Six Dead as Record Floods Ravage Indiana
Indiana officials confirmed on August 16 that six people had died as historic rains produced record flooding along the White River, with water levels peaking in Indianapolis and rescue crews continuing boat evacuations. The flooding was preceded by a series of severe storms that began on August 11, when a powerful derecho originating in eastern Iowa swept through Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, knocking out electricity for up to a million customers and causing at least one death, according to the Des Moines Register.
Earlier alerts from the FOX Weather center and the Weather Prediction Center had issued tornado warnings and flash-flood alerts across the Midwest, leaving hundreds of thousands without power, as reported by AP News. The storms persisted for six days, prompting Governor Mike Braun to declare a statewide disaster emergency and later request a federal FEMA declaration, per reports from Yahoo and NPR.
