Illinois River Expected To Crest Today

By Benjamin Cox on May 27, 2020 at 11:46am

Residents in Cass, Scott, Morgan, Pike and Greene continue to keep their eye on the Illinois River. The river is expected to crest at several points today, possibly bringing a decline to the late Spring flooding. Governor J.B. Pritzker is set to tour the river today. He is holding a press conference in East St. Louis later today about IEMA’s response. As of last Thursday, Pike, Scott, Morgan and Grundy were issued a state disaster proclamation for flooding by the governor’s office.

The Illinois Emergency Management Agency has also initiated sandbagging operations to help communities along the Illinois River with the Illinois National Guard over the weekend. So far, mitigation efforts have worked well to stem off the moderate flood stages in the region.

As of 10 o’clock this morning, the National Weather Service’s Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service has all 4 sites along the lower Illinois River hitting crest today. Beardstown currently sits at 26.63 ft, with an expected crest of 26.66 feet later this afternoon. La Grange Lock & Dam was measured at 31.35 ft. at 8AM with an expected crest of 31.35 ft later today. Meredosia was at 25.26 ft at 9:30AM, with an expectation of 25.28 later this afternoon. Valley City was at 23.06 feet at 9AM, with an expected crest at 23.1 ft later this evening. The river level at Hardin is expected to slip into moderate flood stage for the first time early tomorrow morning at 31.2 ft.

All of the crests are well outside of record historic crests for the region, which is better news than what was predicted a week ago. An inch of rain is expected over the rest of today on into Thursday evening before making for clear skies over the remainder of the weekend. The warmer, drier weather could spell the end of major flood concerns for the rest of the summer.