CLICK HERE TO SEE HUGE HOME CRASH INTO THE LAKE/RIVER

ONTARIO, Wis. - Flooding worsened across the Midwest on Monday, with homes being washed away in Wisconsin when water from a swollen lake spilled over a dam and soldiers helping residents sandbag as rivers rose fast in Indiana and Iowa.

In Wisconsin, flooding cause a break in the earthen dam at Lake Delton, taking out a road as it created a channel that washed four large homes into the Wisconsin River. No one was hurt as the area had been evacuated earlier.  The 245-acre lake nearly emptied.  "It's horrible. There's no way we could stop it," said Thomas Diehl, a Lake Delton village trustee. "The breach is between 300 and 400 feet wide. The volume (of water) was just so great there wasn't anything anyone could do."

About 20 resorts surround the lake, which was about 10 feet deep.  Dams across southern Wisconsin were being monitored and thousands of residents were encouraged to evacuate.  Officials said two dams were failing in southeast Wisconsin, the Upper Spring in Palmyra and the Wyocena in Columbia Count, NBC affiliate WEAU reported.   And storm damage in Vernon County, on the Mississippi River, was expected to exceed $60 million, more than last summer’s historic flooding.

Gov. Jim Doyle declared an emergency in 30 counties and told MSNBC that even Milwaukee has been hit hard. The city "has never seen this amount" of flooding as creeks turned into rivers, he said.  At least 130 inmates from Wisconsin's Department of Corrections were helping sandbag in nine areas, according to the state emergency management. The Red Cross had 11 shelters open across the state and was preparing a 12th, officials said.

Ten deaths had been blamed on stormy weekend weather, most in the Midwest.

In Indiana, President Bush late Sunday declared a major disaster in 29 counties after up to 10 inches of rain caused record flooding along already swollen rivers. "Flood water levels are greater in some locations than they were during the great Indiana flood of 1913," the U.S. Geological Survey reported, and "more heavy rainfall is predicted for tonight."

In Iowa, Gov. Chet Culver said nearly a third of his state's 99 counties need federal help.

In Waverly, Iowa, city officials warned of a 100-year flood event when the Cedar River crests later Monday, NBC affiliate WWLT reported. Residents were told to prepare to evacuate at any time into Tuesday.

“We anticipate major portions of the city that are prone to flooding will be closed to public access beginning Monday evening,” the city said in a statement.

'Radical deluge' in Indiana Flooding was expected to be a continuing problem this week in the Midwest as rivers are swollen with the runoff from heavy weekend rainfall, topped by the 11 inches that fell Saturday in Indiana.

"This thing came on fast with such a radical deluge of water that people were describing going from a feeling of security to waist-deep water in a matter or 15 or 20 minutes," said Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who canceled a trade mission to Japan.

A new storm system was headed toward the Ohio Valley from the southern Plains on Monday — Oklahoma got up to 6 inches of rain by late morning and utilities reported nearly 5,000 customers blacked out — and the National Weather Service said as much as 3 inches of rain could fall on already waterlogged Indiana late Monday.

In Columbus, officials used airboats to evacuate more than 100 people Monday from an apartment complex, condo building and several homes downstream from the Fall River Dam, Mayor Nancy Osterhaus said.

Some 200 Indiana National Guard members and 140 Marines and sailors joined local emergency agencies Monday in sandbagging a levee of the White River at Elnora, about 100 miles southwest of Indianapolis. The White River was forecast to crest Tuesday at nearby Newberry at 16 feet above flood stage.

Local officials said they wanted to raise nearly a mile of levees as much as 3 feet.

By Monday morning, flooding at eight sites in central and southern Indiana had eclipsed levels set in the deluge of March 1913, which had been considered Indiana's greatest flood in modern times, said Scott Morlock, a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Indiana.

Those sites included Newberry, where the White River reached 28.04 feet Monday morning, topping the record of 26.98 feet set in March 1913.

Many corn and soybean acres were under water in Midwestern states, hurting farmers' prospects after a wet spring that had already delayed planting in many places.

Iowa and Illinois alone produce one-third of U.S. corn and soybeans, usually the world's biggest harvests of those crops.

Flood fears in Iowa city

In Iowa, pumps and thousands of sandbags were sent to the Iowa City area, where officials fear a reservoir could top a spillway and flood the city of about 63,000 by Tuesday.

The Indiana flooding killed at least one person, a man who drowned in his vehicle about 50 miles south of Indianapolis. Another person was reported missing after falling off a boat about 30 miles southwest of Indianapolis.

In Michigan, two delivery workers for The Grand Rapids Press drowned early Sunday when their car became submerged in a creek that washed out a road near Lake Michigan in Saugatuck Township, the newspaper said.

Two other people in the state were killed by falling trees, one man drowned and a woman died when high winds blew a recreational vehicle on top of her, authorities said.

And lightning struck a pavilion at a state park in Connecticut, killing one person and injuring four.

Nebraska twister

At least one tornado hit the Omaha, Neb., area with little to no warning as people slept Sunday morning, damaging several dozen homes and businesses. No major injuries were reported.

"I'd say it was a miracle no one got killed," said Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey as he toured a heavily damaged neighborhood in the west Omaha area of Millard.

Paul Higgins, 87, said the front door blew open and he was knocked down when he checked on the storm around 2:30 a.m. "At the time you couldn't see anything" outside, Higgins said. "It was like a fog. So much stuff blowing around."

Higgins said he and his wife sought shelter in their basement, emerging to find a tree against a house across the street and a neighboring house missing its roof.