JERSEYVILLE, Ill. -- Two people are dead and one person was rescued after vehicles were caught in rushing floodwaters in Jersey County, Illinois, on Tuesday.
The Jersey County Sheriff Nicholas Manns stated their office was called out at 11:58 a.m. on July 16, to a 70-year-old man who said he was trapped in his car during flash flooding on Beltrees Road near Mill Creek. This is in the rural portion of Jersey County near Elsah.
Another car was reportedly trapped behind this vehicle. Authorities reported the caller stated there was an elderly man standing outside of the vehicle in the rushing water.
After multiple first responders drove to the scene, they found the area to be impassable and had to travel by foot through several areas to get to where the caller was at. By the time they got there, authorities said one of the vehicles was completely submerged and the caller was on the roof of his vehicle as waters continued to rise.
First responders were able to rescue the caller as he was saved when floodwaters started to recede.
First responders then searched for the elderly man who was earlier reported as standing by his vehicle in the rushing floodwaters.
As first responders searched for the missing elderly man, Sheriff Manns said they found an 88-year-old woman deceased in the vehicle in which the elderly man was standing by earlier.
At 3:36 p.m., conservation police officers with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), went out by boat to search for the elderly man. He was later found along the bank of Mill Creek.
The sheriff's office said the man and woman found deceased in the floodwaters were husband and wife.
"Our hearts and prayers go out to their family and loved ones as they work though this tragedy," Sheriff Manns said in a release.
Assisting the Jersey County Sheriff's Office was the Jersey County 911 ETSB dispatchers, Jersey Community Hospital Ambulance, QEM Fire Department, Jerseyville Fire Department, Godfrey Fire Department, Brighton Betsey Ann Fire Department, IDNR Conservation Police, Illinois State Police and Jersey County Coroner's Office.
