Mom stuck on roof as kids drown in car

[Schuyler Colfax]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/weather/01/0 ... index.html

REMINGTON, Indiana (AP) -- Rescuers used a front-end loader to pluck a woman and three children from the roof of a sport utility vehicle that strayed into floodwaters on a rural road. But they were unable to reach her other two young children trapped inside the SUV.


Floodwaters overflow the banks of the Tippecanoe River on Tuesday south of Monticello, Indiana.

1 of 2 The drowned children in Indiana were among four people killed nationwide Tuesday, the second day of severe weather fueled by unseasonable temperatures. Tornadoes also blew through several states Monday and Tuesday.

On Wednesday, as remnants of the storm system moved eastward, thunderstorms knocked out electricity to nearly 40,000 customers in western New York, downing trees and power lines from Lake Erie to the Finger Lakes.

Gusts of up to 75 mph were reported in Rochester, New York, the National Weather Service said.

Flood warnings remained in effect Wednesday in parts of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Missouri, the weather service said.

A tornado that hit Appleton, Arkansas, on Tuesday rolled a double-wide mobile home off its cinder block supports, killing a man and injuring his wife. The trailer appeared to have rolled for 50 yards before smashing against a stand of trees in the rural area, about 60 miles northwest of Little Rock. Watch devastation from Tuesday tornadoes »

"The tornado hit and ... it looked like his house pretty much exploded," Pope County Sheriff Jay Winters said. "It was taken completely off the blocks and just tore to pieces. They were both in the wreckage."

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Kirk Killins, his girlfriend, and his father were heading toward his parents' house and storm cellar when his truck was stalled against the tornado's winds.

"I had it floored and it wasn't doing nothing. I looked to my right and the hay barn and shop just disappeared," Killins said.

"I don't know how we kept from getting killed," he said. "When the truck started spinning and I saw tin flying by, I thought this was it."

Killins said the tornado picked up one of his family's cows. The cow survived, even though the storm "probably carried her about three-quarters of a mile," he said.

The weather service declared tornado watches or warnings Tuesday in states including Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky. Several tornadoes were confirmed or reported Monday in Wisconsin, Arkansas, Illinois, Oklahoma and Missouri, where two people were killed.

In northern Indiana, Megihann Leininger's SUV stalled Tuesday on a flooded road near Rochester, about 45 miles south of South Bend, before floating into deeper water, the Fulton County Sheriff's Department said.

The first officer on the scene could see nothing except its roof rack, Mentone Fire Chief Mike Yazel said. He said Leininger, 29, was able to come to the surface and put three of her children on the roof: Mariah Leininger, 4, Michael McDaniel, 1, and Canari Trigg, 3 months.

It took several minutes for crews to rescue the four, but there was nothing they could do for Shay Leininger, 5, and Ashley Pruitt, 2, who were trapped underwater.

"The water was too deep, too cold, too fast," Yazel said. Their mother "had to sit there on the roof, knowing that would be the worst part of the story," he said. Watch I-Reporter's video of streets flowing with water »

To the southwest in Jasper County, Ronnie D. Napier, 56, drowned in Remington when his truck was swept into Carpenter Creek floodwaters, said Shawn Brown, a conservation officer with the Department of Natural Resources. His body was later recovered.

As many as 150 people evacuated areas around Remington, where water reached waist-high in some places, said Karen Wilson, Jasper County's emergency management director.

In nearby White County, boats were called to help move out hundreds of people in Monticello, Blue Water Beach and Diamond Point, county emergency management director Gordon Cochran said.

Jasper, White, Carroll and Benton counties declared states of emergency. The weather service reported near-record flooding at the Norway and Oakdale dams just north of Monticello, a city of 5,700 people about 90 miles northwest of Indianapolis. Officials ordered mandatory evacuations south of the Norway dam Tuesday night.

The Indiana Department of Transportation said several highways would be closed until floodwaters recede. The southbound lanes of Interstate 65 in Jasper County were reopened overnight, but U.S. 24 remained closed for more than 20 miles between Reynolds and Interstate 65 while crews inspected a bridge.

Flood warnings were in effect along the Wabash and Tippecanoe rivers, and the American Red Cross set up shelters in Lafayette and Delphi.

The thunderstorms that dumped between 3 and 6 inches of rain on Indiana were accompanied by record warmth across much of the eastern half of the nation. Boston reached 67 degrees, Atlantic City, New Jersey, hit 68 and Syracuse, New York, reached 70 -- tying a record for the month of January.

The warmth melted Indiana's snow pack, which combined with heavy rain, triggered the flooding, said Phil Gray, a weather service spokesman in Indianapolis. He said some flooded counties had as much as 10 inches of snow on the ground.


Rain continued falling into the night, leading to flood warnings in other areas, including Randolph County, where meteorologist Sally Pavlow said residents were sandbagging an area about two miles south of Winchester.

"It's just been raining so hard for so long," she said.

No comment for now.

[LadyTevar]

That poor woman.. she's probably out of her mind with guilt now, although she rescued 3 of the 5.

[Darth Wong]

How do you "stray into floodwaters"?

[The Spartan]

How do you "stray into floodwaters"?

By thinking that a big powerful truck can just shrug them off as if they were nothing.

It happens every year. Someone thinks that they can make it and their vehicle gets swept up, either because they misjudged the depth or because the water is just that powerful. It's not like it takes much flowing water to move a truck.

I didn't see them mention flash flooding in the article but they do seem to imply that the conditions for them were present, so it is possible that the waters hit her vehicle without giving her a chance to avoid them. But I'd really put my money on her thinking something along the lines of, "I know this road and the water isn't that deep so I can make it home if I just drive the right way".

[Broomstick]

It was a flash flood, Mike.

My area of the state was impacted much less, and we had rising water within a couple meters of our home, the road was completely submerged, and if the water had kept rising we would have had no choice but to run up to the second floor and hope the building foundation would hold because the water around our "island" would have been way too deep to drive through. Not to mention we had actual whitecaps in the "river" going down that street. Set foot in it, I'm pretty sure you'd be swept away. We still had some streets closed/underwater yesterday, and road crews were repairing where roads had been undermined/collapsed by running waters.

That region of Indiana mentioned in the article (Fulton County) had rain pouring down at a rate of over 15 cm per hour, for several hours. Some areas it might have been as much as 25 cm/hour for awhile, but the measuring equipment is apparently not entirely reliable at that rate. It was hugely greater than normal for around here.

Basically, there was a lot of water. The land around here is some of the flattest on Earth. The rivers have very shallow channels, and overflow easily. Combine that with a meter or more of snowfall that melted in the rain, adding even MORE water to the mix. We do get small-scale flash floods regularly, but this was on a far greater scale, and happening much faster than people are accustomed to dealing with. In the past, I have been in situations where I'm driving down the road in a low spot, see water creep over the shoulder, gun the engine, and the water on the back tires is hubcap deep by the time the front end of the vehicle clears the danger zone. By all accounts, the water rose much faster than even this during the storm. Also keep in mind that we have no abrupt dips or rises - a "low spot" may extend for a kilometer or more, greatly complicating the task of getting clear. It's not a matter of driving into a gully, some rather extensive parts of Indiana are prone to flooding and flooding very fast.

(Some roads around here, in fact, are built on causeways and viaducts for precisely that reason. But those were engineered for what have been normal conditions for the past 50-100 years, not the sort of storm we just had)

I don't think this was a matter of the woman being an idiot - I think the woman was in the wrong place at the wrong time and just didn't react fast enough to get all her kids onto the roof. I feel absolutely horrible for her, I can't imagine how horrific it would be to be standing nearby and unable to save two of your children from death.

[Broomstick]

I didn't see them mention flash flooding in the article but they do seem to imply that the conditions for them were present, so it is possible that the waters hit her vehicle without giving her a chance to avoid them. But I'd really put my money on her thinking something along the lines of, "I know this road and the water isn't that deep so I can make it home if I just drive the right way".

As I said, flash flooding.

I won't say we have NO idiots around here, but flooded roads are common enough that most folks around here don't cross a road underwater, not even the folks with Hummers and SUV's. It's not just a matter of water-over-pavement - flood waters can undermine a road and cause it to collapse, making a much deeper hole than you'd expect.

[The Spartan]

As I said, flash flooding.

Well, I stand corrected. It's little comfort under the circumstances, but nonetheless it's good to know I was wrong about this incident.

I won't say we have NO idiots around here, but flooded roads are common enough that most folks around here don't cross a road underwater, not even the folks with Hummers and SUV's. It's not just a matter of water-over-pavement - flood waters can undermine a road and cause it to collapse, making a much deeper hole than you'd expect.

Yeah, the road being swept away combined with the waters flowing quickly and thus being stronger than realized (one or the other, or both) is what typically will get people when they come across this sort of thing. Like I said, it happens every year and I often see it on the news when it does hence my pessimism.

[Broomstick]

Yeah, it was a mess - the building next door to us actually DID flood, about 10 cm deep throughout the bar and kitchen. They were cleaning it up yesterday. Fortunately, the waters drained away pretty quickly. They said something about re-opening today for business.

[Jadeite]

I'm in West Lafayette. The Wabash River's edge is about 20 feet from my apartment right now, but it's not really a problem since it'll need to rise at least four more feet.

[Broomstick]

The Interstates all seem to be open today, but my area has several roads still closed. A few others have standing water, but the local authorities have deemed it safe to drive through.

Still have flash flood warnings for a lot of counties, and the Little Calumet and Kankakee River waters still haven't crested.

[Darth Wong]

It was a flash flood, Mike.

<snip>

Ah, I see. I guess I tend to forget about possibilities like that because I don't live in a flood plain.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Seriously, there is nothing more dramatic than the differences between flooding in the northwest and the midwest. Here, I have learned precisely how you drive through floodwater, and how to judge by looking at terrain to make sure it doesn't come up to the engine--the only way it's dangerous. I've done it in plenty of different cars here, most rather low slung, without any real concern. Flooding is very common here as a seasonal event, but the difference is that the land has extreme elevation differences from the mountains down to the sea, the river channels are deep and broad, and when they spill over into the valleys it almost invariably forms placid lakes that creep forward with the slightest of intensity.

I've never heard of a flash flood here, not even back in November when Bremerton got almost 11 inches of rain ontop of a couple inches of snowfall on the ground melting at the same time. North of here Silverdale got around 15 inches. There was a mudslide which dammed up an underpass under the 3 and turned it into a lake, and there were certainly roads to dangerous to cross because the water was high enough to be spilling over the concrete barriers in the median, but, that was sheer volume, not intensity. A good example of the difference is that when we had that flooding, the stereotypical image was some guy rowing out from his house to dry land where he parked his car using a kayak or a rowboat. You can't do that in a flash flood; the currents are to intense. Here, all the currents are kept to the main river channels and the flooding is more or less in the form of spillover, slow rising and stagnant.

Topography has an incredible influence on the nature of floods and their severity, and what would require someone to be a complete idiot here could just mean that the person was unlucky back in the midwest, where the flooding comes on much, much more intensely.

[Adrian Laguna]

It's this unseasonable weather we're having. In case everyone forgot, it's January. All that water should have fallen down in a crystalline state.

[Jadeite]

It's this unseasonable weather we're having. In case everyone forgot, it's January. All that water should have fallen down in a crystalline state.

In Indiana, it's not all that unusual. This state goes from weather extremes day-to-day sometimes.

[Broomstick]

True. I believe we recently broke a warm-weather record for January at 64F/17C last week. The prior record, at 60F/16C, dated from something like 1917. Extremely warm temps in winter are not unheard of - the frequency is what is unusual. We have many more warm days than we used to, and fewer extremely cold ones.