Six months ago, Dees, 70, watched as floodwaters inundated his home on Garden Street in Kincaid, a small Christian County community about 30 miles southeast of Springfield, Ill. He was able to salvage some personal items, but the furnace, appliances, furniture and interior of the home were destroyed.
Luckily, Dees has a carpenter friend who volunteered to help him rebuild. They gutted the house and rebuilt it so that it now looks like new. Dees and his wife of 47 years, Luana, hope to move back into their home by July 4.
“I just want one day in the house. After that, God can come and get me,” Gerry Dees said.
County hit hard
The Dees were among the hardest-hit residents when the floodwaters quickly rose in Kincaid, a town of about 1,470, after unusually heavy winter rains. Eighteen homes were destroyed and another 44 were damaged.
A retired Army sergeant major, Dees said water from the South Fork of the Sangamon River had gotten into his basement in the past, but in 40 years, he had never seen anything like the most recent flood. In addition to filling his basement, the water was about 3 feet high in his first-floor living space.
“When the water came up, we had an hour to an hour-and-a-half” to get out, Dees said. “We got the pictures and what we could carry into two or three cars. The water was getting so deep, it was going over the tires. We just had to take off. We lost everything.”
In addition to destroying homes, the flood claimed four lives in Christian County.
Two teenagers, Brandon M. Mann and Devan R. Everett, both 18, drowned when floodwaters overwhelmed their truck near Kincaid. Robert E. Gordon II, 49, and Cindy Dexheimer, 46, drowned in a separate incident 6 miles east of Edinburg when their van was overtaken by floodwater.
Matt Barnes, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Lincoln, said the flash flooding was the result of two storm systems that passed through the area between Dec. 26 and 28. Together, they dumped between 3 and 8 inches of rain that caused the South Fork to overflow its banks.
“It’s pretty unusual to get that much rain in December,” Barnes said. “... The temperature was considerably above normal. Most of the time, you would have a snow event that time of year.”
Slow progress
Kincaid Police Chief Dwayne Wheeler estimated that of the 18 homes destroyed, 11 have been rebuilt or are in the process of being repaired.
The seven remaining destroyed residences include four that have been abandoned, two that have been condemned and a mobile home.
- The owners of the two condemned houses have been advised to sell the lots, and the village is hoping that Habitat for Humanity can help with the four abandoned houses where no work has been done. The chief did not know what might happen to the destroyed mobile home.
Sitting on his front porch as a cool breeze blew across his yard, Dees said the progress at his house is due to the generosity of his carpenter friend.
“He’s been working 12-hour shifts. He and a couple of his buddies come in on the weekend,” Dees said. “... I don’t know what I would do if he wasn’t around.”
Since the flood, Dees, his carpenter friend and other volunteers have removed the drywall and ceilings inside the house. They discovered mold in the insulation, which prompted them to remove and replace the exterior siding, as well.
Work at Dees’ house is about finished. New interior walls have been painted and new cabinets have been hung in the kitchen. Someone even donated a like-new refrigerator to the couple.
Dees has moved his furnace, hot water heater and electrical panel from the basement to the first floor. They take up some living space but will be safe if the basement floods.
“You never know,” Dees said.
'Very tiresome'
A few blocks away on the south side of Illinois 104, Theresa Gibson isn’t as far along as Dees.
There’s drywall up in her house, but the walls haven’t been painted. She’s also not nearly as far along on her kitchen.
While Gibson has a contractor working at her house, she’s still doing some of the work herself in addition to working 40 hours a week at a grocery store.
“It’s very, very tiresome. I’m here at night, right after work and all my days off,” Gibson said. “When you leave work, you’re either coming here to work or you’re going somewhere to pick something out for the house. It’s always something.”
Like Dees, Gibson’s basement was filled with water when the flood hit. She estimated there was about 10 inches of water in the first-floor living space of her home, which she has lived in for 30 years.
She lost furniture, carpeting, beds, dining room furniture and personal items. Everything in the basement, including the furnace, washer and dryer, also were destroyed.
Since the flood, she’s been living with family in Taylorville.
“It’s a long process. We had to gut it, let it dry out, rewire, insulate and put up drywall. It’s just one thing after another,” Gibson said.
- She had insurance, but a lot of people in town, including Dees, did not.
Residents in Kincaid also had a hard time when it came to federal assistance. Illinois applied for two types of assistance with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. One would have helped individuals and businesses recover, while the other would have provided reimbursement to local governments for some disaster-related expenses.
Federal officials denied both types of help, saying the flooding was not beyond the capability of state and local governments and volunteer agencies.
The U.S. Small Business Administration did approve Illinois’ request to help people and businesses in Christian and other nearby counties that experienced flooding, making them eligible to apply for low-interest, long-term loans through the SBA.
Donations helped
Flood victims also got a lot of help from volunteers.
Like those from the Illinois Baptist State Association. They removed water-logged items from homes, power-washed interior walls and applied sprays to protect against mold and mildew.
Donations included numerous pieces of furniture, appliances, clothing, cleaning supplies and more than $59,800 to help the flood victims. Wheeler said the money was divided among the people whose homes were destroyed.
Help also came from Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Elgin, which is about 230 miles north of Kincaid near Chicago.
Pastor Jeff Mikyska heard about the Kincaid flood through a statewide volunteer group, and his congregation decided to adopt one of the destroyed homes. They’ve sent work crews down to Kincaid once a month for the past few months and helped with the demolition and rebuilding work.
“We’ve put in new insulation, new floors, new ceilings, and we’ve done drywall work,” Mikyska said. “It’s great to be around the family, to talk to them and hear how excited they are to get back in their house. That’s something very powerful. We take so many things for granted. To see a kid walk into a house and just be excited that there’s a wall there now, it really puts things in perspective.”
If all goes as planned, the Elgin volunteers plan to finish work at their adopted house in August.
While working at the house, the suburban volunteers have also gotten to know other people in Kincaid. They’ve been housed at the Baptist church and fed meals at the Methodist church. They’ve also attended community meetings and watched as flood victims volunteered to help their neighbors even though they had their own work to finish.
“People there know each other. They legitimately care for each other. They are a very resilient, determined and faithful group of people,” Mikyska said.
People still on edge
While Gibson and the other flood victims will hopefully be returning home soon, they say they will never forget the winter flood.
Now, whenever a thunderstorm passes through, they are reminded of the rising water and the pain they felt when their homes were destroyed.
“Every time it rains, I get the chills,” Gibson acknowledged.
Wheeler said Gibson isn’t alone. His office continues to get calls from nervous residents whenever it rains.
“They’ll call and ask us to go down and look at the river to make sure it’s not rising,” Wheeler said. “... We go out and take a look. If there’s an issue, we’ll contact emergency services and they’ll come out and survey it. Hopefully, if anything does happen, we’ll have time to get people out.”
By the numbers
44 – Number of Kincaid homes damaged by the flood.
18 – Number of Kincaid homes destroyed by the flood.
10 – Number of fatalities statewide from the winter flooding.
4 – Number of Christian County fatalities.
$1 million - Estimated dollar amount of damage in Kincaid.
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©2016 The State Journal-Register, Springfield, Ill.
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