Water rescues underway in Arkansas after a new wave of storms across US and Canada

YELLVILLE, Ark. (AP) — Water rescues were underway Wednesday in Arkansas after a new wave of severe storms that have pummeled a vast swath of the U.S. and Canada, officials said. High winds, tornadoes and flooding have caused damage or deaths from the Plains to New England this week.

As much as 11 inches (nearly 28 centimeters) of rain fell overnight into Wednesday on parts of Marion County, Arkansas, in the Ozark Mountains, the National Weather Service said.

“Numerous bridges across the area are washed out with water rescues that are taking place,” the weather service said. “Evacuations are taking place as significant rising water is inside of homes and businesses.”

Storms toppled trees and damaged homes Tuesday around Keene, New Hampshire. Storms also caused damage in upstate New York. Around Toronto, flooding temporarily closed several major roads, the Canadian Press reported Wednesday.

Severe weather has struck the Chicago area especially hard. The weather service said it confirmed 17 tornadoes struck northern Illinois and northwestern Indiana this week, including 11 during a single stretch of extraordinary storms Monday night.

Utilities continued to restore power in the Midwest, though 115,000 homes and businesses still lacked electricity Wednesday in Illinois and Indiana, according to PowerOutage.us.

An older couple died when their car became submerged in a flash flood near Elsah, Illinois, north of St. Louis. Mill Creek rose rapidly at midday Tuesday after several inches of rain and submerged their SUV, the Jersey County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. An 88-year-old woman was found dead in the vehicle. Hours later, the body of an 88-year-old man was found near the creek bank.

The sheriff’s office credited an emergency dispatcher with helping to save a 70-year-old man who was in another vehicle. The dispatcher directed the man to climb through his sunroof. The water was above the roof by the time rescuers arrived.

In Rockford, Illinois, a 76-year-old man who was a passenger in a pickup truck drowned when the vehicle became trapped in a creek during a storm Sunday, authorities said. The driver survived.

It was reported earlier that a 44-year-old woman died in Cedar Lake, Indiana, in the southern fringes of the Chicago area, after a tree fell on her house late Monday, the Lake County coroner’s office said.

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