I hope I'm not boring you with all these pictures of the flooding. It's just not something that happens to a small community like this. Yes, we had massive flooding back in 2008, but at that time, that was the biggest flood on record. This one has surpassed it and with that *new* record, we're seeing lots and lots of damage. It's sad to know how much it has affected this community. So, anyway, to those that are interested, I have more pictures to post. The water peaked sometime in the middle of the night - some say 1am, some say 10pm. Either way, it is now receding and we're now just beginning to see the damage the flooding has caused.
Yesterday morning there were news helicopters flying overheard and one took this picture of our town. You can definitely see how far the flooding went in this photo. To the far left is our school, which took on water. More about that later. The police, fire, and Nat'l Guard helped evacuate around 1,500 people from our little town of 5,000 late Thursday night as the flooding became an imminent reality. The levee breeched around midnight that night, with many, many homes taking on water. We ran into a gentleman today when we were out surveying the damage and he was able to get back into his home today, but his basement is filled to the ceiling and there is water on his first floor as well. He said he thinks the field at the elementary school took most of the water and that's why his house wasn't worse than it was, but he's still trying to decide if he should fix it or just take the insurance money and find another home. With it being his childhood home though, he's having a hard time deciding how to move forward. Just think of how many people are facing that same decision today. Such a sad time.
The kids and I drove down to look at some of the flood waters as they were rising throughout the day yesterday. The emergency workers and police officers were being very strict (and rightly so) about letting anyone pass the railroad tracks, because everything south of there was taking on water quickly. I was able to take this picture at the bottom of the hill we're on and you can see the water in the background coming up the street.
This morning we took updated photos. This is exactly the same photo Pete took on Friday morning on his way to work. The waters had moved over the road by the time it peaked last night. It's now back to where it was 24 hrs previously.
The baseball diamonds are completely underwater. And, not just by inches, but by a good couple of feet. There's a creek that runs by it and, trust me, it's never THIS high!
Since the waters have begun receding, the police were letting people cross the tracks, only keeping us a street back from the flooding. We were able to drive by the side of the school today. The front of the school was still suffering from flooding when we went by around 10am. And, obviously, from this picture, it's about where it was 24 hrs ago too. The back playground area, classrooms, gym, and cafeteria are still surrounded by water. Next week has already been called off, because of the flooding. They will have to go inside and access it next week to let us know how soon the kids might able to get back into the building in order to finish the school year. We're praying for a rapid recovery, so they can get back into school, but we won't know more for several more days.
As you can see, we were able to get within a street of the flooding, but it's going to take a few more days before all the roads are clear again. That means, people will be unable to inspect their homes until next week, even to see what the damage is. We have a long road of recovery to come.
You can kind of see here how much the water had come down by 10am. When we went back by around 3pm, most of the water in this specific section was gone, but looking down the road, you could still see a considerable amount of water still there.
The big bridge, crossing the Illinois River was closed since Thursday night, but it reopened sometime this afternoon. We drove to the other side when we were coming back from Ottawa and were quite pleased to see it had reopened. There were lots of people out checking out the river and the barges. We went to the park and started off further away from the barges, wanting to see the homes that had gotten flooded as well as see the school. All of which was across the river from us at this point.
We could kind of see the barges up against the dam here, but it was hard to see. If I didn't mention it in any previous blogs (because I'm not sure at the point what I've posted on FB and what I've posted here!), but one of serious problems we've had, because of the flooding, is that SIX barges got loose and rammed into the dam by our downtown area. Three are still afloat and jammed up against the dam. Two have practically sunk, and one has completely sunk. It's quite a mess and there was a lot of fear that the dam would break, but it sounds like it's ok - thank goodness!
Here's the line where the water reached. You could see this definitive line of leaves all along the grass like this. Kind of put into perspective how high it really got.
It seemed to be down more in some areas that in others, but guess that's just because of the way the water is flowing.
I tried to give you an idea of how high the water still is by using Livie as my guide. The stick she's using is supposed to point at a tree. It's actually directly below the tree I wanted to point out. That thick tree above her stick is a point where a path begins. The river's edge is usually right past that cluster of trees, so it is really, really high right now, obviously. It's running back into the forest right now. Ducks were back there swimming all around. They are probably enjoying their new swimming grounds. ;-)
We drove around to get a better view of the barges. Those rounded rooftops are the tops of the partially-sunk barges. Hard to believe that SIX of those things are clustered there. Barges are HUGE, long things. Unbelievable! I tried to remind the kids, who have seen their fair share of floodings in their life here, that they won't ever seen (or hopefully won't ever see!) anything like this again. We could hear these barges struggling in the water when we were picking them up from school on Thursday. They struggled most of the afternoon. It's was the sound of groaning metal. Very spooky and weird.
A big tugboat was on the shoreline, but I'm not sure why. They might be getting ready to start trying to do something about the barges, but the current is still so strong, I'm not sure if they'll be doing that for a few more days. I wanted to get a picture of my kids, but some of them weren't smiling. I told them to show me the smile they had about their school being closed for a week and this is what I got! ;-) Guess they aren't too sad about missing out on a few days!
Pete decided to walk on the bridge to take a few pictures. I'm not a fan of heights or bridges, so I opted to stay in the van with the kids. He got more pictures of the dam. You can kind of see the barges in the background there. They are on the other side.
Look how fast that water is moving!! Reminds me of the water at Niagara Falls which was zooming past at crazy speeds. SO SCARY!!
We saw this big stuffed dog on the little bridge and it was so cute there! It was pretty waterlogged, so I'm guessing it must have floated out of a house or out of someone's yard and someone rescued it and left it here for someone to claim. Sad to think of that child who lost his/her stuff animals, but nice to know someone rescued it.
We took a few pictures in Ottawa too. This is the YMCA that is right behind our church. You'll see the black fencing. That is the fencing for our church/preschool's playground. The water got awfully close to it! The Y took on water, so it's going to take time to get that cleaned up. The water is now completely covering its parking lot, as you can see.
Where Pete is standing is where the leaves left a trail. That is how high it got. This isn't the Illinois River though. This is the Fox River. It got dangerously high too!
Hopefully you can click on this picture to see it better, but this is the bridge that crosses the Fox right before it merges with the Illinois River. The water was literally at the bottom of the bridge yesterday. Because of that, the bridge was closed for 2 days. It just reopened today. The east side of town was also cut off on the other end/entrance of it, because of flood waters, so for two days it was virtually an island!
This is one more view of the Fox, down closer to the hospital. This road always seems to flood and the homes along with it, whenever we have really bad flooding. It affected more homes this time though. The record set in 2008 was surpassed by this flood by another foot and a half.
So, there you have it. This is what we're dealing with in our area. Many towns look just like this one, though I think our town took on the most flooding, from what I hear. With all the news focusing on what happened in Boston, and then TX, and then here, it's been a difficult week and an emotional one. Hoping the coming days bring more news of heroism and community spirit and compassion. We've seen that in the midst of these tragedies and I hope to see and hear more of the same.
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