Rain Adds to Ohio Valley and East Coast Flooding

Thunderstorms compounded flooding in the mid-Atlantic and Ohio Valley states Friday, dumping more than three inches of rain over parts of West Virginia.

Storm runoff in Pennsylvania bloated Connoquenessing and Brush creeks. About 150 of 300 people who had been evacuated were still waiting for floodwaters to recede.

American Red Cross spokesman John Stubbs said estimates indicated flooding damaged nearly 500 homes in six counties.

The National Weather Service posted flash-flood warnings for southern Maryland and northern Virginia as a slowly moving cold front dropped rain over areas soaked Thursday by intermittent downpours. Rain fell throughout Maryland early Friday.

The cold front held temperatures in check in many areas east of the Rockies that had been under a spell of intense heat. Nine cities from Texas to Connecticut reported record lows for the date. Duluth, Minn., dipped to 39 degrees in the morning.

Floods struck eastern Ohio Thursday, just a few miles from where more than 26 people died in flooding last month. No injuries were reported.

Authorities said nearly 800 people in the Dillonvale-Adena area were evacuated because of heavy rainfall along Short Creek. Most returned home during the night. An additional 600 people in Licking County, west of Columbus, were evacuated for several hours Thursday because of flooding along the Licking River.

In six hours Friday morning, 2.65 inches was recorded at Apalachicola, Fla.; 2.48 inches at Panama City, Fla., and 1.48 in Knoxville, Tenn.

Much-needed rain dampened wildfires in the Okefenokee Swamp in south Georgia, but firefighters said they need more. About 3,900 acres have been blackened since lightning touched off fires last Saturday, and officials fear the blaze could move beyond the refuge to burn valuable timberland and private homes in south Georgia and north Florida.

The water level in the 400,000-acre refuge is the lowest in 40 years.

Christy T. Trowell, a South Georgia College professor who has studied the Okefenokee for 15 years and written several books on the swamp, said it is even drier than in 1954, when fires ravaged 80% of the Okefenokee over an eight-month period.