People who live in the Illinois River town of Marseilles will learn more about their options tonight as the recovery from last month’s flooding continues. The Army Corps of Engineers based in Rock Island will host the town hall meeting that starts at 6:00 at the Marseilles American Legion Hall.
Colonel Mark Deschenes says the Army Corps will update residents about their work rebuilding the earthen levee that couldn’t stop the rising river:
We are working as quickly and thoroughly as we can to do two things: to provide them the Info they need to make informed decisions on what they’d like to do moving forward and to provide that info as quickly as we can without making false promises.
The levee was built more than eighty years ago: since then, some homeowners have developed areas too close to the levee and may lose their homes. Others have said they wanted to see if the Army Corps plans to raise the height of the levee before they decide if they will rebuild homes destroyed by the flood.