At least five people have died in Indiana this week as heavy rain turned streets and riverbanks into danger zones, and crews on Saturday were still using boats to reach people trapped by rising water in Indianapolis neighborhoods along the White River.
The flooding has moved fast and left a broad footprint. More than a dozen counties declared local disasters, while the governor's office said more than 350 evacuations took place in Delaware County and a senior mobile home community in Tipton County was being cleared. In Indianapolis, Rita Reith said the Indianapolis Fire Department had rescued 95 people and 45 pets by late Saturday afternoon.
The emergency response fits a week of unusual rain. The National Weather Service said more than 28 centimeters, or 11 inches, fell in some areas over two days, and the White River climbed above 7.32 meters, or 24 feet, in Anderson and Noblesville, breaking marks set in 1913. Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said the city was seeing its most severe flooding in more than 30 years, a description that captures both how rare this is and how hard it is to match against any recent memory.
That gap matters because officials are calling the event record-setting, yet some communities are being compared not with a modern benchmark but with flooding last seen more than three decades ago. The dead include a child killed when a tree fell on a house, a woman swept away after driving into floodwaters and a teenager reported missing after jumping into a river on Wednesday, a list that shows how quickly this disaster has moved from weather alert to fatal emergency.
Mike Braun said Donald Trump intended to approve his request for federal resources, and that help is likely to shape what comes next as rescue work gives way to cleanup. But the harder question now is how many people were ultimately forced out, how long the water will stay high and how much damage the rivers left behind in Indianapolis, Anderson and Noblesville.
