MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Illinois, Ohio and Indiana have been hit hard the past few days by heavy rain and extreme weather. Indiana officials said there are at least seven storm-related deaths. Samantha Horton reports from Indianapolis, which experienced historic flooding through the weekend.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
SAMANTHA HORTON, BYLINE: A crew pulls back the heavy metal flood gates in the Broad Ripple neighborhood after days of rising water and flooding along the White River in Indianapolis. This is where movable gates were installed in 2009 as a way to protect nearby homes and businesses from extreme flooding. The gates were activated for the first time Friday night.
(SOUNDBITE OF WATER SLOSHING)
HORTON: The river crested Saturday at over 20 feet in Indianapolis, just shy of the record set in 1913. Hundreds of residents had to quickly evacuate their homes.
(SOUNDBITE OF WATER SPLASHING)
HORTON: Trudging through water up to his knees, Jacob Maynard (ph) and his girlfriend carried their dogs out of their home.
JACOB MAYNARD: It's kind of scary how fast everything flooded. Like, that's the main thing.
HORTON: In other areas of the Indianapolis metro area, neighbors came together to fight back the floodwaters.
(SOUNDBITE OF SANDBAGS THUDDING)
HORTON: In the town of Rocky Ripple, volunteers filled sandbags to line the levee at its weak points and offer bags to neighbors to protect their homes. More than 300 homes in the area were advised to evacuate. Across the state, more than 140,000 homes were without power as of Sunday evening. Rocky Ripple council member Randy Sanders says he was inspired by the response to help the community.
RANDY SANDERS: I've seen people tonight that haven't talked to each other for 10-plus years actually working together, talking. And it's just amazing that everybody is like, what can I do to help?
HORTON: Local officials say the community sandbag effort since Friday helped prevent wide-scale flooding. A 2020 report from Indiana University climate scientists stated that the state needs to prepare for what they cite as increasing environmental change. President Trump over the weekend approved an emergency declaration for Indiana.
For NPR News, I'm Samantha Horton in Indianapolis.
(SOUNDBITE OF LOWERCASE NOISES' "ROARING FORTIES") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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