NASHVILLE, Ill. — The heavy rains overwhelmed the Nashville, Illinois, reservoir on Tuesday, spilling over the dam and blowing away the secondary dam.
Washington County officials had to evacuate about 200 homes and had to rescue several people from rushing flood waters.
The Army Corps of Engineers evaluated the dam and there is no longer an immediate threat as of 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Several roads are still closed because of flooding or because they were washed away.
Ericka Eaton said she was at her family's shed near the Nashville Reservoir working to fix up her RV when the rain came pouring down. At first, she didn't think anything of it.
“And then I decided I was gonna take a little nap, I wake up at about 8:15 and there is water up to my ankles,” Eaton said.
In a matter of seconds, the water was up to her calves. When she realized she wasn't going to be able to make it out on her own, with her two dogs and cat, she called 911.
“So about 20 minutes after I was on the call, the water had gone from just below my calf to above my waist. And at that point, the lady is trying to tell me we have to look for a boat,” Eaton said.
Washington County Emergency Management said the water was rushing out of the dam so fast.
“There was enough water that the secondary dam, which is a sand-earthworks dam, blew away. That is what it’s designed to do. There will need to be some repairs made, we just don’t know how extensive it is yet,” Washington County EMA public information officer Alex Haglund said.
Eaton said it was hard for first responders to reach her by boat, and she had to think fast.
She grabbed her two dogs and cat and loaded them up on a foam dog bed that somehow floated with all three of them on board, so she could wade through the flood waters to the boat that finally made it.
“We got the dogs and the cat loaded up on the boat. And at that point, it's like, 'When you see the boat, I'm like I'm fine now because I know they're coming to get me,'” Eaton added.
And while she and her fur babies are safe, she lost everything she had stored there.
“These are the things that have all my photos and memories, and it's just all wet,” she said while sorting through boxes and bags of items.
Her storage unit down the road also flooded.
She was just one of the hundreds of people who had to escape the flash flood.
“I think the community is very strong. I love the volunteers that we have in this community for both official first responders, but then all of the regular people that really want to get out there and help people,” Haglund said.
Without them Eaton said she wouldn't have made it out.
“My stuff is gone, but it's weird for me to be okay. And I'm okay with it mentally because I knew what I was standing in. That was one of those moments when I realized this is where people die,” Eaton said.
Washington County EMA said Trinity Lutheran Church is the primary shelter in Nashville and will remain open overnight Tuesday.