White River Crests at Nearly 25 Feet, Shattering 1913 Record as Indiana Floods Worsen

Since Governor Mike Braun declared a statewide disaster emergency Thursday and mobilized the Indiana National Guard, the White River has kept rising, cresting at more than 24.9 feet, according to CBS News. The previous record of 23.6 feet was set during the Great Flood of 1913.

More than 11 inches of rain fell east of Indianapolis since Tuesday, CBS News reported. CNN described part of the event as a 1-in-1,000-year rainfall on Wednesday, arriving one day after a derecho tore through the Midwest with winds up to 100 mph, according to Fox Weather. That windstorm killed a 4-year-old in Geneva Township when a tree fell on a home, the Jennings County Sheriff's Office told Fox Weather, and left more than 292,400 Indiana customers without power on top of over 700,000 outages across the broader region.

Muncie hit hardest

Muncie Fire Chief Dan Burford told CNN the White River rose more than 3.5 feet above major flood stage by Thursday morning. Rescuers switched to motorized boats in neighborhoods where floodwater reached an estimated 9 feet deep. More than half the homes in one 30-square-block area of the city likely flooded to some degree, Burford said.

"I've been with the department for 29 years, and I've never seen flooding like this," Burford told CNN.

Muncie's sewer system buckled under the strain. One facility went fully inoperable and another is running at maximum capacity, the city told CNN, after roughly 4 billion gallons of rain fell on the city in 24 hours, about eight times what the drainage system can handle.

Muncie Mayor Dan Ridenour confirmed the historic comparison directly to Fox Weather: "We have now exceeded the record floods that happened back in 1913." The city put itself on an orange alert, urging residents to avoid unnecessary travel.

A search still underway

An 18-year-old remains missing in Delaware County after jumping from a bridge into the river Wednesday night with three friends, according to the county sheriff's office statement provided to CNN. The other three were rescued. Search operations have been repeatedly paused because conditions are too dangerous, officials said, and resumed only when possible.

Braun told NewsNation's "Morning in America" there is at least one missing person tied to the broader flooding, and that officials are focused on displaced families and damaged homes and businesses.

Governor: We saw the storm, not the scale

Braun has been candid that the state underestimated what was coming. "The state could see it coming, but it was just a bigger event than anybody forecasted," he told NewsNation. He said officials were "ready to go" after tornadoes hit northwest Indiana earlier in the week, but "didn't anticipate record rainfall" as the system swept south into the more severely flooded counties.

Forecasting a storm's arrival is different from forecasting its magnitude. The National Guard has been mobilized to help Gary, Munster and Hobart, according to OAN, and Braun says "we've got everything as mobilized as you can get."

Infrastructure damage, quick fixes

The flooding buckled and washed out 125 feet of Interstate 70 in Wayne County, one of the busiest interstate corridors in the country, Braun told NewsNation. Indiana's Department of Transportation repaired it in a two-day turnaround, he said.

Madison County activated an orange travel watch, restricting driving to essential trips, after the White River there surged to near 25 feet, according to OAN. Madison County Emergency Management Agency Director Lynn Edens told FOX59 the level prompted Anderson's mayor to order mandatory evacuations for affected addresses. Outside help arrived too: the Lafayette Fire Department deployed personnel and water rescue equipment to assist, according to a statement OAN cited.

In Cambridge City, Franklin County, floodwater has covered streets, train tracks and surrounded homes for a second straight day, CBS News reported. Drone footage from Yorktown, which declared its own local disaster emergency Thursday, showed houses, vehicles and roads submerged in muddy water, according to CNN.

What's next

CBS News reported the river is expected to keep spilling over its banks until Sunday, meaning the crest doesn't guarantee relief. CNN noted the region won't get a meaningful break from additional storms until this weekend. First responders have rescued dozens of people across the region so far, per CBS News, and officials in multiple counties are still going door to door checking on residents who haven't evacuated.

The unresolved question is how many people remain in flood zones despite advisories, since Muncie's evacuations, like several others, are recommended rather than mandatory in some areas. Whether the missing 18-year-old is found, and what the final damage tally looks like once water recedes after Sunday, are the two threads authorities say they're tracking most closely right now.