06/17/2008

Associated Press

A flood warning remained in effect for parts of southwest Indiana on Tuesday, although water levels in two major rivers continued to drop and Gibson County's emergency management director said the worst likely was over.

About 30 National Guard troops remained in Gibson and Posey counties to place additional sandbags if necessary. But the flooding from both the Wabash and White rivers continued to recede and should drop below flood stage by late Sunday or early Monday, according to projections by the National Weather Service.

"The worry I think is over at this point," said Terry Hedges, the Gibson County emergency management director. "Now, we're at the recovery and public assistance stage."

Both counties, in the southwest corner of Indiana, received further good news Tuesday with Gov. Mitch Daniels' announcement that President Bush has approved them for individual federal assistance, including grants for temporary housing and home repairs, as well as low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses.

"We have some people that are being placed by the Red Cross because they can't return to their homes, which were either damaged from the flood or are inaccessible. We did not have any evacuations but we had a few residents who had to be vacated because of water," Hedges said.

Meanwhile, the White River at Hazleton was at 25.7 feet Tuesday afternoon, still almost 10 feet above flood stage but down 4 feet from the high-water mark less than a week ago. At Mount Carmel, Ill., the Wabash crested at 33.2 feet on Saturday but had dropped to 30.6 feet on Tuesday, still almost 12 feet above flood stage; at New Harmony, the Wabash crested at 22.5 feet early Sunday and had dropped about a foot by Tuesday, still 6 feet above flood stage.

"The rivers are dropping and we're seeing a significant drop at Hazleton," Hedges said. "So we're on the downhill slide now."

Daniels also announced two more "one-stop" disaster assistance centers will open Wednesday in Brown and Knox counties, bringing to eight the number of locations available to flood victims for questions about housing, unemployment insurance and other services. Officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Red Cross are also available at most of those sites.