SAVANNA, Ill. — Communities all across our area are stacking up their efforts ahead of what's expected to be near-record flooding.
Savanna is doubling down its preparation just days from seeing waters approach downtown.
"They've built approximately 850 feet of wall in the past 48 hours," Carroll County Emergency Management Jim Klienefter said.
More than a dozen inmates from prisons in East Moline and Kewanee pitched in to help build roughly 45,000 sandbags.
"The plans have really worked out well over the last 72 hours," Klienefter said.
The Mississippi River in the area was just over 17 feet as of Friday at minor flood stage.
"As the days and weeks progressed, the numbers kept going up and up, and that brings us to where we are today," Savanna Fire Chief Scott Wolfe said.
Officials expect it to crest later next week around 21 feet at major flood stage.
"Our people are used to a flood," Savanna Mayor Val Gunnarsson said. "It comes every spring, but every now and then it comes and just wallops you."
The highest recorded flood was in 1965 at 23 1/2 feet. The last extensive flood sweep through in 2019 over 20 feet.
"We had a pretty good idea that we were probably going to exceed 2019's levels," Wolfe said.
"There's only so much people can do," Gunnarsson said. "We're not unworried, but we're confident."
Leaders said it took only two days to build this year's flood wall.