New Rain Thwarts Cleanup Efforts Along Ohio River

More rain plagued the flood-stricken Ohio River valley Sunday, causing some streams to rise again and slowing the monumental cleanup from the area’s worst deluge in more than three decades.

Compared with the foot of rain that fell in the region a week ago, however, the new rains were more a nuisance than a threat to life and property.

The Licking River, a tributary of the Ohio in central Kentucky, was rising again Sunday near Falmouth, a town devastated by last week’s flooding. Officials said the river would rise 4 feet but not reach flood stage there.

Falmouth’s mayor, Max Goldberg, suffered a heart attack over the weekend and was reported in fair condition Sunday at a hospital.

At Cincinnati, the new rains--running off rain-soaked grounds with no chance to seep in--caused officials to push back estimates of when the river would drop below flood stage to Wednesday morning, instead of today, as earlier forecast.

The Ohio had crested and begun to fall at Louisville, but it was a slow, muddy process. Only the tops of traffic lights poked above the coffee-colored swamp along Louisville’s riverfront. A flood wall kept most of the city dry.

But downstream at Paducah, Ky., officials ordered a 434-room hotel closed because it was outside the city’s floodgates.

In nine days, 31 deaths have been blamed on the high water and flash floods.

Forecasts called for dry weather the rest of the week.

Schools in parts of southern Indiana that had been closed since the flooding began preparing to open again by Tuesday, once inspections prove that roads will be safe for school buses, Taylor said.

Sunday’s rainstorms broke a three-day dry spell that allowed tens of thousands of residents back into their ruined homes to begin the rebuilding process. Many people were expected to move to higher ground.

Overall damage estimates were more than $500 million in Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia and Indiana.