Thousands evacuated as further floods threaten

MORE than 38,000 residents in 26 Iowa communities were evacuated from their homes yesterday.

Kevin Baskins of the state Emergency Operations Center said most of those — 25,000 — were in Cedar Rapids, and another 5,000 in Iowa City.

Eight people were pulled Sunday from the flooded Des Moines River in Ottumwa after their boat capsized, said police chief Jim Clark.

On Monday, the river was at more than 20 feet — double the flood stage.

Iowa City Mayor Regenia Bailey said 500 to 600 homes were ordered to evacuate and hundreds of others were under a voluntary evacuation order through Monday morning.

Bailey said homeowners will not be allowed back until the city says it is safe.

Two more deaths were reported, bringing Iowa’s death toll from flooding to five. A 35-year-old man apparently drowned in Iowa River floodwaters near Wapello, and a woman was killed near New London when her stopped car was hit by a National Guard bus involved in flood duty.

“It’s likely that we will see major and serious flooding on every part of the southeastern border of our state from New Boston and down,” said Gov Chet

Culver said. “We are taking precautionary steps, we are evacuating where necessary, but that is going to be the next round here.”

The river was expected to begin receding as the threat of new flooding flowed toward south-east Iowa.

“We made it through another day without any major incident and we feel fortunate for that,” said city manager Michael Lombardo.

The Iowa River’s crest arrived early and lower than expected, possibly because of a number of levee breaches downstream that opened the channel, the National Weather Service said.

Hundreds of homes were evacuated near the river on Sunday.

More than a dozen buildings on the University of Iowa campus had taken on water with some buildings having as much as 8 feet of water inside.

More than 400 members of the Illinois Army National Guard were activated to assist with sandbagging in Quincy. About 100 miles up the river in Keithsburg, a community of about 700 residents, water was as much as 5ft deep on Monday morning, said alderman George Askew. Iowa’s south and east prepared for new problems ahead for a string of towns along the Mississippi River.

Sandbagging was under way in Burlington to build the city’s levee system and protect it from the river; 350 people had been evacuated.

Elsewhere, water receded in parts of western Michigan as the state tried to recover from a second straight weekend of severe weather.

President Bush will visit the Midwest on Thursday to inspect flood damage, the White House said.