More rain brought more grief to the already-drenched Midwest, pushing rivers and streams past their banks, while a new round of storms spawned possible twisters that left a trail of damage.
Two people take a boat down flooded Main Street in Ottawa, Ohio, on Friday.
But it's the flooding -- the worst in almost a century in some areas -- that's causing the most misery.
In Illinois, Gov. Rod Blagojevich declared five counties state disaster areas Friday after seeing the extent of the flooding, the Chicago Tribune reported.
"Everything you have, everything you worked for is gone right now," Vicky Metzger, a resident of St. Charles, Illinois, told CNN affiliate CLTV.
"It's out of our control. Mother Nature overtook us, there's not a thing we can do now," she said.
The floods have been blamed for at least 17 deaths, according to an Associated Press count. Hundreds of homes have been damaged.
Meanwhile, about 200,000 customers remained without power in the Chicago area Friday after severe storms moved through the region Thursday evening, a ComEd spokesman told affiliate WGN.
Thousands of passengers at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport were significantly delayed early Friday as 90 percent of departures were running late or very late overnight.
The weather also cut power to parts of the O'Hare complex, witnesses said Friday.
In flooded Ottawa, Ohio, emergency crews patrolled by boat looking for anyone in need of help as many of the city streets remained submerged.
But people weren't the only ones in need of assistance.
The Coast Guard helped to rescue about 70 pure-bred cats from a flooded home Friday, CNN's David Mattingly reported.
Their owners refused to leave the animals behind as the waters rose. After three days, the couple finally got the help they needed to move the cats to higher ground.
At 9 p.m. ET Friday, flood warnings were in effect for parts of Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and South Dakota.
Earlier, bad weather played havoc with travel in the Midwest and Southeast.
An Air France flight from Paris to Chicago was diverted to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where passengers became restive while being forced to wait on the plane for seven hours, CNN affiliate WISN reported.
"Forcing us to sit seven hours on a plane and not even let us sit in here [the airport terminal] while they sort it out; leaving us on a non-air-conditioned plane for seven hours until they got customs people here was unforgivable," a passenger told WISN.
Passengers also got stuck on a plane for hours in Georgia.
In Atlanta, a major hub for Delta Air Lines, thunderstorms tied up air traffic, forcing authorities to divert more than 30 planes to nearby airports, a company spokeswoman said.
"The weather has been a nightmare with diversions," Delta spokeswoman Susan West said.
Scores of passengers on a flight from the Dominican Republic to Atlanta were kept on board a Delta MD-88 for more than five hours after being rerouted to Columbus, Georgia.
Bryan Pettigrew, a passenger on Flight 242, said that after his plane landed, refueled and was taxiing to the gate, its wing clipped a nearby Boeing 757.
"There were a lot of [planes] in a small area ... and, as the plane was being positioned, the wing of Flight 242 grazed the nose of a 757," West said.
No one was injured, and the larger 757 was undamaged, West said. Delta eventually sent another plane to ferry the passengers to Atlanta.
Nashville International Airport in Tennessee also had weather problems overnight, with up to 80 percent of its flights running late or very late.
Meanwhile, a heat wave continues to add to the misery.
A 7-month-old baby in St. Louis, Missouri, and a 2-year-old toddler near Cincinnati, Ohio, died Thursday after being left in hot cars, CNN affiliate WLWT reported.
Cincinnati public schools canceled classes Friday as temperatures flirted with 100 degrees, WLWT reported.
After touring flood-stricken Findlay and other towns Thursday in northwest Ohio, Gov. Ted Strickland said, "Mother Nature was not kind to us."
Bucyrus, Ohio, endured 9 inches of rain in about a 24-hour period, he said.
Strickland has declared an emergency in nine counties and promised to ask the federal government for assistance.
"The major problem was a decision of Mother Nature to pour large amounts of water on this region and other regions across our country in a very short period of time," Strickland said.
The Des Moines River rose after 5½ inches of rain pounded central Iowa. Streets flooded in Lehigh, Iowa, leaving several homes isolated, CNN affiliate KCCI reported.
"You want it to stop, but I guess we're pretty good-natured about the whole deal, but, you know, what do you do? You can't control it," Lehigh homeowner Mark Johnson told KCCI as his dog swam around.
Mary Lovejoy of Omaha, Nebraska, ended up sleeping with her grandchildren in a park after storms ripped the roof off her house, CNN affiliate KETV reported. Rain pouring through the roof ruined most of the family's possessions, including their clothes, and their food spoiled during a power outage, Lovejoy told the station.
A local church gave her $20 to buy groceries, but it didn't go very far.
"That's what I'm worried about, is getting them food and getting them their school clothes and stuff and trying to get back some of the stuff we lost," a tearful Lovejoy told KETV.
President Bush declared a major disaster in three Minnesota counties Thursday, making federal funding available to flood victims.
