WASHINGTON COUNTY, Ill. — “It was just a big mess. I was struck in my truck for more than an hour,” said trucker Jacob Lindsay.
By 4 this afternoon, the good news was the heavy rain had finally stopped,
However, a section of State Road 127 that leads into Nashville, Illinois, was still partially covered with water.
About two hours earlier, authorities blocked off the road due to flash flooding.
Residents and drivers said when the nearby secondary dam overtopped Tuesday morning, it sent waves and waves of water gushing across the Washington County area.
“We had more than a dozen customers stuck inside our restaurant because our parking lot was flooded. I have been here since three this morning,” said Jaylee Lisenby, who works at a McDonald’s along State Road 127.
The overflowing water flooded the parking lots at the popular McDonald’s, a gas station, Little Nashville Restaurant and several other shops.
At the height of the storm and "dam breaches,” truck driver Jacob Lindsay was trying to make a major delivery to his job when he got stuck on the flooded road.
“All that water would not be out there if that dam hadn’t failed. I don’t have anywhere to sleep in this truck. All I can do is wait it out, and hopefully that water would start going down,” Lindsay said.
“We just got stuck on this road in the traffic mess,” said David Spivey.
Spivey, his wife and their four dogs turned off onto State Road 127, ran out of gas and got stuck on the shutdown road.
“Man, our tank is empty. We tried to stop a way back at a gas station, but they weren’t open. We just got stuck here. I’m hoping we might have enough gas to go back down there soon,” said a weary Spivey.
Hours later, the sun came out, the water started receding on the busy road and in a few of the parking lots and drivers started to moving again.
“I am finally going home. Thankfully, most of the customers have now left, but we’re closing for the day,” McDonald's worker Lisenby said.