Two inches of rain directly upstream from Algonquin’s part of the Fox River brought the water level higher than I have seen it this week.
And the water gauge bears out my observation.
Here you can see the water gushing out of the three culverts running under Dennis Road.
Walking down LaFox River Drive Saturday morning, I passed three police officers.
The street was blocked for traffic a block farther south than yesterday.
Sandbags now lined the west side of the block between the sidewalk and people’s homes.
Families were loading more sandbags in the street.
That apartment building driveway I have been writing about next to Cornish Park on the west side of LaFox River Drive was flooded Saturday morning.
The owner of the buildign was there and had been so since 1 AM while the rain was pouring down.
Sandbags lined the entrance to the driveway and the side next to Cornish Park, which has a low spot next to the driveway.
“Thank God for Menard’s and those guys,” he told me pointing to the pumps diminishing the water leading to the garages behind the building and the men who helped sandbag his property.
He told me that if his dike didn’t hold the adjoining neighborhood would flood.
On the other Fox River side of the street the home at 205 LaFox—right next to Cornish Park was the scene of pallets full of sandbags being brought in for reenforcing the double-walled dike.
One of the men helping was soaked, having been on the river side of the retaining wall shoring up the sandbags facing the Fox River’s currtnt.
Pumps were running to remove the water from between the two walls.
Another was pulling water out of the basement, which had been infiltrated for the first time.
This family has been undergoing an incredible amount of stress for over a week.
At the dam, the gates had been raised.
When I was there Thursday and Friday, I mistakenly thought that they were in the highest position.
The Fox was flowing into the edge of the gates then.
Now the river flows under them with inches to spare.
Two television crews were evident, CBS and ABC.
https://www.co.mchenry.il.us/county-government/flood-headquarters