National Guard, Marines team up with state, locals to fight flood waters near Elnora

[thedrifter]

National Guard, Marines team up with state, locals to fight flood waters near Elnora
Monday, June 9, 2008

Soldiers and airmen of the Indiana National Guard along with Marines and sailors have started sandbagging operations in Elnora to assist the local community with flood water control.

Approximately 200 soldiers from the 38th Infantry Division and other Indiana units, 140 Marines and sailors with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit and state and local responders will join forces to raise the levee of the White River that is expected to crest and flood the area.

Local officials requested help raising nearly a mile of levee as much as three feet. Due to the recent rain fall they expected record levels by 9 a.m. today.

"This joint effort between local, state and federal forces is what ensures Indiana is making every effort to ensure the safety and welfare of our citizens," said Gov. Mitch Daniels.

The Guardsmen were dispatched to Elnora at approximately 2:30 a.m. today to fill and place sandbags. About 3,000 additional pre-filled sandbags are in route from Hulman Field in Terre Haute. A total of 10,000 filled bags will be distributed to the area in addition to ones being filled on site.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

26th MEU assists rescuers after Indiana rains
The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jun 10, 2008 6:18:18 EDT

WILMINGTON, N.C. — North Carolina-based Marines have joined rescue workers in Indiana as the state struggles with heavy rainfall that is flooding rivers to levels not seen since 1913.

As many as 11 inches of rain swamped Indiana over the weekend, flooding homes, threatening dams and closing several roads and highways.

Marines and sailors from Camp Lejeune’s 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit provided video and photos of the storm damage. They also used H-46E Sea Knight helicopters to help evacuate equipment and beds from a hospital.

The nearly 2,200 Marines and sailors were in Indiana completing three weeks of urban training. The unit will deploy in the fall to Europe and the Middle East. It is made up of aviation, ground and logistics units.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Elnora watches and waits as flood crest appears to pass

By RYAN LENZ | Tuesday, June 10, 2008
ELNORA, Ind. - Berms of white sandbags and concrete barriers held back the White River from swallowing this rural community Tuesday, leaving residents little choice but to wait and watch, hoping a historic deluge receded soon.

The worst flooding in modern Indiana history pushed past cornfields to reach the Daviess County town of Elnora, about 100 miles southwest of Indianapolis, where Marines and Indiana National Guard soldiers a day earlier built the berms to hold back the river.

"It really tugs at you because you don't know what you can do," said Diana Moore, 49, a stay-at-home mom who watched as workers hurriedly reinforced the makeshift barrier to block tiny streams of seeping brown water.

State officials said they could not yet place a dollar estimate on the losses from homes and businesses destroyed and damaged by the floods that have claimed three lives. Up to 10 inches of rain Saturday started the worst flooding in modern history.

About 300 people remained in shelters Tuesday, down from more than 1,200 on Sunday, said Executive Director Joe Wainscott of the Indiana Department of Homeland Security. He could not estimate the total number of people forced to abandon their homes.

Most Elnora residents left after voluntary evacuation orders came late Monday. Only 44 people in 19 homes stayed, according to the Indiana Department of Nature Resources, which sent officers from house to house after midnight to check for the disabled and homebound. Some of those residents returned at first light Tuesday to help with sandbagging.

Jerry Robinette, a 54-year-old disabled heavy equipment operator, was among those who evacuated. He spent the night on a cot in a temporary shelter at North Daviess High School.

"What are you going to do? You either get mad, sad or do something about it," Robinette said, looping his fingers in his overalls. "The house can be replaced."

Bill Plano, 50, never left his Elnora home with his six cats and 11 aquariums of fish. His brother, Jim Plano, came over from Mitchell to deliver cold drinks Tuesday.

"He's got everything he needs right now," said Jim Plano's wife, Brenda. "When he runs out, maybe that's when he'll come out."

Paul Goss, director of Daviess County Emergency Management, speculated the crest of the White River had passed Elnora during the afternoon after the high water breached a levee down river at Plainville, relieving pressure upstream.

The river had been forecast to crest at nearby Newberry nearly 16 feet above flood stage. Final measurements were not immediately available.

Hydrologist Scott Morlock of the U.S. Geological Survey said the next areas authorities will watch as the flooding flows southward include the White River's confluence with its east fork near Petersburg and where it empties into the Wabash River near Mount Carmel, Ill.

"We're chasing the flood wave downstream," he said.

Two lines of fresh thunderstorms moved through the state Monday afternoon through early Tuesday, dumping an inch or two of rain in parts of eastern, central and southwestern Indiana. However, Morlock said the additional rain was expected to have little if any impact on the current flooding.

Gov. Mitch Daniels canceled a trade mission to Japan on Monday so he could oversee state's efforts to cope with the flooding. He wrote U.S. Agriculture Secretary Edward Shafer to request a farm disaster declaration _ making farmers eligible for emergency loans _ in 44 Indiana counties because of damage to crops or livestock losses due to flooding and storms since May 30.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said two Indiana reservoirs neared their capacities and their spillways were releasing as much water as possible without causing further flooding. They were Cecil M. Hardin Lake, also called Raccoon Lake, about 25 miles northeast of Terre Haute, and Monroe Lake near Bloomington.

Back in Elnora, Brenda Plano's thoughts turned to the smaller pools of water likely to provide rich nesting grounds for mosquitoes.

"Can you imagine what the skeeters are going to be like? The skeeters are going to be just horrible," she surmised.

Associated Press writers Mike Smith and Rick Callahan in Indianapolis contributed to this report.

A service of the Associated Press(AP)

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Lejeune unit fights flood
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June 12, 2008 - 12:29AM
JENNIFER HLAD
DAILY NEWS STAFF

The 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit went to Indiana for training. But its Marines and sailors will return with some real-world experience.

The unit arrived at Camp Atterbury near Indianapolis early this month for a realistic urban training exercise. But when heavy rains turned to major flooding, local authorities asked the Marines for help.

Cpl. Jason Mills got the call at about 9:45 Monday night.

"I was told to grab my gear, and they told us to pack for three days, because we weren't sure how long we'd be out there," he said in a phone interview Wednesday. A few hours later, Mills and about 140 other Marines loaded onto CH-46E and CH-53E helicopters headed for Elnora, Ind.

They arrived in the wee hours of the morning, and the Marines split into two groups. One group stayed at the town hall, filling hundreds of sandbags, while the other group headed to a levee that was in danger of cresting, Mills said.

"When I first got there ... I thought it was lakefront property," Mills said. "But all the water I saw wasn't supposed to be there. It was all supposed to be fields."

Out in what Mills initially thought was a lake, he noticed houses and stop signs. As they worked, they stood just feet from residents' front yards, where mailboxes peeked out above the floodwater.

"I've never seen anything like it before in my life," he said.

The first group of Marines started putting sandbags down to reinforce the levee, and the other group joined them at about 6 a.m. Tuesday. They stood in knee- and waist-deep murky water, working together with the Indiana National Guard, town residents, Mennonites, Amish farmers and prisoners from the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility.

"We were all out there, working together side by side," Mills said.

A fresh group of Marines arrived Tuesday afternoon to relieve the men who had been working through the night, and the group continued filling, passing and laying sandbags.

Mills said working to help the community in need was "very rewarding."

"I've never done any kind of humanitarian aid like this," he said. "You expect to only do training, and it felt great to be able to go out and actually do something to help people."

Lance corporals Eric Wade and Alex Nelson, both from Evansville, Ind., also said it was rewarding to assist the flood victims.

"It really feels good to know that I can assist, that I can help out," Wade said.

And while the Marines may not have expected to be called for help, the mission is in line with the MEU's mission and training, Mills said.

The only difference is that instead of doing humanitarian assistance or disaster relief in other countries, the Marines and sailors got a chance to help out on their home soil, he said.

"We are serving the people we're sworn to serve," Mills said.

The MEU is scheduled to continue its realistic urban training in Indiana for about another week. In addition to helping secure the levees in Elnora, members of the MEU helped document the damage for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and evacuate a hospital in the area. They will likely help if asked again by local authorities, according to comments MEU Commanding Officer Col. Mark Desens said in a written release.

"Though it's not what we came here to do," he wrote, "we are ready to help those affected by this crisis."

Contact interactive content editor Jennifer Hlad at jhlad@freedomenc.com or 910-219-8467. Visit www.jdnews.com to comment on this report.

Ellie