Tristate mops up again
Woman escapes submerged car
Friday, April 17, 1998BY BEN L. KAUFMAN
and RACHEL MELCER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
At 4 a.m. Thursday, Gary Morgan anxiously watched torrential rain push the Little Miami River toward his family canoe livery in Warren County. Some 50 miles west, Jenny Burkhardt fought Tanners Creek in Dearborn County, as it submerged her car and tore at her body. Ms. Burkhardt survived, and the Little Miami crested below Morgan's beached canoes.
Elsewhere, swollen Tristate rivers, creeks and sewers forced people from their homes and businesses, flooded vehicles, inconvenienced commuters and shoppers, and left muddy damage.
Up to 4 1/2 inches of rain fell on various communities. The National Weather Service predicted more showers and thunderstorms overnight, some possibly severe, before clouds start to clear today.
While Greater Cincinnati was battling floods, tornadoes killed five people, including a young brother and sister, in rural Arkansas and Tennessee. Later in the day, tornadoes tore through Nashville, Tenn., injuring about 100 people, most by flying glass.
In Indiana, Dearborn County Deputy Jon Evans called Ms. Burkhardt's escape a "miracle." Ms. Burkhardt, 19, was heading home to her parents' house near Manchester, Ind., when she became trapped by the flood.
"I thought by going slow I'd be able to back up if my car hit the water, but it just got sucked in. . . . The front of my car went in under water, and I didn't even realize what happened until the water started coming in my doors."
She used her cell phone to call 911, and Deputy Evans was dispatched to find her on Tribble Road near Ind. 1.
When he arrived, the road was empty and visibility poor. Struggling to stay above the roiling creek, Ms. Burkhardt used her cell phone to give directions to the 911 dispatcher, who relayed them to Deputy Evans.
He spotted Ms. Burkhardt and her 1992 Civic about 150 yards from the road in a hay field. "All I could see was the top of her head." Ms. Burkhardt had rolled down the window and was sitting in the opening, her legs inside the car.
After telling the dispatcher how officers standing on the road could find her, she tossed the cell phone, hoping holding on with two hands would save her from being washed away.
Sheriff's Sgt. Richard Bauer and two other officers joined the rescue effort. They were in the water for about 30 minutes, trying to reach Ms. Burkhardt.
Deputy Evans finally had to leave the water, dangerously chilled. "We were dealing with hypothermia here."
Then a log slammed into Ms. Burkhardt, knocking her off the car. "I had time to take one breath, and I was under water."
Bob Krebs, a driver with the Connection Co. of Sharonville, wades through high water from the Mill Creek Thursday.
(Glenn Hartong photo)
| ZOOM |
|
Her boyfriend's oversized jacket made it impossible to swim, so Ms. Burkhardt floated on her back. The current carried her to shore.
She felt grass, rolled over and embedded her knees in mud. "I had to crawl to get out. I had no feeling at all. I was totally run down." Colleagues still were searching when Ms. Burkhardt screamed from hundreds of yards downstream where she'd been swept ashore. "Which is a miracle. It really is," Deputy Evans said. "We're all just thinking this is God's blessing. This just doesn't happen very much."
An officer offered to carry Ms. Burkhardt to the waiting ambulance. "I told him if I could make it all the way swimming, I could walk to the ambulance."
Ms. Burkhardt was treated at Dearborn County Hospital and released.
For different reasons, it was scary at Fort Ancient in Warren County, Mr. Morgan said. "We haven't seen a surge like this for about six years."
It was worse at his competitor, Little Miami Canoe Rental in Morrow, where employees started their day at 6 a.m. tying 100 canoes to trees.
The livery's back five acres -- where Todds Fork meets the Little Miami -- flooded so badly employees were kayaking over the grass. In Warren County, the American Red Cross set up emergency shelters at a family outreach center in South Lebanon, at Little Miami High School in Morrow and at the Mason-Deerfield Joint Fire District's Station 52 in Deerfield Township.
South Lebanon was the county's hardest-hit when the Little Miami stranded residents and workers.
The Little Miami River crested at 22 feet at Milford; the flood stage there is 17 feet. It reached 23 feet at Kings Mills, 6 feet above flood level; and the Whitewater River crested at 19.5 feet, 6 inches below flood level, at Brookville, Ind. The Ohio River at Cincinnati reached 38.23 feet, safely below the flood level of 52 feet.
In the Little Miami riverside neighborhood of Loveland Park in Deerfield Township, Paul Bauer served coffee to firefighters and medics from Mason-Deerfield and Loveland as crews using inflatable boats evacuated some of his neighbors.
"This is higher than I've ever seen it," said Mr. Bauer, whose home -- perched on a bit of a hillside on Davis Road -- escaped some of the encroaching water that forced neighbors from their houses. Emergency crews evacuated nine township residents from their homes, Mason-Deerfield Joint Fire District Chief William Goldfeder said.
In Sharonville, Mosteller Road businesses were flooded by Mill Creek.
At Kenworth of Cincinnati on Mosteller, about three dozen trucks suffered water damage, business manager Jeff Gauger said. He had no estimate of damages. The company is insured, he said.
Debbie Deaton anxiously watches the rising flood waters from the front porch of her hom on Pike Street in South Lebanon.
(Glenn Hartong photo)
| ZOOM |
|
Nick Davis of Florence awakened about 7 a.m. to pounding on the door of his tractor-trailer rig parked at Kenworth. Water was almost to the door of his cab and he moved the rig, saying the motor, transmission, rear end and wiring may be damaged.
His pickup also was on the lot, where water was window high. Mr. Davis said he parks the pickup there while he's on the road. He left it there Monday, returned late Wednesday and decided to sleep in his rig.
"That truck is like my girlfriend. It's really special to me. I don't want to lose it," Mr. Davis said.
Next door to Kenworth, men in a boat paddled around the Connection Company and Quality Truck Repair parking lot. They said the water at some spots was nearly 7 feet deep and they found someone's submerged Lincoln.
Elsewhere in the Tristate:
In Mount Healthy, a flooded basement forced school officials to cancel classes for 350 students at Assumption-Mount Healthy but officials said school should reopen today.
Residents from 13 houses in Clarksville, in southern Clinton County, left their homes Thursday to escape flooded Todds Fork and East Fork creeks.
The flooding was the worst the village had experienced in 30 years, said Mary Kay McMillan, spokeswoman for the county's Emergency Management Agency.
A car rests in floodwaters on East Kemper Road in Loveland after it's occupants were rescued by firefighters.
(Craig Ruttle photo)
| ZOOM |
|
In Northern Kentucky, a few streams left their banks but there was no major flooding and the water receded quickly.
In Miami Township, Clermont County, along the Little Miami, more than a dozen homes were evacuated near Branch Hill-Loveland Road, which was closed.
Terry Lewis, Loveland - Symmes Fire Department battalion chief, said six residences along Carl Brown Way in Old Loveland were evacuated Thursday when the Little Miami and O'Bannon Creek overflowed. Along the Whitewater River in Logan Township, Dearborn County, residents of the four homes on Lawson Lane expect to be flooded yearly, but the deluge surprised them.
At 12:30 a.m., the water outside Bob Coole's home rose 4 inches within 30 minutes. "That's when we knew it was time to get out," he said.
By 1 a.m., he and 13 relatives had moved their vehicles to high ground, raised their beds and couches on construction horses and fled.
Around 2:30 a.m., a rescue team took the children to friends and neighbors. Adults stayed and watched from their cars.
"This is the worst part," said Peggy Horton said. "You just wait and see and hope the water keeps going down. We've got nowhere else to go."
Tanya Albert, Erica LeBorgne, Kathleen Hillenmeyer, Bernie Mixon, Tom O'Neill, Richelle Thompson, Andrea Tortora and Janet C. Wetzel contributed to this report.
Local Headlines For Friday, April 17, 1998
Tristate mops up again
River, creeks rise and fall
And now comes the cleanup
"Sea of parking' defined debate
Ads say Issue 2 cheaper option
Universities lobbying for tax hike
City getting tough on junk cars
City police to hold property auction
Elderly man charged in auto death of wife
Gingrich appearance more low-key
Heart death variations wide
Local doctor discovers drug may help heart
Man trying to hawk ostriches
More charges filed over Hustler store
No. Kentucky adds 5,000 jobs in one year
Ohio honors top programs
Priest's cloak returned
Problem births top killer
Senate race is getting costly
Talks on race issues will continue
TRISTATE DIGEST
