By The Associated Press At her Real McCoy Cafe in Lawrenceville, Ill., Nancy Hettich is mighty proud of the joint's Italian beef sandwich and carrot cake. If only she could open the place to serve it.

By LEN WELLS, Courier & Press correspondent (618) 842-2159 or lenwells@wabash.net Rainfall amounts of up to 12 inches across much of Southern Illinois last week have caused rivers there to spill out of their banks, flooding homes and businesses and forcing much of the region's oil industry to shut down.

By The Associated Press BLOOMFIELD, Ind. - For the second time in a week, powerful winter thunderstorms produced at least one tornado in Indiana as they marched across the state, damaging homes and buildings, including a fire station.

By DAVID MERCER CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Every spring, fishermen wait for a peculiar-looking fish to swim up the Wabash River between southern Illinois and Indiana.

A break in a week of rain eased flooding Friday in hard-hit Indiana and Ohio, while downstream communities braced for a surge of water. President Bush declared a disaster in parts of Indiana that can now seek federal aid.