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Sand boils may cause levee breach

Reporter - Jason Hibbs
Photojournalist - Jeff Pierce

CAIRO, IL-Strong springs of water are gushing from the ground. They're known as "sand boils" and that water is coming from the Ohio River, and contains sand and pieces of rock that may be from the levee built to keep water out of the city. The Corps fears that will weaken the levee and may cause a major break and flood the city.

In Cairo, Illinois water is where it shouldn't be.

It's caused by the largest sand boil ever, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. It's 40 by 30 feet wide.

One sand boil is contained for now, but The National Guard has another one to worry about.

"I've never seen anything like that, it's developed real quickly, we took immediate action," Army Corps Flood Fight Commander Tom Morgan says.

"There is a risk, there could be a mishap," Morgan says.

That's why The Guard is working as fast as they can.

Boats are full of sandbags and sent out to the sand boil to try and get a handle on this situation as quickly as possible.

The goal is to build a wall around the sand boil, it'll fill up with water and hopefully keep more from gushing out.

Dirty water is still coming out, that's a bad sign according to geotechnical engineer Randy Lord.

"The pressure was so great that it's bubbling up and bringing material with it from the aquifer column, we don't want material to come because as it passes it's taking material from the levee possibly," Lord says,

Crews hope they can control this one and don't want to think about what will happen if they can't.