Flash Flood — Monroe, Indiana

2021-06-18 to 2021-06-19 · near Arlington, Monroe, Indiana

Event narrative

A 31 year old male was swept away in a vehicle in floodwaters from clear creek near the intersection of College Avenue and Dodds Street. Another person of unknown age and sex was also in the vehicle at the time but was able to escape with only minor injuries. Numerous videos and pictures showed standing water along portions of the downtown including Walnut Street. Many businesses in the area remained shut down for a week to clean up issues related to the flood waters. Water rushed into a nursing home which required the building to evacuate.

Wider weather episode

A long lasting and multi faceted storm system moved through central Indiana beginning during the late afternoon hours of June 18th and continued through the evening hours with widespread damaging winds and very large hail before transitioning into a flash flooding event during the overnight hours with significant flash flooding occurring across portions of Owen and Monroe counties. Unfortunately, one person lost their life due to the flood waters. Across Owen county, roads had suffered severe damage, 23 culverts had been washed out and 2 bridges have significant damage. In all, over 30 Owen County roads were closed. A local emergency disaster declaration was created later in the day. Power outages across the state peaked at nearly 150,000. A 3.4 inch hailstone fell in New Castle late afternoon which was the largest hailstone to fall across the state since mid 2019.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (39.2007, -86.5303)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 957371. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.