Pontiac Flood

[brownssl]

what a scary moment living in Pontiac our house was surrounded by water and we could not get out.
All of our neighbors evacuated except us due to living in a 2 story home. We were very fortunate and did not get any water in our home, but all of Wed evening we had table's put up w/ most of our belonging on it and carried most all other items up stairs just in case we started getting water in our home, but Thank god we got very lucky. I feel really sad about all of the people who lost alot in this
terrible flood.

[Frodos Majik]

Glad to hear you survived through the rising waters. With the little calumet river in my back yard, really back yard then the river, I understand completely about feeling for others that do take on water in bad storms. We have been here for over 15yrs and have been lucky enough that the river has not come over the embankment. But it sure does come up there.

[Frodos Majik]

I just saw on the news that the river I think that is in Kankakee is up too, I believe that river is the one in Knoted 4ever's backyard. Hope they are ok?!

[Mike]

Glad your story had a happy outcome. Must had been pretty worrisome for a while though!

[Babbman]

in 1996, we had some 19" of rain in 24hrs... I watched the water creep up to the house and then at 3am, all of the window wells gave way and in 10 mins, I had 7' of water in my basement, my garage slab dropped 2" in one corner and I was within 1/8" of having water in the 1st floor...

worst feeling in the world as there is nothing you can do about it...

[Anne]

We're glad u made it through. Scarey. Watseka has also had alot of flooding and they've declared it a disaster there.

[chicagokite]

Just spoke to Tom
They are ok water is real close to their Crawl space hope the water receeds next day or so.


just thought you all should know

Dave
www.chicagokite.com

[Frodos Majik]

Thanks for update Dave.

[Knoted4ever]

i'm glad that you guys are OK, Shawn! At work today, right before leaving to go home, i looked at a bunch of pictures that someone took of the Pontiac area during the flood. Very sad indeed; a lot of people will have irreparable damage, with mold, mildew, etc. Very sad!

We live right on the Iroquois River (which flows into and merges with the Kankakee River downstream). Unbelievable as to how high it (i.e., the Iroquois) is now. It finally crested this morning. For the Chebanse area north of us, the National Weather Service stated that 16 ft. is flood stage and that the river is to go to 20.5 ft. We are in a section of the Iroquois, however, that is much more narrow, though it is deeper... so the river rises a lot more here; i'd say 30 ft. or more. We are dry, fortunately; no water in the crawl space at all! Neighbors, however, down the road a ways, have water even in their living area... as it is lower in their spot, unfortunately. At one time, we did have flood insurance... but then were told by the bank that we did not need to have it... since we were not in a flood zone at all (our yard anyway); we were told that if we flooded, the whole of Watseka would be under water; we are very high up. Well Watseka is under water! Watseka was on the National News today (Headline News). It's going to be very tough for a lot of people... very unfortunate! Some homes across the river from us, and about 3/4's of a mile south, have water up to the middle or tops of their windows!

A friend of mine doesn't even live by any river or creek... and his sump pump is constantly pumping water out of his crawl space... so i guess we are pretty lucky.

[Frodos Majik]

Glad to hear you are ok Tom.

[burton31]

yea, i did not like the water either. it was around my house and i had 16 inches of water in my garage, but my house was okay. don't know about my car yet as it was in the garage. my son and i were out of the house since wed am., we each stayed with good friends. got back home friday night. it was scary.

[Frodos Majik]

Glad to hear you also survived Burton31. Here is hoping the car is ok too.

[brownssl]

the river is going down worked hard all day cleaning my shed had about waist high water in it i saved my riding more the water was over the top of it and saved my push more every thing else was taken to the junk still alot of stuff in my yard to pick up i fill pretty lucky most people on the east side lost every thing and some people are staying at the high school rec center with the red cross

[burton31]

Thanks Frodos.
Glad you are okay brownssl.

Darlene

[Knoted4ever]

As some of you know, who have been here, we live by the bridge that crosses the Iroquois River. At around the crest time the water was about 2 inches from the bottom of the steel bridge girders that were under the pavement. My wife found out today that they were seriously considering shutting down the bridge; they were afraid that it (the bridge) could be pushed away if the river came up any higher! The water came around half-way up the grass part of our back-yard. Our neighbor, who is a farmer in his 80's, said that it was worse than the '47 flood (which had been the worst until now).

As of today, many roads to Watseka are still closed. Rte. 1, the main road that we take to Watseka, is still flooded. With the freezing temps, it is very frightening about peoples' homes; much will freeze, including indoor pipes, etc. And it is supposed to get colder each day.