Emergency declared in 10 counties

Severe storms crippled central Indiana with as much as 10 inches of rain and flooding that threatened dams, inundated highways and forced the Coast Guard to rescue residents from swamped homes. Gov. Mitch Daniels declared an emergency in 10 counties.

Ninety percent of the small town of Paragon, southwest of Indianapolis, was underwater, state Homeland Security Director Joe Wainscott said. Water reached the first floor of Johnson Memorial Hospital in Franklin, but no patients had to be moved. And in the county government building parking lot, cars were submerged up to their windshields.

Indiana State Police reported evacuations in the Lake Lemon area about 10 miles northeast of Bloomington. Dams near Gold Point were close to collapse, police said. In western Indiana, water more than a foot deep surrounded homes on Terre Haute’s east side. U.S. 41 was the only route open into Terre Haute, and it was down to one lane.

A rental car is stuck on McFarland Boulevard in Indianapolis.