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OSAWATOMIE, Kan.-Flooding worsened Sunday across parts of Kansas and Missouri, forcing more people from their homes, and meteorologists said it could be days before rivers return to normal following days of drenching rainfall on the Plains.The Kansas National Guard was sent to help with a mandatory evacuation of Osawatomie, a town of 4,600, as the Pottawatomie Creek surged through a broken levee and workers struggled to reinforce a levee on the Marais des Cygne."They came and told us to leave at 6:30 this morning," said Shanda Dehay, 17. "We weren't able to get anything out. These clothes I'm wearing are my aunt's."Despite the order, residents in rowboats surveyed the damage, which included homes that were half underwater and nearly submerged vehicles.The river was expected to reach 49 feet late Sunday, just shy of the record level of 50.3 feet, said Maren Stoflet, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Pleasant Hill."It's going to be a few days before we get some of the higher rivers to come down," Stoflet said, adding that the Marais des Cygne at La Cygne and Osawatomie might not begin receding until late Wednesday or early Thursday.Storms across the southern Plains have claimed 11 lives in Texas since more than a week ago, and two Texans were missing. That state has gotten some of the worst of the lingering storm system, with the weather service measuring more than 11 inches of rain in June at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, about a half-inch shy of the 1928 record. The town of Marble Falls collected about 18 inches in one night last week.Kansas officials also were preparing for additional flooding at Independence and Coffeyville along the Verdigris River, which already had reached record levels, as the Army Corps of Engineers planned to open floodgates at the Elk City and Fall River Toronto Lake reservoirs upstream.The Verdigris River at Independence rose to a record 52.4 feet Sunday morning, shattering the old mark of 47.6 feet and more than 20 feet above flood stage.The Neosho River was expected to set a record late Sunday, cresting at 40.5 feet at Erie in Neosho County, where officials had already evacuated residents. Flood stage is 29 feet."It's pretty unbelievable," said Robb Lawson, a weather service meteorologist in Wichita.In Missouri, the Little Osage and Marmeton rivers were well above flood stage and still rising in some spots Sunday, said Jim Taggart, a weather service hydrologist in Springfield...To read more go to:
As in the days of Noah...
