(WSIL) -- This time two years ago, folks along the Ohio River were dealing with dangerous river levels.
The Unionville Road floodgate, just outside of Brookport, was closed this time two years ago, thanks to rising river levels.
"Well Brookport sits a little lower, so of course, obviously we have to close the Unionville flood wall," says Massac County EMA Coordinator, Brian Horn.
When heavy rain compounded with already high river levels in February of 2019, Massac County braced for major flooding.
"Lower lying roads were in the water, there was few houses endangered," says Horn.
The rivers were already high, but then came the rain. It came in full force, dumping close to double the normal amount of rainfall that month.
"And then it backs up in creeks, and the river backs up, and the water has nowhere to go," says Massac County Sheriff, Chad Kaylor.
"The flooding is something really hard to deal with, you can deal with snow, you can deal with ice, but there's nothing you can do about that water. I mean you can remove down trees from a thunderstorm, but when the water decides it's coming up, it's coming up and there's not much you can do to stop it."
Thankfully, we don't see floods like this every year, but they are frequent enough to have a plan of preparation.
"If you live in the flood plane, or near the flood plane, keep an eye on the river levels, know where the water is going to be at, and make your preparations," says Horn.
The flooding in 2019, showed us that events like this aren't necessarily generational floods. The Massac County Emergency Management Agency says as long as you live next to a river, you should be prepared for flooding.
