Flooded in Defiance, Ohio

Last night, we made 4 miles of progress in an hour trying to get to Defiance, Ohio, a town in the NW corner of a state inundated by flooding.

It was bad in Defiance and worse this morning. The problem last night was we kept getting turned around because of high water. Several road blocks kept us from completing the 160 mile drive from Cincinnati.

We were tired, hungry, and it was getting late. And with another 330 a.m. wake up call today, we still had 20 water-dodging miles to go.

We didn’t expect to be on our way to a flood zone. Just hours before we were 500 miles south of here in area hammered by another natural disaster. LIVE from Moulton, Alabama, yesterday morning, we were reporting on the severe tornadoes that ripped across the mid south.

More than 50 people died and hundreds more lost their homes. Detaching emotionally from a story of that magnitude is nearly impossible. Speaking with grief-stricken families is the most difficult part of covering the story.

Another key component is reporting on the science behind the storms. NWS surveyors tell us the tornado near Moulton was rated an EF4, it was over ¼ mile wide with winds over 170mph.

Since we didn’t pack for flood coverage, we’ll be shopping for hip-waders in Defiance. Afterwards, we'll get about 2 hours sleep before the wake-up call.

It reminds us of the funniest quote of our trip regarding fatigue, sitting in Burger King as when we got the call to move to Ohio. Alex declared with a smile, “Just think, you’ll feel just like this tomorrow… but worse.”

Check out the flood conditions at our location.

- CNN’s Rob Marciano and Alex Walker

Filed under: Flooding • Severe weather