Six dead as record flooding hits Indiana after days of storms

At least six people died in Indiana after several days of severe storms produced record flooding, damaged roads and bridges and forced hundreds of evacuations, state officials said on Sunday, August 16.

The deaths recorded since the storms began on August 11 included a four-year-old boy killed when a tree fell through his bedroom in Jennings County. Authorities also recovered the bodies of a 19-year-old man from the Mississinewa River and a 58-year-old woman from a cornfield near a vehicle believed to have been swept from a flooded road.

The White River peaked early Sunday in Indianapolis, where emergency shelters remained open and residents had been evacuated from hundreds of homes near the river and canals. First responders used boats to reach people stranded by rising water.

State officials reported more than 350 evacuations as well as numerous rescues and welfare checks. Nearly 130,000 electricity customers were still without service around midday Sunday, down from a peak of about 300,000.

River gauges at Anderson and Noblesville recorded crests above 24 feet, surpassing marks set in 1913. Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett described the flooding as the city’s worst in more than three decades. Federal disaster assistance was approved on Saturday, while weather officials continued to warn residents to avoid fast-moving floodwater as recovery work began.