Levee breaks in eastern Ill. force evacuations
LAWRENCEVILLE -- Jim McClaskey drove in Tuesday to see whether floodwaters threatened a campsite near this southeastern Illinois community. He needed a boat to get out.
Rising, swift waters that breached a Embarras River levee quickly made a mess of things around this 4,600-resident Lawrence County town near the Indiana line, swamping dozens of square miles of farmland and forcing the evacuations of about 200 homes and many livestock.
Officials also say another levee broke along the Wabash River near Westport, and voluntary evacuations were being done near 900-resident St. Francisville, south of Lawrenceville.
More Coverage Video Raw Video: Aftermath of Ill. Levee Break
There were no immediate reports of injuries, and damage reports were unclear. Sheriff Russell Adams said floodwaters reached the roofs of some homes, although much of the damage was in farmland and prairie.
McClaskey, 58, saw much of it firsthand. After using backroads to drive into the flood zone, hoping to check on the North Fork campground, McClaskey found his exit blocked within an hour by rising floodwaters.
"We tried to leave" but couldn't, he said. "We turned around, and it got too deep."
McClaskey soon found himself trapped on a driveway, surrounded by floodwaters. Rescuers eventually came in a boat, not far from the wooded campground where dozens of the recreational vehicles and camping equipment were half-covered by water.
Some nearby houses also were nearly submerged, and many farmland irrigation systems were swamped.
As of about midday Tuesday, about 50 to 75 square miles of acreage had been affected by flooding, Adams, the sheriff, said. "But that can go up."
By Tuesday afternoon, the Embarras River at Lawrenceville was at 40.4 feet, roughly 10 feet above flood stage.
Illinois' Emergency Management Agency regional coordinators were assisting local officials.
Shelters were set up in Lawrenceville's junior high school and the local Central Christian Church, where messages left Tuesday by The Associated Press went unreturned. As of mid-afternoon Tuesday, Adams said no one had sought help from the shelter.
Rain-swollen rivers were causing problems elsewhere. Along the Mississippi River on the other side of Illinois, rising waters were creating a serious and potentially dangerous situation for residents in and near towns like Quincy and Grafton, National Weather Service hydrologist Karl Sieczynski said Tuesday.
River levels at most of the towns are now just slightly above flood stage, but the river is expected to rise dramatically over the next week or two as tributaries drain into the Mississippi. Sieczynski said residents who live in flood plains near the affected towns "should be moving to higher ground already."