CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (CNN) -- Flooding across Iowa has been
linked to at least six deaths and forced tens of thousands of people
from their homes, officials said Monday.
A police officer draws his weapon after a resident tries to pass a checkpoint Monday in Cedar Rapids.
The governor's office reported that a woman was killed near New London after her stopped car was hit by a National Guard bus.
It was not immediately known if the woman was alive when the bus struck
her vehicle, but the governor's office said the fatality brought the
flood-related death toll to six.
In Cedar Rapids,
residents were allowed to return home temporarily to retrieve keepsakes
and other items Sunday, but authorities said Monday that strike teams
had determined the neighborhoods were no longer safe, even for a quick
visit.
"We are taking a step back," Cedar Rapids Fire Department
spokesman Dave Brown said, adding it would be awhile before evacuees
would be permitted to go back home.
Police set up checkpoints
to keep people away from the affected neighborhoods, deemed unsafe
after weeks of heavy rain forced the Cedar River from its banks,
leaving much of Iowa's second-largest city under water.
Evacuees waited in line at the checkpoints Sunday to receive special
wristbands that allowed them to go home and gather their belongings.
Authorities set a curfew and asked the residents to stay out of the
neighborhoods between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m., so people stuffed what they
could into plastic bags and returned to the checkpoints.