Osawatomie, Kansas: Flooding worsened across parts of Kansas and Missouri, forcing more people from their homes, and meteorologists said it could be days before rivers subsided following days of drenching rainfall in the central United States.
The Kansas National Guard was sent to help with a mandatory evacuation of Osawatomie, a town of 4,600, as the overflowing Pottawatomie Creek inundated neighbourhoods and workers struggled to reinforce a levee on the Marais des Cygnes on Sunday.
Mayor Philip Dudley said 40 per cent of the town was subject to the evacuation order but many residents could be seen wading through the water or paddling in rowboats for their belongings and to survey the damage, which included homes that were half under water and nearly submerged vehicles.
Levees and dikes intact
Dudley corrected earlier reports that a levee had failed along the Potta-watomie Creek, saying storm waters had overwhelmed pumping stations along the creek but that levees and dikes were still holding good.
Storms have claimed 11 lives in Texas since more than a week ago, and two Texans have been reported missing.
The state has had to deal with some of the worst of the lingering storm system, with the weather service measuring more than 28 centimetres of rain in June at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, nearly as much as a 1928 record.
The town of Marble Falls collected about 46 centimetres in one night last week.
Kansas officials also were preparing for additional flooding along the Verdigris River, which already had reached record levels, as the Army Corps of Engineers planned to open floodgates at reservoirs.
In Missouri, the Little Osage and Marmeton rivers were well above flood stage and still rising in some spots on Sunday, said Jim Taggart, a weather service hydrologist in Springfield. Numerous roads were closed in southwest Missouri as were highways across wide areas of Oklahoma.
