River on the rise, area roads flooded

Rainfall this week pushed the East Fork of the White River beyond its banks Friday.

 The river was rising from 15.92 feet, nipping the edges of Indiana 258 between Cortland and Seymour. Flood stage

 "They're saying it will be 17 feet by (Saturday) morning," National Weather Service Observer Ruth Everhart said Friday night. That means Indiana 258 will be closed to through traffic.

 Many county roads and some state roads already were under water Friday night.

 Dispatcher Tom Robbins of the Jackson County Sheriff's Department said the Chestnut Ridge Bottoms or County Road 50N between 950E and U.S. 31, County Road 600S between 700E and 950E, County road 700S between Indiana 39 and 325E, County Road 600S south of Indiana 135 and 200W, New Ford Road west of Seymour, Shieldstown Bottoms area and Indiana 235 south of Medora were all reported closed Friday night.

 Others were likely to follow.

 Everhart recorded 1.16 inches of rain at her weather station Friday morning, with another 0.40 inches Thursday morning. That brings this month's rainfall to 6.02 inches. The average is 4.31 inches.

 Carr Township farmer Robert Zollman said Friday heavy rain this spring is causing delays to his planting.  

 "We have some corn up, probably half of what we intend to plant," he said. "But it's going to be quite some time before it's dry enough for us to get back into the fields to plant more. It's going to be two weeks or more. It's going to put us into June planting, and that's pretty risky."

 Zollman said that may cause him to plant more soybeans than he intended.

 Like Everhart, Zollman serves as an observer for the National Weather Service. He's reported 6.56 inches of rain this month.