7 inches of rain causes southern Illinois dam to fail

The same drenching storms that dumped a foot of rain on St. Louis Tuesday morning traveled 60 miles east into Illinois and dropped another 7 inches on the town of Nashville.

It was enough to cause the secondary dam of the Nashville Reservoir to fail and flood about 40 acres, including the east side of the town and State Route 15.

Residents of three homes left their property for drier ground when the water rushed in.

The county's emergency management director, Matt Bierman, said even though the secondary dam breached, “It did what it was supposed to.”

Bierman explained the secondary dam helped to relieve the pressure off of the primary dam at the reservoir, which is holding steady.

His office is continuing to monitor the water levels at the reservoir and the latest forecasts from the National Weather Service, which call for another 3 or more inches of rain into the weekend.



State Route 15 in Nashville, IL was flooded when the secondary dam at the city reservoir failed during a 7-inch deluge of rain on Tuesday. (Photo courtesy Washington County EMA)