High water approaches Ohio 93 at a bridge near Houts Road in Muskingum County. High water could affect area travel. Nick Krupa, operations manager for the Muskingum Area Office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said river gauges Friday morning gave no indication that dam gates at Dover, the Mohawk on the Walhonding or at Wills Creek should begin using flood control measures, but will remain open. Trevor Jones / Coshocton Tribune

By Rich Davis, Evansville Courier & Press
February 25, 2011 EVANSVILLE — A flood warning has been issued for the Ohio River in the Evansville area in the wake of record rainfall, including snowmelt upriver. Meanwhile, searchers have now found the bodies of all four Amish children who were swept away in a creek swollen by torrential rain in southwestern Kentucky about 25 miles south of Paducah. Three were found after midnight, the fourth, an 11-year-old girl, this morning. The discovery dashed hopes that the 11-year-old might have been alive and clinging to a tree or rock through the night. Meteorologist Mike York with the National Weather Service in Paducah said the Evansville airport received 2.56 inches of rain Thursday, a new record that included 1.3 inches that fell between 6 and 9 p.m. The Ohio River, now at 27 feet at Evansville, is expected to reach 36 feet by Sunday and 42 feet, or flood stage, by next Friday. That level will puts some roads or farmland in low-lying areas under water. The children’s deaths from yesterday’s heavy rains came as an Amish couple and seven children were crossing a creek in a horse-drawn buggy on Thursday. According to the Associated Press, because of the dark and the downpour the adults may not have realized the creek had risen. The buggy overturned, knocking the family into the water. Graves County Sheriff Dewayne Redmon said the couple and three of the children escaped, but four others under age of 12 were swept away; one was a 5-month-old baby.

Record rain brings river flooding; several Amish children drown