Floodwaters forced people out of their homes in parts of Iowa, the result of weeks of rain, while much of the US longed for relief on Saturday from yet another round of extraordinary heat.
Sirens blared at 2am in Rock Valley, Iowa, population 4,200, where people in hundreds of homes were told to get out as the Rock River could no longer take rain that has slammed the region. The city lacked running water because wells were unusable.
The mayor, Kevin Van Otterloo, said a state helicopter was on its way to help but was called off when boats were able to reach stranded residents.
“We’ve had so much rain here,” he said. “We had 4in last night in an hour and a half. Our ground just cannot take any more.”
Governor Kim Reynolds declared a disaster for 21 counties in northern Iowa, including Sioux county, which includes Rock Valley. In drone video posted by the local sheriff, no streets were visible, just roofs and treetops poking above the water.
In South Dakota, Governor Kristi Noem declared an emergency after the south-eastern part of the state received heavy rainfall. The town of Canton, 30 miles (48km) south-east of Sioux Falls, has received 18 inches (46cm) of rain.
Several highways were closed, including a key stretch of Interstate 29 south of Sioux Falls that later reopened. Sioux Falls, the state’s largest city, had more than 7in of rain in three days.
“Even though the rain is slowing down, we need to keep vigilant,” Noem said. “The worst of the flooding along our rivers will be Monday and Tuesday.”
Elsewhere in the US, the miserable grip of heat and humidity continued. The National Weather Service (NWS) said roughly 15 million people were under a heat warning – the highest level of alert – while another 90 million were under a heat advisory. Millions across the country have had their lives disrupted by stretches of unusually high temperatures.
Heatwaves are becoming more severe and prolonged due to the global climate crisis, caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels.
Last year, the US experienced the most heatwaves since 1936, said experts.
An Associated Press analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that excessive heat contributed to more than 2,300 deaths, the highest in 45 years of records.
Temperatures of about 100F (37.8C) were predicted for Washington DC and Richmond, Virginia. Philadelphia; Newark, New Jersey; Columbus, Ohio; and Detroit were bracing for the high 90s.
Heat-related hospital visits in New York state lately were 500% higher than on the average June day, according to the health department.
“We still have this prolonged heatwave across portions of the Ohio valley and into the north-east,” a weather service meteorologist, Marc Chenard, said. “We get a little bit of relief by early in the week, at least in the eastern US, the north-east, but in general above-normal temperatures are going to cover a large portion of the country even into next week.”
In south-eastern Michigan, DTE Energy said 7,400 customers remained without power as of Saturday afternoon due to storm-related outages, down from 75,000 earlier in the week.
Across the country in California, temperatures in the state’s central valley were expected to reach as high as 106F, and the NWS issued a heat advisory through 8pm. Nearly 4,000 homes and businesses in Sacramento lost power for less than an hour in the middle of the day, the Sacramento Bee reported.
While the chances for rain were forecast as small into the middle of next week, the NWS predicted expanded flooding before then in the area as high water moved downstream on several rivers in northern Iowa.
Flooding also closed state highways and county roads in southern Minnesota.
In New Mexico, heavy rain and flash flood warnings prompted officials to order some evacuations, with shelters set up for displaced residents.
In the mountain village of Ruidoso, New Mexico, full-time residents will be allowed to return on Monday after they were forced out by wildfires, though everyday life will not return to normal, with officials urging people to bring a week’s worth of food and water with them.
Authorities also said they were searching for the people who started the wildfires, which killed two people and destroyed or damaged more than 1,400 structures.
The FBI said it was offering up to $10,000 for information leading to arrests or convictions in the blazes.
