Deadly storm leaves Indiana wet, weary, in the dark

MUNSTER - It took a second day of rising floodwaters to force 87-year-old Sophie Stepniewski from her home of 41 years.

She decided to take a canoe ride two blocks to dry land after water had filled her basement and started seeping into the first floor Monday, a day after flooding began forcing hundreds of people from their northwestern Indiana homes.

"They said today would be better but it's worse," Stepniewski said as she got out of the canoe. "I've never seen a moment such as this."

Thousands of people faced long cleanups of their homes in Munster and neighboring communities Monday after remnants of Hurricane Ike dumped 8 inches or more of rain on parts of the state and caused seven deaths.

Downed power lines left more than 100,000 homes and businesses without electricity in central and southern Indiana, and utility officials said it could be Saturday before all power was restored. Flooding kept a busy stretch of Interstate 80/94 in the state's northwestern corner closed Monday.

The flooding from the Little Calumet River forced hundreds of people from their homes in Munster. Some of the 60 people who spent the night at a shelter set up in Munster High School said Monday that the water rose quickly.

"The water was nothing but a trickle in the middle of the street and by the time we decided what to do it was too late," said George Polvich, one of the Munster residents rescued by boat. "There was, like, three feet of water."

The sun came out Monday, but the floodwaters were slow to recede.

Tommy and Nancy Reffkin walked waist deep in water to see how their home was doing.

"We have six inches before it's going to hit the main floor," she said. "I'm going to be positive. You have to be positive. The weather is on our side now."

Gov. Mitch Daniels planned to visit Munster and Chesterton on Tuesday morning to assess flood damage.

Crews were working Monday to pump the water from I-80/94 - a major route into the Chicago area - but did not know when the highway would reopen, said Joshua Bingham, a spokesman for the Indiana Department of Transportation. Northbound I-65 also was closed between U.S. 30 and I-80/94.

Scattered flooding also was reported in communities including East Chicago, Gary and Schererville. Many schools were closed, as were the campuses of Indiana University Northwest in Gary and Purdue University Calumet in Hammond.

In other parts of the state, the problems stemmed from winds of 60 mph or more that knocked down trees and power lines.

Duke Energy, the state's largest electric utility, reported more than 300,000 homes and businesses lost power in central and southern Indiana during the storm, one of its largest outages ever, spokeswoman Angeline Protogere said.

Widespread outages continued Monday in the areas of Clarksville, Bloomington, Seymour and Madison, where officials at nearby Hanover College canceled classes and activities for the week.

Protogere said restoring power could take days because of the large number of individual cases of trouble.

Five of Sunday's deaths occurred in southern Indiana. A woman died when a tree fell on her and two children in Crawford County. In neighboring Perry County, a man was killed when he was struck by a tree branch he was trying to remove so it would not hit his grandmother's home, authorities said. Two people in Clark County near Louisville, Ky., and one person in Ohio County also died when hit by falling trees or limbs.

The other two deaths were in Chesterton, about 35 miles southeast of Chicago. A teacher and his 74-year-old father died while trying to rescue a 10-year-old boy from a flooded ditch, state conservation officers said.

For some residents in the Lake County town of Griffith, still recovering from an Aug. 4 tornado, the flooding was an especially painful blow.

Griffith council President Rick Ryfa said several families whose homes were struck by the tornado had been living in a hotel that was evacuated on short notice because of flooding. One woman left behind clothing for her and her children and was forced again to find clothes for her children, he said.

"She was just devastated," Ryfa said. "It's a very trying thing for people."