Flood hit low-lying towns of central US on Wednesday after a foot (30 centimetres) of rain in which caused 11 deaths & four people were missing. Record or near-record flood crests were forecast at several towns in Missouri. Flooding was reported in large areas of Arkansas & parts of southern Illinois, southern Indiana & southwestern Ohio & schools were closed in parts of western Kentucky because of flooded roads.

After two days, rain had finally stopped falling by Wednesday afternoon in much of Missouri & Arkansas as the weather system crawled toward the Northeast, drenching the Ohio Valley & spreading snow over parts of northern New England. A parallel band of locally heavy rain stretched from Alabama & Georgia to the mid-Atlantic states.

Atlanta police closed some downtown streets in case the stormy weather knocked down more broken & debris from buildings damaged by Friday’s tornado. An official of weather service said, A foot (30 centimetres) of rain had fallen in sections of southern Illinois & at Mountain Home, Arkansas & Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

Searches were under way in Texas for a teenager washed down a drainage pipe & two people who were missing in Arkansas after their vehicles were swept away by rushing water.