How much damage did flooding cause in southwest IL? Here’s a town-by-town assessment so far
Flooding from a heavy rainstorm Tuesday in southwest Illinois damaged houses and cars, closed roads, forced the evacuation of a nursing home and eroded part of a levee, according to community leaders.
Damage assessment was far from complete Wednesday afternoon and was expected to continue in the days ahead.
Here’s a community by community assessment so far, as of 2 p.m. Wednesday:
Belleville
Multiple streets were closed because of flooding but were reopened by Wednesday.
Crews were cleaning up debris left by the floodwaters, and a section of Scheel Street was washed out, said Jason Poole, director of public works and the parks and recreation department.
The fire department helped residents get out of two homes on South First Street, according to Deputy Chief Lance Phelps.
All of the city’s pump stations for the sewer system remained in operation despite receiving 8 inches of rain.
Randy Smith Sr., director of waste water treatment and sewer lines, said the volume of overflow that was discharged into waterways is still being calculated, and he expects to file a report with the state by Monday.
Smith said his department received multiple calls about sewer backups in homes but he did not yet have a final number of homes affected.
High water damaged playground equipment, restrooms and parking lots at city parks in low-lying areas, Poole said.
The streets that were closed at one point include: First, Second, Third, Cleveland, Centreville Avenue, Monroe, Washington, West Main at North Sixth, F Street, Douglas Avenue at Illinois Street and Illinois 161.
Poole said this was the first time West Main Street had been closed because of flooding along Richland Creek since 1957.
Parks with damage include Southside, Hough, Rotary where the dog park is located, Skatepark and North End.
Mayor Patty Gregory said city officials have not yet been able to meet to assess the amount of damages caused by the flood in Belleville because the staff has been so busy responding to calls.
Cahokia Heights
Pittsburgh Drive, Howell Avenue and 69th Street off Lake Drive remained impassable on Wednesday after several streets were closed because of flooding on Tuesday.
Fifteen to 20 homes had flooding damage, particularly in the area of North 61st , North 62nd and North 63rd streets and on Church Road.
Mayor Curtis McCall Sr. said the city has aging infrastructure to deal with drainage problems that occur not only in historic rainfall amounts like on Tuesday but even when a moderate amount of rain falls.
“It is not a city issue; it’s a regional issue where it’s going to take the county, state of Illinois, the federal government, all of us to get in and solve the drainage problem that we have throughout our region,” McCall said.
McCall said he believes this is a regional issue because stormwater runoff from areas such as Collinsville, Fairview Heights and Belleville ends up in the East St. Louis and Cahokia Heights area.
The following streets in Cahokia Heights had flooding: North 69th, North 61st, North 62nd, North 63rd, Piat Place, Pittsburgh Drive, Golden Street, Bond Avenue, South 50th, Mousette Lane, Nelson Avenue, Sterling Street, Edwards Street, St. Benedict Drive, Paris Avenue, Mildred Avenue, Howell Avenue, Range Lane, Harvest Avenue and Doris Avenue.
Caseyville
The Caseyville Nursing & Rehabilitation Center remained closed on Wednesday after residents were evacuated on Tuesday because floodwaters came near the building after a levee was breached.
Caseyville Mayor G.W. Scott Sr. said the sewer system in the neighborhood needs repairs before the residents can move back to the home at 601 W. Lincoln Ave. They were taken to other nursing homes in the region. It was initially reported that about 120 residents were moved but Caseyville Deputy Police Chief Kale Pirtle said it was about 80 to 90 residents .
The Little Canteen Creek Levee was breached in several areas, which led to a 75-foot section on the south side to washout.
Scott said it was too early to put a value of the amount of damage caused by the storm.
Flooded streets have been reopened. Here are the streets that were closed at some point during the storm: Old Caseyville Road, Susanne Court, Lucinda Court, Fifth Street, Sixth Street, Seventh Street, Acordi Drive, Countryside Drive, West Lincoln Avenue and Black Lane.
East St. Louis
Multiple homes were damaged by flooding on Tuesday.
Carlos Mayfield, the city manager, said the number of homes damaged was still being compiled on Wednesday.
Swansea
Swansea Mayor Michael Leopold, as of Wednesday morning, said he was unsure of how many homes were flooded in the village.
“I don’t have any idea on that and I wouldn’t even begin to take a guess,” he said. “I know there were homes not even close to lakes or creeks and their basements still got flooded because of excess saturation.
“ I don’t know the full extent of everything just yet. I know we had water in the basement of a lot of houses and, guaranteed, we had a lot of flooding issues in homes.”
Leopold added the village is waiting on Gov. J.B. Pritzker to make a disaster proclamation in the next day or two.
“Then we’ll see what type of help we can give to our residents and see if we’re able to provide any type of assistance to our residents who had flooding issues,” he said.
Leopold did say McDonald Mobile Home Park was flooded in the lower parts and that Old Collinsville Road and Lake Lorraine subdivision experienced flooding. He also said the lower areas of old Swansea experienced some flooding, but that all roads are back open.
“The street department was out putting up barricades to keep people from driving through it,” Leopold said. “The water has receded. I think we’re all good. I don’t think we have any more flooding issues. I think by yesterday afternoon most of those streets were back open,” Leopold said.
The mayor also said the Lake Lorraine dam did not breach, that he’s “aware of.”
“Everything just overflowed,” he said.
As far as infrastructure damage to the village, “It was just a mess from the overflow. As far as real damage, I’ve heard of nothing at this point.”
Leopold also said it’s too early to put a dollar figure on the damage price tag.
“We don’t have any idea on the monetary value yet. It’s way too early. Again, we’re kind of waiting on the governor to make a disaster proclamation. At that point we’ll know what kind of help we can give our residents,” he said.
O’Fallon
Flooding occurred on several streets but the roads were reopened by early Tuesday afternoon.
Here are the places that were flooded: State Street between Lawn Avenue and Countryside Lane; Old Collinsville Road between Fountains Parkway and Frontage Road; Highway 50 between O’Fallon and Lebanon; Bristlecone Drive between Pierce Boulevard and Jeffrey Pine Court; Pierce Boulevard between White Pine Avenue and English Pine Lane; and Ponderosa Avenue between Pierce Boulevard and Red Pine Avenue.
Brooklyn
A spokesperson at Brooklyn Village Hall said they did not have any flood damage. The individual said Sixth Street was closed for part of the day Tuesday but since has reopened.
Madison County
Mary Kate Brown, interim director of the Madison County Emergency Management Agency, said the county was “thankfully” spared any major damage.
“We got really lucky on this one with the way the storm tracked,” she said Wednesday afternoon. “The heaviest dump of rain skipped right over us. There was some temporary street flooding and some streets overflowed but nothing significant to where we had to deploy like St. Clair County did. We were on standby just in case.”
Brown added the county did not have any major road closures, just ones near creeks —“nothing really of note.” And all roads are back open.
“We had some water come up in some places, but that was about it. We actually ended up taking some supplies to help St. Clair County. We were that fortunate that we didn’t get hit that hard to where we could help them out,” she said.
Madison
A spokesperson at Madison City Hall said they only had very minor flooding and no damage whatsoever. The individual also said at no point were any streets closed.
Pontoon Beach
A spokesperson at Pontoon Beach Village Hall said the town experienced no flood damage or road closures whatsoever. “We were pretty lucky,” the individual said.
Washington County
In Washington County, the secondary dam of the Nashville reservoir failed, but relieved the pressure on the primary dam to keep it stable, a turn of events Washington County Illinois Emergency Management Director Matt Bierman was very thankful for.
“When I put the warning out to all the people in the floodplain about preparing to evacuate ... the water was still coming up,” Bierman said Wednesday afternoon in an interview with the BND. “The water came in the reservoir so fast we literally watched it rise. We just wanted people to be ready to get out if they had to. Thankfully the secondary dam did what it was supposed to and all is good.”
Bierman also said, as far as he knows at this point, no homes were flooded.
“I put out an alert asking for people to let me know if they had basements or concerns about flooding,” he said. “As far as the dam, no houses went under. They were close.”
Bierman said the following county roads were closed at one point: Illinois 15, Illinois 177, County Highway 17, County Highway 27, County Highway 1, County Highway 18, Sycamore Street, Sweet Gum Street, Tower Road and Walnut Hill Road. Those all are now open.
As far as damage, Bierman said he had not witnessed anything yet.
“The park was underwater and ball diamond was underwater, but I have not been out there to fully assess that. It’s been several years since the ball diamonds went under,” he noted.
Bierman added his agency is working on assessing a damage pricetag.
“So far don’t have anything. We don’t know what it’s going to cost to repair the secondary dam or any of that type of stuff,” he said.
Reporters Mike Koziatek, Carolyn P. Smith, Garen Vartanian and Ahmad Lathan and correspondent Lynn Venhaus contributed to this article.
This story was originally published July 27, 2022 at 2:19 PM.