Rains leave Indiana flooded

Morgan County and surrounding areas received a nasty New Year's Day guest that refused to leave -- flood.\nFour inches of rain have fallen on the county since the beginning of the year, leading to one death and stranding one motorist in his car overnight.\nAccording to Associated Press reports, Matthew Fitzgerald of Wheatland, Ind. was visiting his brother when his pickup truck stalled in the floodwaters of the White River Tuesday, forcing him to spend a freezing night in his car before he saw another motorist and was able to call police for help.\nHe was back home Wednesday after being treated for cold exposure and hypothermia at Daviess Community Hospital.\n"There is a highway, and I should have taken it," Fitzgerald said.\nMartinsville police also confirmed that flooding was responsible for the death of Kayla Waters, 16, of Paragon, Ind. The teenager died Sunday in a car accident after her car hydroplaned in floodwater.\nMaking matters worse, flood waters froze as they subsided, leaving many roads closed for days. Two roads, Blue Bluff Road and Paragon Road, remain closed but are expected to re-open Friday, said Myra Christie, spokeswoman for the Morgan County Highway Superintendent.\nMartinsville schools had to close for the second time this year because of flooding, and Eminence schools had a two-hour delay because floodwater made roads impassible. \n"Unless we get more snow, hopefully we won't have any problems for awhile," Morgan County Sheriff Robert Garner said.\nThe trouble began when about an inch of rain fell on New Year's Day and another two and-a-half to three inches fell Sunday.\n"With the ground already saturated from rain, it had nowhere else to go but the roads," Garner said.\nThere weren't any more calls than usual Garner said, attributing it to preparedness after Morgan County experienced two major floods in 2003. \nThe Red Cross also reported an average number of calls for help caused by the floods. The organization received only a few, said Red Cross spokeswoman Megan Matis.\n"I hope part of it is people were more prepared after two severe flooding episodes and tornadoes in 2003," Matis said. "There wasn't nearly as much flood water this time either."\nMore people were affected in Monroe County, mainly because people couldn't get to their homes because of flooding, not because water had invaded a house.\n"Monday, there were 26 homes affected, but only two reports of basement flooding," said Ed Vande Sande, director of disaster and volunteer services for the Monroe County chapter of Red Cross. "All the flooding was in places you'd normally expect. This county has for years done a good job with flood mitigation."\n-- Contact senior writer Chris Freiberg at wfreiber@indiana.edu.