MELANIE S. WELTE
Associated Press Writer

DES MOINES, Iowa - Waves of thunderstorms pounded Iowa overnight and early Monday, bringing strong winds and torrential rain that flooded roads, washed away railroad tracks and forced the evacuation of a campground.

Emergency workers rescued more than a dozen people from their tents and trailers at the Sleepy Hollow Sports Park campground east of Des Moines after the Four Mile Creek surged out of its banks about 5 a.m. on Monday.

Some campers were able to walk out, but firefighters had to use boats to reach five children and eight adults who were surrounded by the rising water, said Capt. Steve Brown of the Des Moines Fire Department.

No one was injured.

The rain also washed away a railroad bed in Pleasant Hill in the Des Moines area before dawn, causing five Iowa Interstate Railroad cars to come off the tracks, the police department said. No injuries were reported.

Railroad spokesman Dennis Miller said the cars were carrying scrap steel or grain.

Crews immediately began to repair the tracks and the operator expected the line to be up and running again Monday night, Miller said.

Iowa Interstate Railroad, which is based in Cedar Rapids, runs from Council Bluffs to Chicago.

MidAmerican Energy said more than 10,000 of its customers in Iowa lost power early Monday, including nearly 5,000 in Des Moines, 2,200 in Sioux City, 1,700 in Fort Dodge and 1,100 in the Davenport area. By 10 a.m., about 6,200 customers were still without power.

Storms developed over western Iowa late Sunday and moved east, soaking the state with up to 5 inches of rain.

"The hardest hit was a corridor from Sioux City to Carroll and Boone to the Des Moines metro and down to Ottumwa," said Ben Moyer, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Des Moines.

He said 3 to 5 inches of rain fell in the region in about 6 hours.

The weather service said U.S. Highway 69 near Ames was closed because of flooding. In Carroll, 3 to 4 feet of water washed the city streets. In Rippey in Greene County, a city park was under water.

Firefighters reported seeing a tornado near Whiting in western Iowa on Sunday night. Van DeWald of the weather service office in Omaha, Neb., said Monona County authorities reported no people were injured and no buildings were damaged, but that trees were knocked down.

DeWald said the tornado had not been confirmed.

The National Weather Service said another possible tornado was spotted near Templeton in Carroll County shortly before 9 p.m. on Sunday. No touchdown or damage was reported.

Strong winds strafed the northwest Iowa town of Fonda Sunday evening, hearty enough to rip utility lines from homes. City clerk Phyllis Menke said the gusts damaged a grain bin, and a broken stained glass window at a church was among the damage to buildings in the area.

"We have got trees where the tops were just pulled out ... but the trees are still standing," Menke said.

In northeast Iowa, officials think lightning hit the steeple of Holy Trinity Church in Luxemburg early Monday, causing damage to the church.

Luxemburg, which has about 250 residents, is 25 miles northeast of Dubuque.

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