Flooding forces thousands to evacuate
Published:Friday | June 13, 2008 | 2:57 PM
Flooding from rain-swollen rivers forced the evacuation of thousands of people and has damaged homes and businesses across the US state of Iowa.
State Governor Chet Culver said with nine rivers at near record levels, dozens of bridges have been destroyed.
He has declared 55 out of Iowa\'s 99 counties state disaster areas and said infrastructure repair costs are likely to run into hundreds of millions of dollars.
The state was affected by storms on Wednesday and yesterday and more rain has been forecast.
The Midwest region has also been hard hit by a series of tornadoes including one, which killed four teenage boy scouts on Wednesday night, when they were camping in western Iowa.
48 persons were also injured when the tornado ripped though the camp near Little Sioux.