Flooding threatens businesses, homes

A state of emergency was declared in several Ohio counties.
CELINA, Ohio (AP) -- Wanting to broadcast emergency information to listeners, employees of WCSM radio pulled on boots and waded through waste-deep water to get to their station, which sits in a cornfield.
"We have sandbagged and tried to pump water out continuously, but with the rain continuing, it is getting more difficult to get to the station," general manager John Coe said Tuesday night.
Emergency crews stacked sandbags Tuesday to try to stop water creeping toward businesses near the bloated Grand Lake St. Marys.
It was the fifth straight day that severe storms soaked the Midwest.
No major injuries or deaths were reported in Ohio, where there were a few evacuations, countless downed trees and power lines and communities drenched in standing water.
Rising problem
The 21-square-mile Grand Lake St. Marys, surrounded by a state park and vacation homes, "keeps rising and rising," said Wanda Dicke, deputy director of the Mercer County Emergency Management Agency.
"It's just overflowing like you wouldn't believe. It's doing some major, major flooding," she said.
The racquet courts, swimming pool and locker rooms at a nearby athletic club were under several feet of water, which approached a dozen lakeside homes under construction.
Dicke said the area around the lake received another inch of rain Tuesday night, bringing the five-day total to about 13 inches. "It really looks much worse than it did last night -- much worse," she said.
Two to three more inches of rain could accumulate in the region by this morning, and severe storms were possible across the state through Thursday, said the National Weather Service office in Wilmington.
Gov. Bob Taft on Tuesday night declared a state of emergency in Van Wert and Mercer counties, authorizing the Ohio Emergency Management Agency to assist local officials.
Evacuations
In nearby Shelby County, Lake Loramie State Park's campground was evacuated as a precaution.
"We had about 80 of our 166 sites occupied, and we decided to close the campground to prevent any problems if there is flooding later since the campground is surrounded by channels from the lake," said park Officer Dale Gade.
Logan County Sheriff Michael Henry said 15 homes were evacuated in Lakeview, a community 60 miles northwest of Columbus where minor flooding has occurred since Sunday.
Henry said the swollen Indian Lake was only about three feet below the bridge carrying state Route 366 over the lake.
Thousands of homes and businesses have lost electrical service during the days of rough weather, including 97,000 American Electric Power customers in central and southeast Ohio and 92,000 FirstEnergy Corp. customers in northern Ohio.
When the sun was out Tuesday between storms, boaters continued to enjoy Grand Lake St. Marys, and people stood on a catwalk and took pictures of the water roaring over the lake's spillway.
The state park on the lake remained open. There were no evacuations, Dicke said, but "it's getting real close."
Sandbags
In the northwest Ohio village of Rockford, firefighters and volunteers built a wall of sandbags to protect structures near the St. Marys River in hopes of preventing more flooding.
Farmer Tom Rogers, 58, sat on the tailgate of a pickup during a break from piling sandbags and estimated he lost about 30 percent of his corn, soybeans and wheat crops.
"It's really miserable," Rogers said. "There's 100 acres under water. This morning it just looked like a beautiful lake, so still."
At Bob's Audiovideo and Appliances in Celina, worker Gretchen Brants eyed the flood waters that surrounded two sides of the building, closed one of three entrances and were still rising.
"It's horrible," she said. "What do you do? You're helpless."
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