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 Gov. Ted Strickland has declared states of emergency in several northern Ohio counties, where flooding forced at least 500 people to flee their homes and was blamed for at least one death.
Flood waters tipped over an uncapped gas can in the garage of an apartment unit in Mansfield, sparking a fire when gasoline vapors came into contact with the pilot light on a water heater, fire officials said.
David Pollock, 74, was found dead on the floor in a room above the garage, said assistant fire chief John Harsch. The cause of death was asphyxiation from smoke inhalation, according to an autopsy performed by the Franklin County Coroner's Office in Columbus.
In Findlay, firefighters and a volunteer armada navigated boats through streets awash in waist-deep water Wednesday, plucking neighbors and their pets from porches.
Many rescuers showed up with canoes and kayaks wanting to help.
Rising water forced authorities to move about 130 inmates from the county jail in Findlay to a regional prison.
The Blanchard River was 7 feet above flood stage Wednesday at Findlay, the highest level it has reached since a 1913 flood, the National Weather Service said.
The rain subsided by mid-afternoon, and the National Weather Service issued a heat advisory for much of the state, with temperatures expected to hit the upper 90s.
It said small streams and creeks had begun to recede, but Findlay Mayor Tony Iriti said the earliest residents will likely be allowed back to look at the damage will be Thursday afternoon.
In Bucyrus, which has received nearly nine inches of rain since Monday, the Crawford County Department of Emergency Management estimated that at least 200 people were still displaced Wednesday. Some hoped to return later in the day if the water continued to recede, said agency director Tim Flock.
"Reality is starting to set in about just how much damage there is in some of the flooded areas," Flock said.
The death toll from two storm systems -- one that has spanned the Upper Midwest and another from remnants of Tropical Storm Erin in Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri
-- reached at least 22 on Tuesday when searchers found the body of a man tangled in a tree near Lewiston, Minn.
Flooding also continued in northern Iowa as thunderstorms dumped more heavy rain across the already water-logged region Wednesday. Three subdivisions along the Des Moines River near Fort Dodge were evacuated, and crews used rocks and sandbags to shore up a levee that had begun to give way, officials said.
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 The river crested at 14 feet, four feet above flood stage, and began a slow fall by midafternoon to 13.2 feet, said city spokeswoman Penny Clayton. But she warned of additional rain.
Thousands of homes were damaged in Wisconsin and Minnesota as the storm swept through. A preliminary survey by the American Red Cross in Minnesota identified about 4,200 affected homes, including 256 complete losses, 338 with major damage and 475 that are still inaccessible, said Kris Eide, the state's director of homeland security and emergency management.
Preliminary damage reports in Wisconsin indicated 30 homes and 25 businesses were destroyed. Another 731 homes and 32 businesses were damaged.
Meanwhile, a storm packing heavy rain, winds and lightening battered northern Illinois early Thursday. The National Weather Service said about a half to three-quarters of an inch of rain fell across Chicago and surrounding towns, and winds reached more than 50 miles an hour in parts of the city. The storm was moving eastward toward Indiana.
In addition to the confirmed flood-related deaths, a man drowned Sunday in his mother's flooded basement in Iowa after being overcome by carbon monoxide, the state medical examiner's office said.
And in Madison, Wis., a woman and her child waiting at a bus stop at a flooded intersection were electrocuted when lightning hit a utility pole, causing a power line to fall in the water, authorities said. A bus passenger who tried to help them was also electrocuted, they said.
In Oklahoma, which recorded a gust of 82 mph and 11 inches of rain, some 300 homes and businesses were damaged in the Kingfisher area and in Caddo County in southwestern Oklahoma, officials said. According to the Oklahoma Climatological Survey, 2007 is so far the fourth-wettest on record in the state, with an average rainfall total of 31.96 inches, 8.42 inches above normal.
[Associated Press; by John Seewer]
Associated Press writers Doug Whiteman and Emily Zeugner in Columbus, and Todd Richmond in Rushford, Minn., contributed to this report.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
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