Flooding in Illinois, April 14 to 30, 2001

During the first week of April a strong storm system fanned warm temperatures northward accelerating the snowmelt across the upper Mississippi river basin. Another storm system mid month sent even warmer temperatures surging northward along with severe thunderstorms and heavy rain. The prolonged abnormally warm conditions resulted in rapid snow melt and produced near record flooding over counties bordering the Mississippi River. Additional heavy rain fell over the headwaters of the Mississippi during the third week of April. This added streamflow led to secondary crests over Minnesota, Northern Iowa, and Wisconsin, and helped to prolong the flooding, or broaden crests on the Mississippi from the Wisconsin/ Illinois border to counties north of St Louis Missouri. Strong winds accompanying the storms forced water over sandbag dykes and levees causing additional damage. At Moline additional flooding occurred when backwaters from the Mississippi caused flooding at the mouth of the Rock River. To aid with flood preparations, the Illinois Department of Transportation distributed and pre-positioned 692,000 sandbags to flood prone areas. Communities impacted by flooding called upon the Illinois Dept of Corrections, the Illinois Dept of Public Health, the Illinois Dept of Natural resources, and hundreds of volunteers to help with sandbagging and flood fighting efforts. By late month 8 Illinois counties had been declared disaster areas, with damages and related flood costs estimated to be several million dollars. Flooding continued along the Mississippi River from East Dubuque IL to Quincy Il into May.