Flood — Alexander, Illinois

2016-01-01 to 2016-01-16 · near East Cape Girardeau, Alexander, Illinois

Event narrative

Mississippi River levels continued their climb from December, and record flooding occurred early in the month. At the Thebes river gage, the river crested at a new record of 47.74 feet before dawn on the 2nd. The old record was 45.91 feet, which was set in May of 1995. Records at Thebes go back to at least 1844. The 2016 crest would have been higher if a major levee break had not occurred in Alexander County. Flood stage at Thebes is 33 feet. The primary flood-related impact was a large levee break (about one-quarter mile wide) in the Len Small Levee near Miller City, between Thebes and Cairo. This levee break contributed to major flooding in and near the communities of Olive Branch and Miller City. Several dozen residences were flooded, some of them by water up to seven feet deep. Voluntary evacuations were requested as floodwaters inundated these communities and cut off access roads. Many homes and businesses in these communities were sandbagged, but many of them ended up being flooded. A Red Cross shelter was opened at Cape Girardeau. The National Guard was requested to assist with sandbagging operations and levee repairs. A couple of relatively small levee breaches were reported between Miller City and Cairo. The levee protecting East Cape Girardeau was in danger of failing, and residents of that community were advised to evacuate. Schools were closed in much of the county due to widespread evacuations. The impact of all of this flooding would have been much greater during the growing season, when crop losses would have been extreme. Because of the high water, barge traffic was restricted on the Mississippi River.

Wider weather episode

Flooding along parts of the Mississippi River surpassed the Great Flood of 1993. Along most other rivers, the flooding was relatively minor. The Governor of Illinois declared some counties disaster areas, including the Mississippi River counties of Alexander and Jackson. The very wet pattern that developed during the second half of December gradually dried out in January. This allowed all the rivers to fall below flood stage during the early or middle part of the month. The duration and seasonal timing of this Mississippi River flood was exceptionally rare. Past historical Mississippi River floods have occurred during the warm season, and their duration was on the scale of months rather than weeks.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.3042, -89.5042)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 611000. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.