JASPER COUNTY, Ill. (WTWO/WAWV) — Doug Weddell said he hadn’t seen rain like this years.
“I have been a Jasper County resident all my life, I think the last time I remember a rainfall like this was June 2008.”
According to the Wade Community Fire Protection Chief Gary Lindemann, the department dealt with seven water rescues Monday night.
“Most of them were stranded in their cars, we did have a couple of them who were in deeper waters who were on top of their cars,” he said. “We were able to launch the boat, we didn’t have to launch the boat on all of them, but the majority of them we did.”
Lindemann said the biggest problems came from lack of visibility during the night combined with the bad conditions of the roads.
“Tremendous amount of rain, people detouring, not knowing the roads, it got pretty treacherous there for a while,” he said.
Lindemann reminded people to turn around when encountering water on the roadways, for the safety of everyone involved.
“I understand that there’s people that don’t know the roads, they’re trying to detour but there again, at night time it makes it worse,” he said. “Not only for the drivers but it puts all my guys in jeopardy here and it just makes things terrifying.”
