Flood in Fulton County, Illinois

Record flooding on the Spoon River damaged 40 houses in the towns of London Mills, Bernadotte and Seville. Multiple levees along the river broke, resulting in the inundation of thousands of acres of agricultural land, nature preserves and county roads. A levee at London Mills also broke, resulting on flash flooding in the town during the evening of April 18th through the 19th.

At Seville, the river crested at a record level of 35.83 feet on April 20th, nearly 14 feet above flood stage, and almost 3 feet above the previous record. The river gage at London Mills became disabled because of the flooding, but manual readings indicated a crest of 26.50 feet on April 19th, the second highest reading on record, and nearly 12 feet above flood stage.

Excessive rainfall during the middle of April led to widespread flooding across a large part of northern and central Illinois. Locations from the Chicago metro area, southwest along the Illinois River Valley, received 5 to 10 inches over a two day period from the 17-18th. This heavy rain event combined with moisture laden soils from moderate to heavy rain between April 10th and the 16th, and resulted in record flooding along the Illinois and Spoon Rivers in central Illinois.

The record flooding did significant damage to locations along and near the river banks. Every county along the Illinois River was declared a state and federal disaster area.

High impact flooding on the Illinois River continued into the month of May 2013.