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Tri-Cities bracing for possible flood

Government officials, business owners and residents are keeping a wary eye on the Fox River through Kane County this week as rain and snowmelt have pushed water levels beyond the brink at spots.

As of Tuesday afternoon it appeared flooding was minimal.

"I'm happy to say it is actually receding at our location," said Paul Ruby, general manager of the Herrington Inn on the river south of State Street in Geneva.

Rains last August, including a big storm, pushed the river to historically high levels and workers and volunteers raced to deploy sandbags to protect the inn's first-floor rooms.

The river slipped into a courtyard and water came up through floor vents in a banquet room.

The inn has since installed a retaining wall to keep the river at bay.

Across the river at the Mill Race Inn restaurant complex, sandbags block an entrance to the lower level on the north side of the building, where most of the water that damaged the Mill Grill last August entered.

"So far, so good," owner George Roumeliotis said Tuesday afternoon.

He is worried, however, that another flood would sweep away the wood deck leading to the Gazebo outdoor dining area. It buckled in last year's flood, he said.

"We're really hoping they (the Army Corps of Engineers) don't open the flood gates in Wisconsin again," he said.

In St. Charles, part of a brick path on the east side of the river, south of Pottawatomie Park, was under water Tuesday. So was a section of path near Venice Tavern in Batavia and some benches near a river channel in Island Park in Geneva.

The Kane County Office of Emergency Management issued a warning Monday, saying riverside residents and businesses could expect flooding similar to that of last August.

Tuesday afternoon, the river was at 13.71 feet at South Elgin, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The agency did not have data, however, on what is considered "flood stage" at that monitor.

Farther north, at the dam in Algonquin, the river was at 2.38 feet, according to the National Weather Survey; flood stage is 3 feet. But recent changes in the dam that affect water height are not reflected in the National Weather Service data.

The county has sandbags ready to go at its facility in Geneva and at a township highway garage in East Dundee, said Donald Bryant, emergency services director.

One difference is that last year, weeks of rainy weather had filled the creeks and streams that flow into the Fox. That hasn't happened this year.

What Bryant wonders about is the melting of record snowfall farther north along the river in Wisconsin.

"The big thing is to be aware of what the river is doing," he cautioned riverside residents, suggesting they consider moving possessions out of basements.

Fritz Silefske of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources measures the water height at the Geneva dam on the Fox River Tuesday afternoon. Brian Hill | Staff Photographer
Boy Scout Island in St. Charles floods as the Fox River continues to rise. Brian Hill | Staff Photographer
Gulls seem to guard a gate that blocks the riverside path in front of the River View Miniature Golf Course at Pottawatomie Park in St. Charles Tuesday. The Fox River was over its banks. Brian Hill | Staff Photographer
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