Indiana’s White River crested above levels not seen since the Great Flood of 1913 — a benchmark that had stood for 113 years — as a sequence of storms beginning August 11 triggered dual emergency declarations, mass evacuations across central and eastern Indiana, and a formal request to FEMA for a presidential disaster declaration. As of Saturday morning, August 15, the flooding is not over: the river’s crest at Indianapolis has not yet arrived. The NWS Indianapolis flood forecast remains active with major flooding ongoing along the White River system through at least Tuesday.
The disasters came in sequence. A derecho — a rare, long-duration straight-line windstorm — swept Indiana on August 11, killing two people and saturating ground across the state before it had recovered. Then, beginning August 12, a stalled frontal boundary parked a repeating pattern of heavy rain cells directly over east-central Indiana, each storm unloading rain on soil already overwhelmed by the one before it. Meteorologists call this “training” — storms moving in single-file over the same watershed like cars behind a locomotive. The result: New Castle received more than 11 inches of rain in a single 24-hour storm-total period, according to NWS August 12 precipitation records. Parts of Indiana experienced what hydrologists classify as a 1-in-1,000-year rainfall event — a storm with a 0.1 percent chance of occurring in any given year, CNN confirmed using meteorological data.
Gov. Mike Braun declared a statewide disaster emergency on Thursday, August 13, mobilized the Indiana National Guard for water rescues, and on Friday, August 14, formally requested a presidential Emergency Declaration from FEMA. The Indiana DHS statewide disaster declarations page confirms both actions. Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett followed with a local disaster emergency declaration the same night, issuing a travel advisory covering all of Marion County; WTHR confirmed the Hogsett disaster declaration and its travel advisory terms.
White River Breaks Record Set During 1913’s Catastrophic Spring Flood
At Anderson, northeast of Indianapolis, the White River crested at 24.93 feet (7.6 m) on Friday, August 14 — surpassing the previous all-time record of 23.6 feet (7.2 m) that had stood since the Great Flood of 1913, a disaster that killed an estimated 100 to 200 people in Indiana and left more than a quarter million people across the Midwest homeless. Anderson Mayor Thomas Broderick Jr. confirmed the record crest and said the Park Place levee held, but acknowledged that “many families were displaced, and homes and businesses across the community have suffered significant damage.” WTHR’s August 14 live updates contain the full mayor’s statement…