Flooding Victims Begin Mopping Up in Midwest

Flooded Oklahomans began returning home in rowboats and hip waders Monday after heavy weekend rains soaked the Plains. Schools were closed because of flooding in Kansas and Minnesota, and street flooding persisted in Iowa and Missouri.

“Got some waterfront resort property I’ll sell you,” Bob Hertensen said as he tied a boat to the railing of his house in Kingfisher, Okla. “Fish right off your front porch.”

Up to 300 people had evacuated low-lying homes in Kingfisher, Civil Defense Director Danny Mistalka said. Up to 100 families had sought high ground in Guthrie.

As floodwaters fell, homeowners started ripping out ruined carpets and carting off destroyed furnishings.

Three people remained missing Monday near Oklahoma City after floodwaters swept them away Saturday.

Residents had watched helplessly as a flash flood carried a man and a girl out of a car to their apparent deaths. A woman who stayed behind drowned as water from a raging creek filled the automobile.

“God, what could anybody do?” said one horrified bystander, Sandra Niles. “I wanted to jump in, but I knew if I did that would be the end of me.”

Gov. David Walters asked for federal disaster aid after the harsh weekend that included a tornado and damaging straight-line winds. He left the request open-ended, given the prospect of renewed flooding in northeastern Oklahoma.

In Wylie, Tex., where one man was killed by a tornado Sunday and five dozen were hurt, state troopers and local police sealed off neighborhoods razed by high winds.

Sightseers snarled major streets and profiteers swarmed into the city about 25 miles northeast of Dallas, taking advantage of the disaster by overcharging for brush removal and repairs, officials said.

About 150 homes and businesses in the town of 8,600 residents were damaged.

Residents picked through belongings left in the rubble, salvaging unbroken or repairable items. Others took pictures to submit with insurance claims.