Thunderstorms, heavy rain, and flash flooding continued to threaten a wide area of the U.S. from the Midwest to the mid-Atlantic on Monday, extending a dangerous period of unsettled weather. The National Weather Service (NWS) indicated that repeated rounds of heavy rain and thunderstorms were expected to persist for another day before a cold front moves the pattern off the East Coast on Tuesday.
West Virginia, southeast Ohio, and northeast Kentucky were under a flood watch through Monday evening. High water levels remaining from previous storms in these regions increased the potential for flash flooding. In Indiana, where several days of storms and flooding resulted in at least seven deaths, floodwaters on the White River in Indianapolis began to recede, and rainfall lessened in other parts of the state on Sunday.
A flood warning remained in effect Monday morning for a portion of Randolph County in east central Indiana, where thunderstorms had delivered between 1 and 2 inches of rain by 8 a.m.
"While we have seen encouraging trends, the work is far from over," said Jacob Spence, director of the Metropolitan Emergency Services Agency in Indianapolis. City officials launched a website on Sunday to provide support for affected residents.
The seven victims in Indiana included a 4-year-old boy, three men, and three women, according to Liz Woods, a spokesperson for the state Department of Homeland Security. Among the deceased was a 31-year-old cyclist found dead early Sunday in a washed-out section of a road in Henry County, east of Indianapolis. Henry County Coroner Brian Clark stated that the man, identified as James Briar, apparently went around a barricade and fell into the collapsed roadway.
Heavy rainfall over the past week caused rivers in Indiana to crest and set records, resulting in significant damage to or complete washout of roads and bridges. As of Monday morning, more than 106,000 utility customers statewide were without power, a decrease from a peak of approximately 300,000, according to PowerOutage.us.
These storms have caused widespread damage across the Midwest and beyond, with tornadoes, heavy rains, and flash flooding impacting communities from Illinois to western Pennsylvania. The NWS forecast heavy rain and thunderstorms across the upper Ohio Valley to the central Appalachians, with the potential for severe storms late Monday in eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina.