Wednesday, December 15, 2021
Record August rains have killed at least seven people across east central Indiana, and rivers are still cresting as the flood threat spreads into the Ohio Valley.
Catastrophic rain has turned east central Indiana into a disaster zone, and the flooding is now pushing into the wider Ohio Valley. The worst began on August 11, when a stalled storm system dropped more than 11 inches of rain in two days across Henry, Randolph, and Delaware counties and sent creeks and rivers over their banks. At least seven people have died across Indiana as of August 17, a toll state officials warned could climb as crews reach areas the water had cut off.
Indiana has asked the federal government for a Major Disaster Declaration, and state emergency managers, the National Weather Service, and local rescue crews have spent days pulling stranded residents from homes and vehicles. New Castle saw some of the heaviest rainfall in the state, and mobile home parks there were among the first neighborhoods ordered to evacuate. Many rivers across central Indiana are still rising, and forecasters expect several to crest days after the rain stopped, with the threat moving downstream into Ohio.
Flooding is the deadliest weather most households will ever face, and it rises faster than people expect. Six inches of moving water can knock an adult off their feet, and a foot of it can float a car, which is why a covered road always means turn around rather than drive through. The habits that matter are set long before the water comes up, and flood readiness starts with knowing whether you sit on a floodplain and where your high ground is. It helps to know as well whether you live in one of the cities most at risk of floods.
Once water is in the street, surviving a flood comes down to a few fast decisions: move what you can to a higher floor, cut the power to rooms that may take on water, and set drinking water aside before the tap is compromised. Keeping clean water on hand is the simplest reserve to build ahead of a flood rather than during one. If you live downstream of this system, keep a way to receive warnings that does not depend on the grid staying up, and decide your leave early trigger before the next round of storms arrives.
