Heavy Rains, High Winds Lash Midwest

Severe thunderstorms raked parts of the Midwest on Saturday, causing widespread flooding and at least two deaths in Iowa and Illinois.

Tornadoes destroyed five houses in South Dakota and ripped through a Nebraska town.

Hundreds of Iowans were forced to evacuate their homes when up to 6 inches of rain fell over parts of the state, and roads and bridges were washed out. An 11-year-old girl was killed when she was swept into a culvert in the Davenport suburb of LeClaire on the Mississippi River, Scott County authorities said.

Iowa Gov. Terry E. Branstad declared seven eastern and central counties disaster areas and sent the National Guard to help sandbag low areas as rivers and creeks overflowed.

All roads between Des Moines and West Des Moines were blocked except Interstate 235, and police were going door to door in low areas offering evacuation help.

A thunderstorm packing winds of at least 80 m.p.h. struck the Ottumwa area in southeast Iowa shortly after 2 p.m., damaging trees and at least two homes and downing power lines.

The National Weather Service reported that more thunderstorms and heavy rain were likely overnight as a front of moist, unstable air moved through the upper Midwest.

In South Dakota, a tornado ripped a nine-mile path through Beresford, 35 miles south of Sioux Falls, damaging 30 to 50 homes, said Beresford Fire Chief T. A. Mullinex. He said about five homes were destroyed, but no deaths or injuries were reported.

In Nebraska, a tornado hit the northeastern town of Madison Saturday night, causing widespread damage just hours after areas had been evacuated because of flooding, officials said.

Part of the roof of the IBP Inc. meat packing plant was torn off by the storm, a woman who answered the plant’s phone said.

“There are trees down everywhere, roofs off of houses all over town, and gas lines ruptured,” Madison police Officer Mike Bowersox said. “It moved right through the middle of town.”

Heavy rains also lashed western Illinois on Saturday. A train engineer was killed and three people were injured when a Burlington Northern freight engine derailed at a washed-out bridge near Morrison, Ill., authorities said.

“The train collapsed the weakened bridge and the two engines with approximately 28 cars began a chain reaction collision,” a Whiteside County sheriff’s dispatcher said. “Workers were trapped in the engine because they came to rest in about 15 feet of water and mud from the swollen ditch.”

The engineer’s identity was not released. The injured were treated at a hospital and released.