West Frankfort mayor says city did what it could to prevent flooding

WEST FRANKFORT, IL (Roni Leforge – WSIL TV. Please click to read the full story and watch the accompanying video. Here is an excerpt) City leaders dispute claims they didn’t do enough to ease flooding that caused people to leave their homes. Several homes had more than six inches of standing water inside over the weekend, which led some residents to believe the city’s pumps may have not been working properly. But News 3 spoke with the mayor, who says the pumps were working just fine. The system just couldn’t get the water out of town quickly enough. Michele Odle spent Tuesday morning unpacking her home. “I left pots and pans and stuff like that in there, but all my big furniture and stuff was all in a U-Haul,” said Odle. Within hours on Saturday morning, her yard had become a lake. She and her husband decided to get the important things out, so they wouldn’t be destroyed by flood waters.