2 more Kan. storm deaths reported

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By ROXANA HEGEMAN

Associated Press Writer

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) -- Two people were found dead in a southeast Kansas creek Wednesday, bringing to five the number of deaths blamed on violent storms since the weekend.

The state Division of Emergency Management said Labette County sheriff's deputies found the bodies of a 26-year-old Parsons man and a 22-year-old woman from Springfield, Mo., early Wednesday. They were in a car submerged in 10 feet of water in Pumpkin Creek, near Mound Valley. The two, whose names were not released, had been reported missing Tuesday evening. Authorities believe they were traveling west on a local road and were swept into the creek at a low-water crossing.

A Lawrence man was killed by lightning in Jefferson County on Saturday while riding with motorcyclists on U.S. 24 in northern Kansas, and a 58-year-old Leavenworth man drowned Monday while trying to clean a spill drain in a private pond near Easton.

On Tuesday, the body of a 20-year-old Yates Center man whose truck was swept off the road was found in a farm field near Quincy after floodwaters receded.

By late Wednesday afternoon, 2 to 4 inches of rain had fallen over much of Kansas in a 48-hour period. Rainfall totals were closer to 5 and 6 inches along a swath from southwest of Wichita into the Flint Hills, said Jim Caruso, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Wichita.

"The ground is definitely saturated," he said.

Major street flooding was reported Wednesday from the overflowing Walnut River in Winfield.

The forecast called for another storm system moving into the state Thursday afternoon or evening that could bring fairly widespread rainfall of 1 to 2 inches which could aggravate flooding in southeast and south-central Kansas, Caruso said.

But Caruso said meteorologists are not expecting severe flooding like that which drenched southeast Kansas in 2007.

Still, the Kansas Division of Emergency Management partially activated its state emergency operations center in Topeka to monitor river levels and prepare for any emergency response across the state.

Butler, Harper, Reno, Sumner and Wabaunsee counties have issued local disaster declarations due to flooding, the Division of Emergency Management said.

About 10 homes in Butler County have taken on water, while about 100 homes in Harper County had water in their basements and 12 had water in the first floor.

The National Weather Service also has reports of an undetermined number of homes flooded near Belle Plaine in Sumner County, south of Wichita, Caruso said.

Flood warnings were posted for communities along several eastern Kansas waterways, including the Marais des Cygnes River, Arkansas River, Walnut River, Pottawatomie Creek, Neosho River, Cottonwood River and Verdigris River.