ROCHELLE — Rochelle Street Department crews continued the cleanup from this past weekend’s heavy rains and flooding which primarily affected the city’s northeast side. Approximately five inches of rain fell Friday night leaving many streets impassible.
City of Rochelle engineer Sam Tesreau explained although many years ago the city removed brush and installed erosion control along the Kyte Creek, it was no match for the heavy rains that inundated the area.
“It was a case of too much rain in a short period of time,” Tesreau said. “The City of Rochelle has made proactive efforts to keep the creek clean of blockages, spending over $600,000 between 2006 and 2010 cleaning the creek to open up the conveyance for waters to flow through from over 20,000 acres upstream of Rochelle. The addition of small regional retention facilities such as the one near Elliots Way adjacent to Lakeview Subdivision, also allow excess water to be diverted and stored there for a period of time.”

The recent rainfall equated to in excess of a 25-year flood event for the area, and possibly greater, given the near saturation conditions that existed prior to Friday.
In the late 1990s Rochelle experienced the same type of flood event but with much less rainfall.
Tesreau said the maintenance efforts several years ago, along with storm water management and bridge improvements, help reduce long-term effects when flood events do occur. Efforts like these are an ongoing process.
“In addition, the City developed and implemented a more comprehensive storm water runoff management policy for new developments about 14 years ago. These detention/retention facilities are working as they were designed to and have given the area some relief from the multiple storm events we have been experiencing.” Tesreau said. “Consider it was almost twice as much as the precipitation we received in the late 90s, but the extent of the flooding was relatively the same. We need to keep in mind that there is a defined floodplain/floodway in the City of Rochelle and the development of such needs to managed and permitted in such a way as not to further exacerbate the floodplain situation or undo what we have accomplished in the past years. One thing for certain the floodplain in this community is not going away anytime soon so we need to learn to respect it.”
Mayor Chet Olson thanked the city staff and citizens for their cooperation and clean up efforts.