castle received more than 11 inches of rain in just over a day. Such a high rainfall rate is extremely rare, with only a 1 in 1,000, or 0.1%, chance of it happening in any given year. 

CBS News’ Meg Oliver said she encountered several washed-out roads and detours along a five-hour drive across Indiana on Wednesday that was supposed to take three. Even the region’s major interstate highway, I-70, was partly shut down after a section of it buckled under the weight of pounding rain.

Cambridge City streets remained submerged in water Thursday or were otherwise caked in mud, said Oliver. 

And the destruction hasn’t been limited to Indiana: Wednesday’s flash flooding swept as far south as Knoxville, Tennessee, where fire trucks blocked off waterlogged streets. It came on the heels of an initial bout of severe weather that blasted parts of Ohio a day earlier. That storm left a trail of damage described as “historic” by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.

Denise Spears, a spokesperson for Franklin County, located on the eastern border of Indiana, just west of Cincinnati, Ohio, told CBS News that first responders conducted 45 water rescues on Thursday.

Spears said no injuries were reported. She noted it was too early to determine the number of homes damaged or destroyed by flooding. 

Flooding risks still ahead

Forecasters warned the worst may not yet be over for some Midwesterners, as rivers continued to swell Thursday in states previously struck by this week’s floods. Rising water levels could challenge records in some areas, potentially reaching levels not seen in more than a century. 

In addition to Indianapolis, the oncoming storms could impact multiple metropolitan centers, including Des Moines, Louisville and Nashville, where most flood warnings and watches weren’t scheduled to lift before Friday. 

“Excessive runoff may result in flooding of creeks, streams, and other low lying and flood prone locations,” said the weather service office in Jackson, Kentucky, on Thursday, in an alert issued for a vast portion of the state. 

Although forecasters have said Illinois would likely be spared from the strongest and most destructive storms, a flood watch for the Chicago area was set to take effect Thursday evening and last until Friday morning, CBS Chicago reported.