Where's Bush When You Need Him?

Once again Americans are suffering a disaster and asking the
question...."Where's Bush?'

Makes you wonder what would have happened if Hurricane Dean at F5
would have hit the United States?

TMT


Hundreds displaced by Midwest flooding By JOHN SEEWER, Associated
Press Writer

Firefighters and a volunteer armada navigated boats through streets
awash in waist-deep water Wednesday, plucking neighbors and pets from
porches as flooding that has swamped the Upper Midwest and Plains
settled in Ohio.

The water forced at least 500 people to flee their homes in several
northern Ohio towns. Rising water forced authorities to move about 130
inmates at the county jail in Findlay to a regional prison.

Many neighborhood rescuers showed up with canoes and kayaks wanting to
help during Findlay's worst flooding in nearly 100 years. Three men in
a fishing boat ferried a mother and her 2-week-old daughter along with
the family dogs.

"That was the catch of the day," said Angel Sanchez, the baby's
neighbor.

Milk jugs, garbage bags and soda cans floated in the murky water. Tom
Woods took his 8-foot fishing boat to help float out friends stranded
in the neighborhood.

"Once we got here, everybody asked us to rescue more people," he said.

The Blanchard River was 7 feet above flood stage Wednesday at Findlay,
the highest since a 1913 flood, and could rise another half-foot or
more, the National Weather Service said.

The rain subsided by mid-afternoon, and the National Weather Service
issued a heat advisory for much of the state, with temperatures
expected to hit the upper 90s.

In Bucyrus, 40 miles to the southeast, nearly 9 inches of rain had
fallen since Monday and at least 200 people were still out of their
homes, the Crawford County Department of Emergency Management said.

"Reality is starting to set in about just how much damage there is in
some of the flooded areas," said Tim Flock, director of the agency.

Gov. Ted Strickland declared states of emergency in nine counties in
northwest and north-central Ohio, including Crawford County and
Findlay's Han*** County.

The death toll from two storm systems - one that has spanned the Upper
Midwest and another from remnants of Tropical Storm Erin in Texas,
Oklahoma and Missouri - reached at least 22 on Tuesday when searchers
found the body of a man tangled in a tree near Lewiston, Minn.

Flooding also continued in northern Iowa as thunderstorms dumped more
heavy rain across the already water-logged region Wednesday. Three
subdivisions along the Des Moines River near Fort Dodge were
evacuated, and crews used rocks and sandbags to shore up a levee that
had begun to give way, officials said.

The river crested at 14 feet, four feet above flood stage, and began a
slow fall by midafternoon to 13.2 feet, said Penny Clayton, a
spokeswoman for the city. She warned of additional rain, though.

A care center was evacuated in Humboldt, Iowa, as water poured into
the basement, but no one was hurt.

Thousands of homes were damaged in Wisconsin and Minnesota as the
storm swept through. A preliminary survey by the American Red Cross in
Minnesota identified about 4,200 affected homes, including 256
complete losses, 338 with major damage and 475 that are still
inaccessible, said Kris Eide, the state's director of homeland
security and emergency management.

Preliminary damage reports in Wisconsin indicate 30 homes and 25
businesses were destroyed. Another 731 homes and 32 businesses were
damaged.

In addition to the confirmed flood-related deaths, a man drowned
Sunday in his mother's flooded basement in Iowa after being overcome
by carbon monoxide, the state medical examiner's office said.

And in Madison, Wis., a woman and her child waiting at a bus stop at a
flooded intersection were electrocuted when lightning hit a utility
pole, causing a power line to fall in the water, authorities said. A
bus passenger who tried to help them was also electrocuted, they
said.

In Oklahoma, which recorded a gust of 82 mph and 11 inches of rain,
some 300 homes and businesses were damaged in the Kingfisher area and
in Caddo County in southwestern Oklahoma, officials said. According to
the Oklahoma Climatological Survey, 2007 is so far the fourth-wettest
on record in the state, with an average rainfall total of 31.96
inches, 8.42 inches above normal.

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