Flood Waters Remain High; Officials Counting on Dry Weather to Help

Water levels along the Fox River remained high on Thursday.

Many area roads - such as Rawson Bridge near Cary - and other residential streets along the river were covered by standing water and closed to through traffic.

Some good news: workers and volunteers at Nunda Township had stopped filling sandbags.

However, the Nunda Township Highway Department remained plenty busy delivering water, food, gasoline and other supplies to those people stranded in their homes along the Fox.

"We're here to support the residents," newly elected highway commissioner Mike Lesperance said. Lesperance, his crews and volunteers have been working long hours over the past week.

Many of the people assisted by the township crews are elderly and want to stay in their houses. Several have lived through two or three floods in their lifetime, Lesperance said.

"It's not the road district's place to tell anyone they have to leave their homes. We're just here to help however we can. We're looking at seven days of clear weather coming up. We're hoping that helps. If we get more rain, we still have 1,500 sandbags and we'll start sandbagging again."

Lesperance said once flood waters recede, his crews will inspect roads that have been submersed in water to ascertain their safety.

"We'll have to assess whether there was any subterrain damage," he said. "We don't want people driving on asphalt if there's no gravel under it."