David C.L. Bauer
Jacksonville Journal-Courier, Ill.
(TNS)
Jul. 17—ELSAH — Rescuers were able to pull one man to safety but could not save an elderly couple submerged in the same treacherous storm-swollen floodwaters that overtook a road in rural Jersey County.
Deputies were called at 11:58 a.m. Tuesday by a 70-year-old man whose car was trapped in flash-flood waters on Beltrees Road, according to Sheriff Nicholas J. Manns.
Emergency crews learned there was a second car trapped at the same location near Fessler Road. The caller reported seeing an elderly man trying to swim through the rushing waters of a swollen Mill Creek.
Deputies and rescue crews from multiple agencies responded, having to navigate impassible sections of the road. They arrived to find the man who called standing on the roof of his car with water already covering his feet, and a second car submerged in water, according to Manns.
Emergency dispatchers had been able to “calmly direct him to exit through his sunroof,” Manns said. “The caller did so as the water level rose above the roof of his car. Those directions provided by the 911 dispatcher to a bewildered caller likely helped save his life.”
Rescuers were able to reach the caller as waters subsided and he was pulled to safety.
Inside the second car, they recovered the body of an 88-year-old woman. The elderly man who had been seen earlier could not be located and prompted a search of the area.
Illinois Department of Natural Resources Conservation Police officers who were searching the area by boat found the body of the 88-year-old man along the Mill Creek bank a few hours later, according to the Jersey County Sheriff’s Department report.
Neither of those who died has been identified, but Manns said it was determined they were husband and wife.
“Our hearts and prayers go out to their family and loved ones as they work through this tragedy,” he said.
The sheriff’s department was assisted by Jersey Community Hospital Ambulance, QEM Fire Department, Jerseyville Fire Department, Godfrey Fire Department, Brighton Betsey Ann Fire Department, Conservation Police, Illinois State Police and Jersey County Coroner’s Office.
Manns praised the efforts, especially the work of dispatchers — who were handling multiple storm-related calls for help.
“All of the 911 personnel in the room that day sought out and coordinated multiple resources and agencies and scores of first responders. They patiently dealt with spotty radio communications and little-to-no cellular telephone service,” he said. “They grieved, yet continued their work, as they learned of the deaths of two victims that so many people were frantically trying to save.”
Intense storms moved through portions of Illinois at the start of the week as they made their way across the Midwest, dumping heavy rains and bringing high winds, tornadoes and flooding. The National Weather Service confirmed 17 tornadoes in northern Illinois and northwestern Indiana.
In Rockford, a 76-year-old man drowned Sunday when the pickup truck in which he was a passenger became trapped in a creek during a storm, according to The Associated Press.
About 200 people were evacuated in Nashville, in southern Illinois, on Tuesday after excessive rains caused water to overtop a dam and flooded areas downstream, according to Washington County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Alex Haglund.
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