Flood — Christian, Illinois

2015-12-27 to 2015-12-31 · near Sicily, Christian, Illinois

Event narrative

An extended period of heavy rain during the evening of December 26th in Christian County combined with an already saturated ground to produce flash flooding. Rainfall amounts ranged from 2.50 to 4.50 inches in less than six hours, with the heaviest rain in the southern half of the county. Most rural roads and state highways were flooded and impassable. City streets in Taylorville and Pana were also flooded. The flooding continued through all of December 27th. Additional rainfall of 2.50 to 4.75 from December 28th into the 29th aggravated the flooding situation significantly. Every road in the county was flooded which resulted in a shortage of barricades to close the roads. The village of Kincaid was hardest hit as the South Fork of the Sangamon River overtopped levees and flooded the southeast part of town for the first time in its history. People had to be rescued by boat as all roads in and out of town were flooded. Three houses were destroyed by the flooding in Kincaid, with 41 others damaged. Four fatalities occurred in two separate incidents early in the morning of December 29th. Two 18 year old males died as their pickup truck was swept away in flood waters near the South Fork of the Sangamon River and Illinois Route 104 about one mile southeast of Kincaid. Two other people died as their van was swept into the Buckhart Creek about 5 miles ENE of Edinburg. The flooding finally subsided by the afternoon of December 31st, more than four days after it started.

Wider weather episode

A multi-faceted storm system brought several periods of heavy rain to central and southeast Illinois from December 26th through 28th. The system began to spread rain into the region from the southwest during the early morning hours of Saturday, December 26th, with the rain continuing into Saturday night. By the morning of Sunday, December 27th, widespread 2 to 5-inch totals were reported southeast of a Jacksonville to Rantoul line. This amount of rain falling on saturated soils from recent wet conditions produced widespread flash flooding and fast rises on creeks and streams. After a lull in the rainfall for much of Sunday, another round of rain moved in from the south from Sunday night through the afternoon of Monday, December 28th. Heavy rains of 1 to 3 inches were common across the entire area from this portion of the event, further aggravating existing flooding conditions. Once the flash flooding subsided, ongoing areal flooding persisted through December 31st...with river flooding continuing well into January 2016. Many rivers climbed to major flood stage as a result of the excessive rainfall. The flooding situation was made even worse by levee breaches, including one along the Embarras River near the Jasper-Crawford County line. Four people died as a result of this major flooding event across central Illinois. All four died when their vehicles were swept away by high water in Christian County early in the morning of December 29th.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (39.6394, -89.4768)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 613481. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.