State comptroller Susana Mendoza toured parts of Alexander county today to see firsthand the damage left behind.
She was joined by State Dale Fowler and Representative Patrick Windhorst along with some county officials.
The flood of 2019 left its mark on Southern Illinois.
Alexander county highway engineer Jeff Danny took them to Miller City road, well as far as they could go, because now that the water is gone, so is a lot of the road.
“A road that essentially now leads to nowhere.”
Comptroller Mendoza was shocked by what she saw, but one thing stood out the most.
“The most shocking thing I’ve seen is a barge, I can see if from here, that is clearly not on the water way, its on what used to be a farm.”
In 2016 three quarters of a mile on the levee protecting Miller City road was breached, that lead to even more damage during the flood of 2019.
Something the comptroller wants to find a stable and durable solution for.
“We have to fix the levee and we have to have permanent pumping stations, so that this doesn’t continue to happen every few years.”
Besides the physical damage, Mendoza says the flood affected the people and economy of the region.
“I think that the state of Illinois needs to make sure that we don’t forget about Southern Illinois and we do what we can to reinvest in it and bring it back to life.”
Monday the comptrollers office release $2.6 million to aide in the recovery process.
