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CBS 2's Pamela Jones and Kristyn Hartman contributed to this report.
GRIFFITH, Ind. (CBS) ― Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels declared a disaster emergency for Lake County Thursday as a result of the heavy rains and severe flooding from Wednesday.

Daniels' order officially extends all available state resources to assist in cleanup.

Indiana Department of Homeland Security personnel spent the day Thursday assisting local officials with damage assessment and help determine what types of federal assistance might be appropriate.

The governor also has asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to conduct a Preliminary Damage Assessment next week, which is also used to determine the magnitude and impact of an event's damage.

Some of the flood water has receded, but Thursday morning, just making it home meant wading through knee-deep water for some families in northwest Indiana.

The two hardest hit communities were Highland and Griffith, Ind. As CBS 2 Northwest Indiana Bureau Chief Pamela Jones reports, the rain is long gone, it was still a very bad situation Thursday afternoon.

In Griffith, school was cancelled for Thursday and might be cancelled again for Friday.

The swollen Little Calumet River was largely to blame for the mess in northwest Indiana. Some people had to be evacuated from their homes.

Problems persisted in Griffith Thursday morning. Officials there said some residents remained in Red Cross shelters.

One Griffith resident, Dave Haldi, said his house was submerged in 4 feet of water.

"Right now, I'm sitting on an island," Haldi said at 5:30 a.m. Thursday. "My holuse is completely surrounded with water."

Haldi expressed frustration with what he said was a slow response from the town of Griffith.

"The police department and the fire department – they did a real good job," Haldi said. "They were about all day and all night evacuating people that couldn't get out and had to get out. But as far as anybody from the town that supposedly has a plan for this, there was nobody here until about 9 o'clock last night when they declared the area a disaster area. Then they brought in equipment."

It rained hard enough to push four feet of water into the basement of Gema Pena's home in Highland.

"The pipe broke and the water was just flying through like a water hose. Like a fire hose," Pena said.

The family said raw sewage backed up, leaving furniture and other belongings floating even though they've spent all day pumping the water out. They've lost a lot.

"My daughter's toys, everything we bought, all my Christmas stuff, everything is gone," said Pena.

Next door, the neighbors salvaged what they could and urged others to leave it for insurance adjusters.

Carpet cleaners have been drawing out some of the dirty water. Crews have been hauling in fans to help residents dry out.

Americlean's Scott Rottier said, "We wound up receiving somewhere between (600) and 800 calls between last night and today and we're looking at roughly probably about 175 to 200 people still actually waiting for our service."

Over in Griffith, the subdivision where Patty Leitzke lives remained submerged Thursday. Water sat where hubcaps should be. Kids in inflatable boats cruised the streets.

"We're picking up stuff that we couldn't grab last night because everything just went up into our living room," Leitzke said.

Blocks away, workers were finishing a 1-1/4 mile tunnel that would help with flooding here. That tunnel filled with water, too.

Thomas Sandman of Griffith said, "This should have been alleviated a year and a half to two years ago."

No matter where we traveled, residents were tired of their yards looking like places for boats and swimmers.

So far, we've learned Griffith has had about 300 residents report water in their basements. In Highland, that number is 351 -- with 17 collapsed foundations.

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