Levees in Illinois and Missouri are breaking after a rare winter flood. The Mississippi River was already swollen after an unseasonably wet late fall/early winter. Beginning on December 26, 2015, most of Missouri was drenched by heavy rains. More than 10 inches of rain fell over a period of three days, and the area was left flooded, which doesn’t usually happen in the Midwest until spring.
The flood caused evacuations in parts of Missouri and Illinois, especially southwest Missouri, and caused 24 deaths. About two dozen homes were damaged in Cape Girardeau, a community in southwest Missouri, after the Mississippi crested Friday night.
Central and southern Illinois were under flood warnings a day after the area had been slammed by a winter storm which brought sleet and icy rain. Much of the flooding occurred along the Kankakee, Illinois, Sangamon and Vermilion rivers. FULL REPORT
