Midwestern states endure flash flooding, heat wave

SUPERIOR, Wis. (AP) -- Thunderstorms crawled across northern Minnesota and northern Wisconsin after flooding washed out roads and highways, and a heat wave sent temperatures into the high 90s elsewhere in the Midwest.

The National Weather Service issued flood warnings from east-central Minnesota across northwestern Wisconsin because of the potential for rainfall exceeding 2 inches per hour.

U.S. Highway 2, a major thoroughfare across northwestern Wisconsin, washed out early Sunday about 10 miles west of Ashland, the Bayfield County Sheriff's Office reported.

In Minnesota, State Highway 23 was closed for repairs where it washed out at the Nemidji River bridge in Carlton County, the Carlton County Sheriff's Office said.

Temperatures reached the high 90s in Chicago, approaching if not surpassing the hottest June 17 on record -- 96 degrees in 1957.