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MINNEAPOLIS – Senator John McCain canceled his morning's events here today so that he could tour the soggy devastation of southeastern Iowa, where record flooding has left bridges and roads washed out and the Ten Pin Bowling alley half under water.

Mr. McCain left most of his entourage, security, and traveling press to make their way without him here to Minneapolis, where he has a town-hall-style event scheduled this evening, and took an eight-seat Cessna to Burlington, Iowa, and then drove to Columbus Junction, a flooded town of 1900 where the Iowa and Cedar rivers meet.

Mr. McCain, who wore sunglasses and a Navy baseball cap, traveled with one aide, Brooke Buchanan, two Secret Service agents and four reporters, who provided pool coverage for the rest of the traveling press corps.

He did not cross paths with the man he is vying to succeed, President Bush, who also spent the day visiting flood-ravaged communities in Iowa.

"I know that I speak for all Americans we'll do everything necessary to try and rebuild their lives and have a chance to continue leading normal life here," Mr. McCain said outside City Hall in Columbus Junction.

He first stopped in a building that serves as both City Hall and Police Department, where a sign on one of the doors explained who did and did not need Tetanus shots.

At one stop, about a half mile from the Iowa River, water had crested over a newly-built levy, flooding several businesses and at least one home were flooded. Water covered the lower half of a Subway sandwich shop, the Columbus Medical Facility and the Ten Pin bowling alley, and the local day care center and the Dollar General store were flooded as well.

Mr. McCain praised the townspeople who helped minimize the damage.

"The mayor's wife said we ought to rename Columbus Junction 'the small town with the big heart,' " he said. "That's probably appropriate given the volunteers who worked tirelessly to try and prevent and were able to minimize some of the damage of this natural disaster."

Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee visited flood zones in Illinois over the weekend.