Flood in Pulaski County, Illinois

One fatality occurred when a motorist drove around barricades into a flooded area along Sandusky Road. The area is fairly prone to flooding of the Cache River. The vehicle was found completely submerged in Cache River floodwaters. A volunteer fire and rescue squad located the vehicle and the body of the motorist. The body of the female motorist was found in a flooded field about 100 feet from the vehicle. It appeared she may have tried to turn around, and the vehicle ended up in a flooded ditch. The incident was reported by a tow-truck driver who towed a second vehicle out of the floodwater. The driver of the second vehicle got out safely, but the vehicle was almost completely submerged except for a small part of the top.

Ullin was especially hard hit. At least 50 homes in Ullin were flooded, along with the town's pump station. The town's post office and grocery store were flooded. A car was submerged up to the steering wheel. Floodwaters rushed over a bridge in Ullin. Two to three bridges were washed out. Dozens of residents of an assisted living facility were evacuated as water entered the facility. The facility sustained major damage. Flooding of the Cache River closed Shawnee College Road for several days. Most of the county back roads were closed, and other areas of the county outside Ullin were evacuated. Six apartments and two houses were flooded in Mound City. Several homes in Karnak were surrounded with water or sandbagged, mainly due to flooding of the Cache River. Portions of Route 37 and U.S. Highway 51 were closed.

Major flooding continued on the Ohio River from April. At the Grand Chain river gage, the flood crest of 62.20 feet on the evening of May 2 came within two feet of the record of 64.00 feet set in 1937. The activation of the New Madrid Floodway by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spared Pulaski County from an even higher crest. With the detonation of the Mississippi River levee at Birds Point, Missouri, the Ohio River dropped suddenly at Grand Chain.