Nearly two weeks of heavy rainfall is continuing to cause flooding in the southern plains states, keeping evacuees from returning to their homes in several counties in eastern Kansas.
National Weather Service forecaster Steve Weiss says a persistent tropical air mass has been in place in the region for the past month, with some parts of Kansas recording more than 20 inches of rain.
Weiss says dryer weather is in Monday's forecast for Kansas and Missouri, but the outlook is not so good for portions of Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas. Texas Gov. Rick Perry has declared disaster areas in 37 counties across Texas.
Weiss says the pattern of unusually heavy rains in the southern plains states will continue for at least another week or two.
Hundreds have been forced from their homes in Kansas, and officials in Kansas and Missouri are preparing for more flooding.
Philip Dudley, mayor of Osawatomie, Kan., says the Kansas National Guard had come in to help with the evacuation and rescue effort.
The small community has been one of the hardest hit towns in the region. The town evacuated 40 percent of its 4,600 residents after Pottawatomie Creek and the Marais des Cygnes rose out of their banks.
"I think the Marais des Cygnes will be OK," Mayor Philip Dudley says. "I'm still concerned about Pottawatomie Creek. It's supposed to get over 49 feet on Monday."
Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius planned to survey the damage Monday. Sebelius has declared a state of emergency in several Kansas counties.
Levees and dikes held after volunteers reinforced them with sandbags, but water pooling in low-lying areas overwhelmed pumps and flooded neighborhoods.
Retired welder Claude Blackmon, 65, stood in a street in southeast Osawatomie and pointed out the mobile home where he had lived for the two years since his wife died.
It wasn't easy to spot - water covered all but the top 18 inches of the trailer.
Blackmon saved his riding lawnmower, his guns and some important papers. Everything else - new appliances, family heirlooms - was inundated.
None of it was insured. "I don't know what I'm going to do," he says. "I'm a little too old to start over now."
In Texas, hundreds who live near the flooding Wichita and Brazos rivers are still out of their homes. Officials say it could be days before the flooded rivers recede to normal levels.
Six more counties have been added to the disaster declaration in southeast and east central Kansas, where severe flooding is continuing.
From NPR and The Associated Press reports
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