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Governor setting up special committee on flood cleanup

BY MIKE RIOPELL, The Southern Springfield Bureau

Thursday, August 21, 2008 4:20 PM CDT

SPRINGFIELD -- A special state committee plans to study how best to clean up and rebuild areas hit by flooding earlier this summer.

The price tag of the flood battle stood at about $5.4 million Thursday.

The cost of everything from sandbags to manpower used to try to prevent or clean up after the June floods could balloon to $10 million after all is said and done, said Illinois Emergency Management Agency Director Andrew Velasquez.

''Those are projected costs, and, again, the bills are still coming in,'' he said.

Not only are bills coming in, but inmates and state crews continue to work to remove debris from flooded areas along the Mississippi River and in the southeast part of the state. Gov. Rod Blagojevich declared 25 counties state disaster areas.

The long-term rebuilding could take a while, so Blagojevich Thursday announced a committee to begin studying the best way to do it.

The leaders of that group include: Rock Island County board chair Jim Bohnsack, former U.S. Rep. Terry Bruce, CEO of Illinois Eastern Community Colleges, and Madison County Board President Alan Dunstan.

The group hopes to recruit other local officials from affected flood areas along the Mississippi River and in southeastern Illinois and prepare a report in about six months.

Flooding in June hampered those areas for weeks in some places, forcing an extensive clean-up effort that continues now.

Quincy Mayor John Spring, who will serve on the committee, said with all the damage caused by the flood, the good news is that no one died in the disaster.

"That's almost unheard of,'' Spring said.