200 Families Flee New York Floods After Storms

Heavy thunderstorms unleashed floods as deep as 10 feet and inundated roads and bridges in western New York on Friday, forcing more than 200 families to flee their homes.

“We’ve got side streets that looked like rapids,” said Police Chief Richard A. Stitzel in Gowanda, N.Y. “We saw cars actually float down the street.”

Violent weather also struck the Plains for a second day, with a tornado whirling through the Nebraska Panhandle around daybreak. A severe thunderstorm watch was posted for parts of Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

No injuries were reported in Gowanda, Fredonia and Silver Creek, the New York towns about 30 miles southwest of Buffalo that were hit by the flooding.

Canadaway Creek, which winds through Fredonia, flooded streets with six to 10 feet of water, police Sgt. Stephen Babcock said. More than 100 families were evacuated, he said.

“It was probably waist deep and really raging,” said Suzanne McLain, who lives within sight of the creek. “We saw one car go floating past.”

All roads leading into Fredonia were closed, police and the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Department said.

In Gowanda, Stitzel said so much water poured into town that it led to a false report that an earthen dam had broken.

“It just didn’t seem possible that any amount of rain could cause this amount of water,” he said. “I’ve lived in this community nearly 50 years, and I never saw the (Cattaraugus) creek get to this level.”

Rescuers used boats and four-wheel-drive vehicles in Gowanda.

“Quite a bit of stores are under water all along Main Street,” said Debbie Wade at Donna’s Good and Plenty restaurant. “You can’t get down any of four or five streets. The bank, the post office, they all have water in them.”

In Silver Creek, about 100 families left their homes when Silver Creek and Walnut Creek flooded, sending water into many basements, police officer William Howard said.

Two to three inches of rain fell in the area during the day, with thunderstorms following one another “like a freight train,” said Donald Wuerch, meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service’s Buffalo office.