IL

Storm restoration across Adams County

Adams County sits in western Illinois along the Mississippi River and falls squarely in the region's severe weather corridor, averaging 32 documented tornadoes since 1876 with peak activity in April through June; the May 2003 F2 near Lima caused $5 million in damage across 40-50 structures, and an April 1945 complex of tornadoes and downbursts destroyed Quincy's courthouse dome and heavily damaged the business district. Large hail accompanies most spring and early-summer supercell events, and the county lies in the path of derechos and straight-line wind events that regularly sweep eastward from the Great Plains across the Illinois prairie. The Mississippi River corridor creates a persistent flood threat: Quincy recorded 152 consecutive days of flooding during the Great Flood of 1993 with the river cresting 15 feet above flood stage, and major flood events have also struck in 1903, 1944, 1965, 1973, 1985, 2008, and 2019. Winter brings its own hazards, as western Illinois sits within the nation's primary ice-storm belt - a high-risk corridor tracking from Pike County through the Quincy area - where freezing rain accumulations and severe ice storms routinely knock out power and isolate communities from November through March.