CASEYVILLE, Ill. — Flooding in the Metro East was so intense that multiple neighborhoods in St. Clair County had to be temporarily evacuated, but some areas saw even more damage.
“The radio has been crazy all morning,” said St. Clair County Emergency Manager Herb Simmons. “A lot of people are making mistakes trying to drive through the water, so we’ve got boat rescues going on throughout the county.”
What started as an early morning call for a water rescue quickly turned into an all-hands-on-deck evacuation of roughly 40 dogs at the St. Clair County Animal Shelter.
“All of the puppies and the kitty cats have a dry place for right now,” said Simmons shortly after the animals were transported to a St. Clair County Highway Department garage.
The same can’t be said for St. Clair County residents like Jason Hare.
“Everything just came across the tracks,” said Jason Hare. “This morning we were looking out our window and we had to evacuate because it was going so high.”
Hare could only stand and watch as the floodwater found its way under the railroad tracks and into his Caseyville, Illinois, home.
“I’m pretty concerned because I’m about to lose everything,” said Hare. “My house, all of my kids clothes, everything.”
As the water continued pouring into town volunteers quickly evacuated residents from a nearby retirement community.
“It’s a sad situation,” said volunteer Jay Fath.
“If it gets up much higher it may be hard to evacuate them out,” said Mark Tyler.
While wheeling residents through the water and shuttling them to a safe place people like Mark Tyler are struggling to recall the last time they saw flooding like this.
“We’ve never had this much water around our lot,” said Fath.
“In the early 90s, I believe it was '93, there was spot flooding all over the place,” said Tyler. "This is about as bad as I’ve seen it.”
There were some unconfirmed reports Tuesday morning that a levee outside of Caseyville may have breached, but according to Simmons, it's common for water to wash over the top of that levee when we have this much rain.
A secondary dam on the Nashville, Illinois, reservoir failed flooding low-lying portions of that community and closing parts of Illinois Route 15.