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Hundreds of Ohioans flee rising floodwaters

A woman and a child look out at floodwaters approaching their door Wednesday in Findlay, Ohio. Flooding remained a problem in parts of northern Ohio, keeping streets closed and schools shut.Associated Press (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
John Seewer Associated Press
A woman and a child look out at floodwaters approaching their door Wednesday in Findlay, Ohio. Flooding remained a problem in parts of northern Ohio, keeping streets closed and schools shut.Associated Press (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

FINDLAY, Ohio – Firefighters and a volunteer armada navigated boats through streets awash in waist-deep water Wednesday, plucking neighbors and pets from porches as flooding that has swamped the Upper Midwest and Plains settled in Ohio.

The water forced at least 500 people to flee their homes in several northern Ohio towns. Rising water forced authorities to move about 130 inmates at the county jail in Findlay to a regional prison.

Many neighborhood rescuers showed up with canoes and kayaks wanting to help during Findlay’s worst flooding in nearly 100 years. Three men in a fishing boat ferried a mother and her 2-week-old daughter along with the family dogs.

“That was the catch of the day,” said Angel Sanchez, the baby’s neighbor.

Milk jugs, garbage bags and soda cans floated in the murky water. Tom Woods took his 8-foot fishing boat to help float out friends stranded in the neighborhood.

“Once we got here, everybody asked us to rescue more people,” he said.

The Blanchard River was 7 feet above flood stage Wednesday at Findlay, the highest since a 1913 flood, and could rise another half-foot or more, the National Weather Service said.

In Bucyrus, 40 miles to the southeast, nearly 9 inches of rain had fallen since Monday and at least 200 people were still out of their homes.

Gov. Ted Strickland declared states of emergency in nine counties in northwest and north-central Ohio.

The death toll from two storm systems – one that has spanned the Upper Midwest and another from remnants of Tropical Storm Erin in Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri – reached 22 on Tuesday when searchers found the body of a man tangled in a tree near Lewiston, Minn.

Flooding also continued in northern Iowa as thunderstorms dumped more heavy rain across the already water-logged region Wednesday. Three subdivisions along the Des Moines River near Fort Dodge were evacuated, and crews used rocks and sandbags to shore up a levee that had begun to give way.

Thousands of homes were damaged in Wisconsin and Minnesota as the storm swept through.