Wild Weather Floods Cities, Uproots Trees
Heavy rain is causing flash flooding across the country, forcing residents to evacuate their homes and businesses.
A thunderstorm dumped rain and hail in Idaho, flooding some areas with up to six feet of water.
Students at Brigham Young University sang as they helped with the clean-up efforts by forming an assembly line and using buckets to dump the flood waters. Many of the students had been forced to evacuate.
The Madison County Sheriff's Office said it has not had any reports of injuries or deaths in the area.
In Ohio, a family of three had a dangerously close call when their car hydroplaned, hit a pole, then fell into a ditch and washed away.
Rescue workers soon arrived to help.
"He was screaming that his wife drowned and she was screaming the same thing - 'My husband and baby drowned!'" Eric Ney, with the Clearcreek Township Police, said. "So it was a pretty happy reunion when we got them both together."
In Pennsylvania, firefighters rescued a 12-year-old girl after being sucked into a drain pipe and swept away for nearly a half mile.
"I kept yelling, 'Please help me, I'm stuck!'" Taylor Russell said from the hospital after being rescued. "Somebody pinch me, I'm still alive! I'm here!"
Clean-up also started in Maine Wednesday morning after 40 mph winds uprooted trees and caused some to smash into homes and buildings.
Rain and hail washed out roads and flooded basements with water and sewage.
"Just sitting around and the next thing we knew it was like a sheet of water come (sic) flying down. Started washing out the road and everything and there's like chunks of rocks that came flying out," Madison, Maine, resident Jordan Sirois recalled.
"I had a river running through the driveway. It was amazing," another Madison resident, Justin Ziemek, said. "Actually had to walk up the road. The manhole cover blew off up the road up here. It was wild. It was really wild."
Officials are urging people to stay out of the standing water because it could be contaminated.
