Flooding puts lives on hold

June 06-- Jun. 6--Homes have been lost and others made inaccessible by floodwaters in Hancock County, Illinois, leaving some river town residents displaced and on standby until the waters recede.

"The whole town was hit hard," said Bob Durand, president of the Village of Pontoosuc, a town of about 150 people made nearly inaccessible due to flooding. "When you come in, you can just cross the train tracks and that's it."

Durand and his wife fled their home about a week ago as the waters rose to low-lying homes. The couple now is staying in a camper at Leisureland Pleasure Park in nearby Niota, Illinois, until the waters recede enough that they can return to their home to inspect the damage. Niota also was hit with flooding, though not as severely.

"We can't get in our house and we can't drive to it," he said.

Flooding is nothing new for Pontoosuc and its residents. Unlike the nearby towns of Dallas City and Niota, however, where sandbagging efforts still are taking place in preparation for additional potential flooding, the owners of all but one home there chose to let the river rise naturally without the protection of sandbags.

"The way they're situated, it's really hard to, there's so much bagging to do," said Jack Curfman, emergency management coordinator for Hancock County.

The reason being is a slough juts out into the middle of the town.

"You can't do anything with it so you've basically got to put a lot of extra distance in what you build. If it comes up over anyway, you've still got your cleanup to do," Curfman said.

Durand said this year's flood isn't as bad as the one in 2008, but it's close. Following that flood, 12 homeowners accepted buyout offers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Durand said everyone in the town was offered the buyout, but many, including himself, decided to stay.

"That's our home and we like it down there," Durand said.

While the majority of homes there are built up above the flood plane, Durand said some homes have gotten water in them. There also is a fair amount of travel trailers that couldn't get moved in time because of the damp, wet grounds.

Illinois saw the third wettest May on record, according to a report by The Associated Press, with average statewide precipitation being 8.4 inches above the long-term average. May also was the sixth-consecutive month with above-average rainfall. A gauge in Dallas City along the Mississippi River registered the highest precipitation total in the state for May at 14.75 inches.

"It's just been a mess down there," Durand said. "And until it's all done, we can't really assess it."

Because they are better situated, residents of Niota and Dallas City did extensive sandbagging ahead of the crest on Saturday, with some help from inmates from the Illinois Department of Corrections, who have been helping to fill sandbags for county residents to stack up around at-risk structures.

Despite those efforts, Dallas City lost at least one home, although it was related more to a fire that started as a result of the flooding than the flooding itself.

Dallas City Mayor Kevin Six said another home likely has been damaged beyond repair, despite being surrounded by sandbags. The technique had worked in 2008, but not in this flood.

"There was just too much, too fast this time and it got away from them," Six said, explaining the water collapsed one of the home's walls, causing extensive water damage to the rest of the structure. "Once it starts through, there's no stopping it. It's pretty bad."

He said an additional three homes also may be damaged beyond repair, though an assessment has not yet been completed.

Six is hopeful President Donald Trump will declare Illinois a national disaster area, explaining 12 to 14 homes likely would qualify for buyout relief from FEMA were it an option, as it was in 2008.

"All of us down here now, we're done with this," Six said. "They told us in '93 that this was a 100-year flood and that nobody back in '93 would ever see that again. We know it's going to happen again, so we'd like to see a buyout. Without FEMA, it isn't going to happen."

While nearly all of Pontoosuc is under water, only a couple of roads have had to be closed in Dallas City, including a portion of River Road, which is impassable in three spots, and a railroad crossing that cannot be used. Six said another railroad crossing has been opened up to accommodate the other closure.

While some roads still remain closed, the Keokuk-Hamilton Bridge reopened Wednesday, allowing for less cumbersome passage between the Iowa and Illinois sides of the river.

"It's nice to have the bridge open so we can get across is again," Curfman said.

Because the Iowa side is at a higher elevation that the Illinois side, it fared fairly better than its neighbor to the east, though river towns have not been without their woes.

KEOKUK

Keokuk's riverfront has been affected significantly by this year's flooding. Victory Park and Mississippi Drive are underwater, blocking access to the River Belt Museum, shelter houses, campgrounds and access to the south boat docks, as well as the Southside Boat Club and the U.S. Coast Guard. The city's wastewater treatment plant and Roquette America were protected by a levee system.

Keokuk Public Works Director Mark Bousselot said there had been some concerns over whether that levee system would hold due to wave wash erosion on the river side of the levee. Sandbags were used to prevent further damage ahead of the river's rise.

"There was a little bit of damage done last fall that hadn't been repaired, but we had worked through the spring addressing and maintaining our concerns to make sure we were prepared," Bousselot said.

As the water recedes, Public Works employees will be able to access, assess and address the flood damage.

Bousselet estimated the river has another five feet to recede before it gets all the way back into its banks, but it will be at about 21 feet that access to the riverfront will be regained.

MONTROSE

Montrose Mayor Ron Dinwiddie said Montrose is doing fine, save for the temporary closure of a bridge over the lower slough that had to be closed for about three days after water came up over River Road.

"It wasn't deep or anything, but we didn't want people taking the chance of driving through, so we went ahead and closed it," Dinwiddie said.

Riverview Park remains covered in water.

FORT MADISON

Fort Madison also has temporarily lost its riverfront to the Mississippi.

"We weren't able to save Riverview Pavilion from getting wet," said Public Works Director Larry Driscoll. "We'll have to do some rehab on that building."

Driscoll said the North Lee County Historical Society did a "great job" protecting the CB&Q Depot, which managed to get only a little damp during the flooding. He also credited the wastewater treatment plant crew for keeping the plant from getting flooded and overwhelmed with groundwater.

Not all areas of Fort Madison have been so lucky, however.

"We do have a long ways to go in fixing Riverview Park and Riverview Marina," Driscoll said, adding that it will cost about $350,000 just to dredge the marina to get it back to what it was before the flood.

The floodwaters did not spare the Old Fort Madison, located at 716 Riverview Drive.

Water has gotten into the building and a small part of the east wall broke off and floated away. The water has begun to recede, but in its place are dead fish, mud and muck.

The city's streets also have seen significant damage, and many still remain closed. Driscoll said about 16 blocks will need to be inspected and addressed once the waters recede enough. Roads there still closed are:

* The intersection of Iowa 2 and Old Business 61

* Avenue I from 11th to 14th streets

* 14th Street from Avenue M to Avenue J

* Most of Avenue M from 14th to 18th streets

* Avenue P from 18th to 20th streets

* 20th Street from Avenue N to Avenue P

Driscoll estimated it will be about a week before those roads will be able to be reopened, so long as there is not more rain.

"We are a river town, and we are more prone to these types of scenarios," Driscoll said. "But we'll keep plugging away and hopefully, by the end of the summer, we'll be back to normal."

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