Death Toll Climbs in Flood-Stricken Midwest

CHICAGO, Aug. 23 — The death toll from several days of storms climbed to 12 as heavy rain and flooding that have covered a large part of the Midwest continued Thursday.

Though more rain was predicted into Friday across much of the region, clearer skies were expected in many areas by Saturday, the National Weather Service said.

Reports of four additional deaths have brought to 12 the number of people who have died since the heavy rains began last weekend.

In Madison, Wis., a woman, her toddler and a man were electrocuted Wednesday afternoon when a utility pole was struck by lightning and dropped a live power line in a flooded intersection where the mother and child were awaiting an approaching bus, the Madison police said.

The man, whom the police called a hero, left the bus to try to help the woman, but was electrocuted when he stepped into the water, the police said.

Two other people were injured and taken to a hospital.

In Mansfield, Ohio, a 74-year-old man died early Tuesday from carbon monoxide poisoning when floodwater tipped a gasoline can in his garage and a pilot light for a hot water tank ignited a fire, said Assistant Chief Jim Bishop of the Mansfield Fire Department.

In Oklahoma City, still waterlogged in the wake of a separate storm system, that of former Tropical Storm Erin, the authorities searched a lake Thursday for a 17-year-old cross-country runner who was swept away Wednesday when he tried to swim across a flooded running path, The Associated Press reported.

In the Chicago area, where rivers were already swollen from several recent storms, sunny skies quickly darkened Thursday as violent weather swept across northern Illinois and into northwestern Indiana in the afternoon, bringing heavy rain, high winds and reports of tornadoes just west of the city.

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