Ivan rainfall spurs flooding, evacuations

WHEELING, W.Va. -- Hundreds of people evacuated their homes Sunday in parts of Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania as rivers and small streams were swollen beyond their banks by the torrential rain dumped by remnants of Hurricane Ivan.\nThe Ohio River inundated parts of Wheeling and other West Virginia river towns, as well as communities on Ohio's shore, while the Delaware River flooded parts of New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania.\nIn addition to flooding, more than 1.2 million homes and businesses were still without electricity early Sunday from Florida to Pennsylvania because of Ivan, utilities estimated.\nThe hurricane and its remnants have been blamed for at least 53 deaths in the United States, 19 of them in Florida and 70 deaths in the Caribbean.\nThe Ohio River crested Sunday at Wheeling at about 9.3 feet above flood stage, after submerging the city's riverfront park and amphitheater. It mostly covered the city's mid river Wheeling Island, which holds residential neighborhoods and Wheeling Island Racetrack and Gaming Center.\nWest Virginia Gov. Bob Wise spent the night with evacuees on the gym floor at Wheeling Park High, one of several Red Cross shelter sites, after a brief tour of the area by road.\n"I saw mobile homes uprooted and tossed downstream," he said. "I saw human lives uprooted."\nDown river, residents had been urged to evacuate parts of Moundsville, where the Ohio crested at 10 feet above flood stage.\nA highway paralleling the West Virginia shore of the river was blocked in several places between Wheeling and Parkersburg, and the Ohio River bridge in New Martinsville was closed, state emergency officials said. Schools in some areas were to be closed Monday because roads were blocked by water and mud slides.\nAll around West Virginia, flooding and mud slides had blocked more than 200 roads and damaged hundreds of houses, authorities said.\nAbout 1,700 people were out of their homes Sunday in eastern Ohio, where the Ohio River was rising to at least 6 feet above flood level, authorities said.\nIn the southeastern Ohio city of Marietta, streets were underwater near the river and about 200 people had to leave their homes in what could be the city's worst flooding since 1959.\nThe 129-year-old Rinard Covered Bridge over the Little Muskingum River near Bloomfield "literally disappeared," said Mike Cullums of the Washington County Emergency Management Agency.\nHundreds of New Jersey and Pennsylvania residents fled their homes along the Delaware River on Sunday. Several bridges that cross the Delaware between the two states were blocked by high water, and emergency officials said the river was not expected to crest until evening.\nAt least four deaths related to the storm have been reported in Pennsylvania, including a man swept away by flooding after clinging to a tree for 45 minutes. \nOne person suffered a heart attack and another adult and a 2-year-old girl drowned, state officials said, but details of those deaths were not immediately available.\nIn Phillipsburg, N.J., state police helicopters were used to monitor a propane tank and a house that were floating down the river, authorities said.\n"It was one of the most amazing things I've seen," said Sgt. Gerald Lewis.\nThe Susquehanna River was nearly 8 feet above flood stage Sunday morning at Bloomsburg, Pa., the National Weather Service said. Dozens of homes in Scranton and Old Forge were evacuated as well as the western tip of Bloomsburg. The Susquehanna had forced hundreds from their homes in Jersey Shore, between Williamsport and Lock Haven.\nDown river along the Susquehanna, an emergency shelter was opened Sunday for residents of flood-prone Port Deposit, Md. \n, where some streets already were flooded. \nThe river was expected to rise several feet above flood stage there during the night, said John Droneburg, director of the Maryland Emergency Management Agency.