Flood — Peoria, Illinois

2013-05-01 to 2013-05-08 · near North Chillicothe, Peoria, Illinois

Event narrative

High impact flooding on the Illinois River continued from April.

Numerous homes along the Illinois River in Chillicothe, Rome, Mossville and Mapleton suffered flood damage due to record river levels. Several businesses were damaged, and numerous streets were flooded, along the Illinois River in downtown Peoria. A total of 505 homes and businesses were damaged by the flooding in Peoria County. Early in the morning on May 4th a man drowned when he drove his vehicle into the floodwaters northeast of downtown Peoria. High impact flooding subsided when the river level at Peoria fell below a stage of 22 feet on May 8th.

Wider weather episode

High impact flooding on the Illinois River continued from April into much of May. Excessive rainfall during the middle of April led to widespread flooding across a large part of northern and central Illinois and resulted in record flooding along the Illinois River in central Illinois. Another heavy rain event from May 2-4, 2013 prolonged the flooding into the middle of May for most of the Illinois River basin.

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (40.9714, -89.4453)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 456486. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.