1,000+ evacuated in Marseilles after barge hits levee
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS April 19, 2013 9:32AM
Maps
MARSEILLES — Officials say they’ve evacuated as many as 1,500 residents of the northern Illinois community of Marseilles after a possible levee break on the nearby Illinois River.
Connie Brooks, of the Lasalle County Emergency Management Agency, says the residents, including those in a nursing home, were evacuated late Thursday night after nine barges broke free of a tugboat and struck the levee. She says there is expected to be more flooding in the community of 5,100 residents southwest of Joliet when the river was expected to sometime Friday afternoon but that she did not expect that to prompt any more evacuations.
She says there were no reports of any injuries.
The Army Corps of Engineers in Rock Island says that efforts will be made Friday to remove the barges.
