News

Illinois River crest expected to cause major flooding

Western Illinois farmer Wayne Brown is bracing for an expected crest on the Illinois River.

“Right now it’s not bad, but by Wednesday night it’s supposed to be right on top, so we’re supposed to be at a pretty severe flood stage,” Brown told Brownfield Ag News Monday. “That’s without any of this expected rain that we’re supposed to get the next four days.”

Brown farms near levees that have been in place almost 70 years. With enough manpower, Brown says he can prepare the levees to be at least a little more effective.

“We build a board fence and we put plastic over it, and then we sandbag it to hold the plastic in place,” said Brown. “That gives us another 11 ½ inches of levee.”

Brown has not begun to plant, which he says is also the case with many of his neighbors.

“There’s hardly any planted down there,” he said. “I’m talking maybe a field or two of forty acres; maybe ten percent at the most has been planted.”

Brown was able to move stored grain from bins that are threatened by high water.

When that crest comes Wednesday, it’s expected to last a few days causing major flooding for most of the reporting points along the Illinois River, according to Blake Roderick with the Pike and Scott County Farm Bureau.

“The Corps of Engineers and National Weather Service just upped their prediction for a crest another half-foot,” said Roderick, “which brings it within six inches of the record high.”

Roderick, who’s been traveling the area surveying the flood situation says that part of Western Illinois is getting water from three rivers.

“Basically the lower Illinois River has become pretty much a lake,” Roderick told Brownfield Ag News, “where the Mississippi is backing up, the Missouri River water is backing up into the Illinois River and just kind of making it a continuous pool for several dozen miles.”

Roderick says farmers are working to shore up levees before the crest gets to that area.

“They’ve been at it in Scott County since Saturday,” he said, “going on three days of continuous work to build these levees up.”

With wet weather in the forecast through June, Roderick said, much of that land will likely not get planted.

“Farmers want to farm, farmers want to plant their crop,” he said. “Because of the flood and because of the rain they’re not able to get that done, so they’re kind of down in the mouth right now and wishing for the best.”