YELLVILLE, Ark. (AP) — Flash flooding in Arkansas led to evacuations and water rescues Wednesday after a new wave of severe storms that have pummeled a vast swath of the U.S. and Canada, officials said. High winds, tornadoes and flooding have caused damage or deaths this week from the Plains to New England amid baking heat.
As much as 11 inches (nearly 28 centimeters) of rain fell overnight into Wednesday on parts of Marion County, Arkansas, in the Ozark Mountains, the National Weather Service said.
“Numerous bridges across the area are washed out with water rescues that are taking place,” the weather service said. “Evacuations are taking place as significant rising water is inside of homes and businesses.”
A nursing home was evacuated in Yellville, the county seat, said Lacey Kanipe, a spokesperson for the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management. Kanipe didn’t know how many people were involved. There was also a swift-water rescue involving a recreational vehicle in neighboring Baxter County.
There have been “impacts to infrastructure” in the area, said Kanipe, who didn’t have details. There were no immediate reports of injuries from the flooding.
Storms toppled trees and damaged homes Tuesday in New Hampshire. They also caused damage in upstate New York, where cities declared states of emergency. Around Toronto, flooding temporarily closed several major roads, the Canadian Press reported Wednesday.
About 200,000 homes and businesses lacked power Wednesday in northeastern states, according to PowerOutage.us. The East Coast from Maine to the Carolinas was warned of weather that could make it feel hotter than 100 degrees (37.8 Celsius) in some places.
Storms ravaged historic buildings in Rome, New York. Steeples crumbled and roofs were torn apart at First Presbyterian Church and St. Mary’s Church, both built in the 1800s. St. Mary’s is not an active church and is privately owned.
“These are beautiful old churches. It breaks my heart,” Rome resident Barb Mulvey said on Facebook.
A Rome landmark, a mural of a Revolutionary War figure on horseback, was destroyed, along with the building on which it was painted. All that remained was an image of a horse hoof.
Storm debris hit and killed an 82-year-old man who was outdoors in Canastota in central New York, village administrator Jeremy Ryan said.
Trees fell on houses and cars in Keene, New Hampshire, forcing some residents to evacuate.
This week’s severe weather struck the Chicago area especially hard. The weather service said it confirmed 17 tornadoes hit northern Illinois and northwestern Indiana, including 11 during a single stretch of extraordinary storms Monday night.
Utilities continued to restore power in the Midwest, where more than 100,000 homes and businesses in Illinois and Indiana still didn’t have electricity, according to PowerOutage.us.
An older couple died when their car became submerged Tuesday in a creek during a flash flood near Elsah, Illinois, north of St. Louis. An 88-year-old woman was found dead in the vehicle. Hours later, the body of an 88-year-old man was found near the creek bank, the Jersey County sheriff’s office said.
The sheriff’s office credited an emergency dispatcher with helping to save a 70-year-old man who was in another vehicle. The dispatcher directed the man to climb through his sunroof as water rose.
In Rockford, Illinois, a 76-year-old man who was a passenger in a pickup truck drowned when the vehicle became trapped in a creek during a storm Sunday, authorities said. The driver survived.
A 44-year-old woman died in Cedar Lake, Indiana, in the southern fringes of the Chicago area, after a tree fell on her house late Monday, the Lake County coroner’s office said.
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