Ill. communities still on edge as water rises

As floodwaters crept higher Monday, some Illinoisans filled even more sandbags to protect their homes and businesses -- and hoped rivers would crest where experts said they would -- while others recognized the only thing left to do was leave.

From the far north edge of Illinois down to communities that look across the Mississippi River to Missouri, people wondered when rivers finally would crest. In some spots they heard it would be today, but others knew it will be later in the week and even next week as water continued to seep south from Wisconsin.

"It's coming up the street," said Jeneane DeSherlia, who was moving everything on the first floor of a three-story building she and her husband own in the Mississippi River community of Grafton to the higher floors in anticipation of the ground floor being a couple feet underwater within the next few days. "It's getting closer."

In the tiny Mississippi River town of Keithsburg, 185 miles to the north, water had been pouring onto the streets and into homes since Saturday when a levee burst, with water levels climbing higher and higher.

Just between Sunday night and Monday morning, said Alderman George Askew, water went from 3 or 4 feet in some parts of town to sitting as high as 5 feet.

If the river crests there today just above 25 feet, or about 11 feet above flood stage as the National Weather Service has said, "Our town will be halfway saved," Askew said. "I hope they know what they're talking about."

There also was growing concern about drinking water. In northern Illinois' Antioch Township, for example, some people stopped drinking well water out of concern it is contaminated by flood water, said resident Merry Ladewig.

"We're hoping the Red Cross will come out here soon and bring us drinking water," she said.

About 300 miles southwest, drinking water was of particular concern in Quincy, where there is a water treatment plant. Though officials were confident Monday the plant was well protected from the swollen Mississippi, if floodwater reached the plant, "It could potentially take out the water supply for 40,000 people," said David Rudduck, a spokesman for Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

If residents suddenly found themselves without water, the state has a stockpile of nearly 100,000 gallons that can be sent to communities that need it, according to the governor's office.

At the same time, 600 National Guard troops and 100 Air National Guard troops have been deployed to the western part of the state, as well as more than 200 minimum security prison inmates. Over the weekend, the troops filled a half-million sandbags and placed them along the river and levees. Monday afternoon, they were in the process of filling another half-million and placing them near the Sny Island Levee, just south of Quincy.

At one of four sites in Quincy alone, between 3,500 and 4,000 sandbags were being filled each hour, said Julie Shepard with the Adams County Emergency Management Agency. She said the Mississippi had reached 28.7 feet there Monday afternoon and was expected to crest at 31.9 feet.

Most of the sandbagging efforts were focused on the stretch of about roughly 300 miles from the Quad Cities area south past Quincy and through Pike County, said Illinois Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Patti Thompson.

Blagojevich's office said it had provided about 2.8 million sandbags to communities around Illinois was prepared to send out another 4.5 million in the next few days to shore up levees.

As the water has climbed, it has threatened the approaches of bridges across the Mississippi. On Monday, the Illinois Department of Transportation was shoring up the Illinois approach of the only major bridge that links Hamilton to Keokuk in Iowa, using 16,000 tons of rock to elevate a 2,000-foot section of U.S. Highway 36.

Illinois has thus far not seen anywhere near the number of evacuations as communities across the river, particularly in Iowa. But the American Red Cross chapters have set up shelters across the state, including the Quad Cities area, Quincy and Rockford.

In the Rockford area, for example, about two dozen people displaced by the Rock River were staying at a Red Cross shelter set up inside a high school -- and there were obvious signals more area residents were worried about being forced from their homes.

"We have people coming in and touring the facility ... in case they have to leave," said Terry Rudeen, a Red Cross worker.

"You can just see the tension in them," she said. "They're trying to be prepared as much as they can but it's still overwhelming."