Flooding kills 4 people in southeastern Minnesota, forces evacuations in Wisconsin

WINONA, Minn. — Severe storms deluged parts of the upper Midwest during the night with as much as a foot of rain, causing flooding that washed away bridges and roads and killed at least four people, authorities said Sunday.

Part of Winona and smaller towns in southeastern Minnesota and southwestern Wisconsin were evacuated, officials reported.

Rushing floods in Minnesota killed two people in their vehicle near Stockton and two others in vehicles near Witoka, said Bob Reinert, the Winona County administrator and spokesman for the county's emergency operations center.

"They apparently just drove off the edge of the pavement, and with the floodwaters just were unable to get out of the vehicle," he said, adding floodwaters opened up a 30-foot gully where the road used to be.

Houston County authorities were investigating reports of two additional fatalities, one near Houston and one near La Crescent, and Winona County authorities were looking for three people reported missing.

National Guard Capt. Paul Rickert of the National Guard says 88 soldiers and two helicopters were sent to Winona to help with security around the small cities of Elba, Stockton, and Pickwick. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty visited the area Sunday and declared a state of emergency in six counties.

Across the Mississippi in Wisconsin, up to 12 inches of rain triggered a mudslide that pushed a house onto state Highway 35 in Vernon County, said Wisconsin Emergency Management spokeswoman Lori Getter. No injuries were reported.

"They've been pulling people out of stalled cars, and evacuating them out of their homes," Getter said, adding that the Wisconsin National Guard was placed on standby.

Nearly 80 people living near small dams in Vernon County were evacuated, Getter said.

The Pine Valley West apartment complex in Wisconsin's Richland County was evacuated as a precaution, with 10 of them taken to the Pine Valley Health and Rehabilitation, a nursing home, said Donna Gilson, a spokeswoman at emergency management's Madison headquarters. Emergency management officials initially said 18 nursing home residents were evacuated; Gilson said confusion resulted from the similarity of names.

Numerous roads and bridges were washed out or closed in both states Sunday and several towns were evacuated, officials said.