Governor Bruce Rauner returned early from a holiday trip to Spain and Morocco to tour flooded areas of Illinois. He continued today with a visit to Watseka, about 100 miles south of Chicago near the Indiana border.
"The good news is the water has receded now in central Illinois. Bad news is, it's still very high in southern Illinois. My primary concern right now is Alexander County; the levees on the Mississippi River, have been breached in five different places. The water's been flowing in pretty aggressively. We've gone door to door, asking people to evacuate."
Rauner today added 11 more counties to the dozen he'd previously classified as state disaster areas. The new additions are Cass, Cumberland, Iroquois, Lawrence, Marion, Menard, Moultrie, Pike, Richland, Sangamon and Vermilion counties. Last week, Alexander, Calhoun, Christian, Clinton, Douglas, Jackson, Jersey, Madison, Monroe, Morgan, Randolph and St. Clair counties received the designation.
Rauner reminded residents to not drive on a road where water is moving, a situation that has proven deadly. He says it can take as little as six inches of moving water to push a car off the road. He says that's especially dangerous given cold, and icy water temperatures.
