Flood Victims Deal With Massive Cleanup As Water Recedes

SEYMOUR, Ind. -- Homeowners worked to drain water from flooded basements and first floors Monday as the worst of the flooding moved southward, leaving a muddy mess behind.

Residents of Coventry Place, on Seymour's west side, were hit hard. Standing water filled the upscale subdivision's streets as a massive city pump worked nonstop to try push water out of the neighborhood, 6News' Ben Morriston reported.

U.S. Rep. Baron Hill lives in Coventry Place, illustrating that the wrath of raging floodwater knows no economic or political boundaries.

Residents were evacuated, some in boats, on Sunday morning. The water began going down on Monday.

As they returned to their homes on Monday, many residents used their own pumps to try to get the murky water out of their houses so recovery could begin in earnest.

"We sustained some damage in the garage and it seems to be the only thing so far," said resident Ross Tabor. "When it goes down a little further, we can get underneath the house and check. So far, I consider myself very lucky in comparison to what some of the other people had to go through."

In Morgan County, numerous people went to a storage facility Monday that had been flooded to see if anything there could be salvaged.

Indiana University student Blane Winebrinner had just dropped off belongings at Storage Express on Friday as he prepared to head south for the summer.

"Seven years of notes, knowledge, my textbooks -- thousands of dollars of textbooks," Winnebrinner said.

Melody Smith, a single mother of two living with her father lost just about everything she owned in the storage facility.

A few units down from Melody, Nicole Lugan sifted through her waterlogged belongings alone. Her husband is in Iraq. She held back tears as she moved damaged furniture, tossed out clothes and searched for precious pictures.

"My son's pictures -- that's what I was worried about the most … and all of those were fine," Lugan said. "We've made it through worse, so we can do this, too."

RTV6 and the American Red Cross will have a special all-day event on Tuesday to raise donations for flood victims. It will include a special telethon on RTV6 Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m.