Washington - At least 10 people have died in severe flooding after rivers in the US states of Wisconsin, Indiana and Iowa burst their banks, the New York Times reported Tuesday.

Authorities have declared an emergency in all three states and thousands of people in 30 districts had to be evacuated, the report said.

Floods washed away at least three houses in the town of Lake Delton in Wisconsin. Nearly 100 roads had to be closed in Wisconsin and the Red Cross had set up emergency shelters.

In Iowa, some rivers had reached record levels while people in Indiana were fixing dams badly hit by the storms at the weekend.

While meteorologists were expecting the downpours to ease off a bit on Tuesday, more bad weather was expected in the coming days. The most rainfall was expected in places already hit by floods, meteorologist Jim Keeney told the newspaper.

Meanwhile, the north-east US is undergoing a sweltering heatwave with temperatures reaching 36 Celsius in Washington. Several schools closed because of the heatwave. Meteorologists were expecting storms bad storms and hailstones overnight to Wednesday. (dpa)