Drenching rain floods area

Tony Huffman

With wailing weather sirens, howling wind and whooshing torrents of water fresh in memory, the storm system that hit Effingham and surrounding counties with nasty weather Friday night is still leaving its water-logged effects in the area. While strong winds left cleanup efforts of downed lines and trees, the excessive amount of water the storm produced quickly became the predominant issue in the early hours Saturday.

“It was amazing how many roads flooded Friday night,” said Russ Thomas, Effingham County Emergency Management Agency coordinator. “We had primary roads and secondary roads flooded. Pretty much every dip in the road was full of water.”

The amounts of rain varied throughout the area, with one similarity in all the reports — it was a lot in a short amount of time, from Fayette County reporting 3.85 inches to Jasper County reporting 7.62 inches in Newton to Effingham County with 5.74.

“We had weather spotters, deputies and dive team members all commenting that they were seeing roads flooded that they had never seen flooded before in their lives,” said Thomas. “The amount of rain just overwhelmed the ecosystem.”

Surrounding counties experienced many of the same issues from the rain-laden storm front.

“We had parts of (Illinois) 33 closed in two places that weren’t reopened until Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning,” said Doug Long, ESDA coordinator for Jasper County. “We had to evacuate some homes as a precaution to the rising water.

“We have two confirmed ag levy breaks, a bunch of basements flooded and some bridges have been washed out,” continued Long.

In Fayette County, ESDA Coordinator Gary Bryant said roads were still closed in the southeast portion of the county.

“Down in the Sigel and Stewardson area, they have secondary roads still flooded,” said Bryant.

In Dieterich, flooding led to evacuations late Friday night.

“ We helped evacuate an apartemnt building, one trailer and two houses,” said Mark Webb, Dieterich Fire Protection District chief. “6 to 8 houses had damage with about a foot of water in the house. Basically everywhere that touched the creek going through town was flooded.”

In Clay County, according to ESDA Coordinator Steve Lewis, Iola and Ingraham roads were flooded

In Cumberland County, which was declared a disaster area from extensive flooding, there is significant water damage that will have to be dealt with.

“I’d give an estimate at this point that we have around a million dollars in damage from the flood to roads, personal property and the fairgrounds,” said Webb Timm, Cumberland ESDA coordinator. “We have country roads still closed because of all the water, but the main routes are all open.”

At one point Saturday, some part of every road in the county was closed except for the interstate,” said Timm. “I’ve looked at the weather maps for the upcoming rain, and I think it will miss us. Hopefully it does, we can’t take much more rain.”

While the area is hanging out to dry in hopes of sunshine, more rain is the forecast for this evening.

“There is an inch of rain forecasted for Effingham with thunderstorms in the afternoon that could produce more rain in some areas,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Chris Geelahart. “Effingham is under a flash-flood warning all day.”

With more rain coming, the already drenched counties are preparing for additional flooding.

“If we get the rain they are calling for, the flooding may be back gain,” said Long. “The water isn’t dropping real fast. We are monitoring our water levels and hopefully we don’t get too much water from up north because that may cause problems as well.”

In Effingham, Thomas remains optimistic about the upcoming storm.

“As of now, things are back to normal,” said Thomas. “We had a lot of automobiles stranded, along with a hole the size of a Volkswagon at June lake, but for the most part, we got really lucky. We didn’t get any tornadoes.”

Tony Huffman can be reached at 217-347-7151 ext. 135 or tony.huffman@effinghamdailynews.com.

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