IL

Storm restoration across Gallatin County

Gallatin County sits at the southern tip of Illinois where the Wabash and Ohio Rivers converge, placing it squarely in the NWS Paducah forecast zone and in the path of severe weather systems that track northeast across the lower Mississippi and Ohio valleys. Tornadoes are a documented and recurring threat - an EF-2 with 115 mph winds crossed southeast Saline and Gallatin Counties in May 2025 on a 10-mile track, and an EF-1 struck far northeast Gallatin in April 2024 during a historic 23-tornado outbreak that set an NWS Paducah single-event record. Large hail, straight-line winds exceeding 60--75 mph, and embedded derechos are common from March through July, consistent with the broader southern Illinois severe weather corridor. The Ohio River is a persistent flood driver: the catastrophic 1937 flood destroyed most of Shawneetown, the 2011 event left 36 inches of water inside homes near the riverbank for seven days, and the April 2025 crest again forced sandbag operations and resident evacuations along Route 13. Winter ice storms periodically layer onto the county's low topography, compounding structural damage and road closures in what is already one of the least-populated and most rural counties in Illinois.