INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (AP) — Thunderstorms, heavy rain and flash flooding continued to threaten a swath of the U.S. from the Midwest to the mid-Atlantic Monday, extending a deadly stretch of unsettled weather.
The National Weather Service said repeated rounds of heavy rain and thunderstorms would continue for one more day before a cold front sweeps the weather pattern off the East Coast on Tuesday. In the meantime, much of West Virginia, southeast Ohio and northeast Kentucky were under a flood watch through Monday evening, with high water lingering from previous storms increasing the possibility of flash flooding.
Elsewhere, hot weather posed more of a problem, particularly across the South, Southeast and Southwest. The weather service issued extreme heat warnings for portions of Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, Arizona, Nevada and California.
In Indiana, where days of storms and flooding left at least seven people dead, floodwaters receded in Indianapolis’ White River and rains eased in other parts of the state Sunday. But a flood warning remained in effect Monday morning for part of Randolph County in east central Indiana, where thunderstorms had dropped between 1 and 2 inches of rain by 8 a.m., and residents of half a dozen counties were urged to stay off the roads except for essential travel.
“While we have seen encouraging trends, the work is far from over,” said Jacob Spence, director of the Metropolitan Emergency Services Agency in Indianapolis, where city officials on Sunday launched a website to support affected residents.
South of Indianapolis, officials in Madison Township said firefighters and others rescued 10 people from their homes Sunday night. Others had to be rescued from their cars after attempting to drive through flooded roadways.
“This remains an active and potentially dangerous situation,” the fire department said in a social media post. “We cannot stress this enough: DO NOT DRIVE THROUGH FLOOD WATERS.”
A 4-year-old boy, three men and three women were among those who had died since the storms that began Aug. 11, said Liz Woods, a spokesperson for the state Department of Homeland Security.
Also, among the seven victims was a 31-year-old cyclist found dead early Sunday in a hole that opened up on a washed-out road in Henry County, east of Indianapolis. Henry County Coroner Brian Clark said the man, James Briar, appears to have gone around a barricade and fallen into the collapsed road.
Heavy rains hammered Indiana over the past week, causing rivers to crest and setting records as roads and bridges were seriously damaged or washed out entirely by the rushing waters.
More than 106,000 utility customers statewide remained without power as of Monday morning, down from a peak of around 300,000, according to the online utility tracker PowerOutage.us.
The drenching rains and destructive flooding were among the impacts of severe storms that have wreaked havoc across the Midwest and beyond in recent days. Tornadoes, heavy rains and flash flooding brought serious damage to communities from Illinois to western Pennsylvania.
The National Weather Service forecasts heavy rain and thunderstorms across the upper Ohio Valley to the central Appalachians, with the possibility of severe storms late Monday across eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina.
