Clark County, Illinois · Marshall
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Marshall, Casey and Martinsville. Start the steps below while you wait.
Answered 24/7 by a participating local provider. We're a referral service and don't do the work ourselves. How it works
Start here
Pick the closest match. These steps limit the damage and protect your insurance claim. Skip anything that isn't safe.
With 38% of homes built before 1960 and about 29 hard-freeze nights a year, frozen and split pipes are a leading winter risk in the county.
Heavy rain days of an inch or more come about 9.3 times a year here, most often in July. A sump pump that hasn't run since last season is a common weak point.
38% of homes here predate 1960, when clay and cast iron sewer laterals were standard. Roots and cracks in those lines are a common cause of backups.
In Clark County, 2.82 inches fell on the wettest day of the 2015–2024 record. Storms like that, and ice dams in snowy winters, cause most roof leaks.
29% of occupied homes in Clark County heat mainly with wood or propane, above the Illinois county median of 16.5%.
Muggy summer nights, lows of 65°F or more, come about 53 times a year in Clark County. Mold after a leak spreads fastest from June through August.
Local risk profile
About 15,266 people live in Clark County, 501 square miles in eastern Illinois, in roughly 7,307 homes. The county seat is Marshall, and Casey, Martinsville and Westfield round out the largest towns. The county's median home was built in 1971.
49/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Clark County ranks 56 of 102 Illinois counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Clark County ranks highest compared with other Illinois counties.
For frozen pipes, Clark County is a typical Illinois county, which is still plenty. It averaged 100 freezing nights a year over 2015–2024, 29 of them at 20°F or colder, cold enough for pipes in outside walls and crawl spaces to freeze. Among 102 Illinois counties that's 66th.
The longest cold spell was straight 14 days without the temperature rising above freezing, ending in January 2018. The coldest night reached about -10°F on January 31, 2019. Burst pipes usually show up when a spell like that breaks and the ice thaws.
The freeze season here runs November to March, with January the coldest. If you travel then, leave the thermostat at 55°F or above and open sink cabinets on outside walls.
On average the first fall freeze arrives around Oct 25 and the last spring freeze around Apr 14.
Rainfall is about average for Illinois. The county gets about 43.8 inches of rain and melted snow a year, with 9.3 days of an inch or more (38th of 102). Those downpours cluster in March, June and July, when sump pumps and gutters are tested hardest. The wettest day on record brought 2.82 inches on June 11, 2018. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 5.2 inches (through June 12, 2018).
About 81 days a year swing from below freezing at night to above freezing by day. Those freeze-thaw cycles feed ice dams on roofs, open cracks in foundations and driveways, and stress pipes that are already marginal.
Housing
Roughly 64% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Clark near the middle of Illinois's 102 counties.
Older and newer homes sit side by side here: 38% predate 1960 and 17% are from 2000 or later. Corroded pipe is the typical failure in the first group, burst supply hoses in the second.
Beyond water
Summer nights that don't drop below 65°F, a good marker of humid air, come about 53 times a year here, close to the Illinois county median of 51. The EPA recommends keeping indoor humidity below 60%, ideally 30 to 50%. Basements can pass 60% on their own in summer, so a dehumidifier matters even without a leak, and anything wet should be dried within 24 to 48 hours.
Mold remediation: what to expectMain heating fuel in Clark County's occupied homes: 48% utility gas, 22% electric, 23% propane and 6% wood. Wood and propane heat are more common here than the state median. Have chimneys swept and fuel-burning appliances serviced each fall, and keep three feet clear around stoves and space heaters.
Fire and smoke cleanup: first stepsCoverage
Calls connect to restoration companies that work across Clark County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Coles and Edgar get more pipe-freeze nights than Clark. Edgar County has the oldest housing nearby, with 76% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Clark | Illinois median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 38% | 38% | 55 of 102 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 64% | 66% | 56 of 102 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 17% | 15% | 29 of 102 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 6.6% | 5.6% | 45 of 102 |
| Vacant homes | 10% | 11% | 58 of 102 |
| Wood or propane heat | 29% | 17% | 13 of 102 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 29/yr | 35/yr | 66 of 102 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 9.3/yr | 8.4/yr | 38 of 102 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 81/yr | 81/yr | 46 of 102 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 53/yr | 51/yr | 43 of 102 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Illinois county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Clark County: freezing from November to March, heavy rain in March, June and July.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 5-year estimates (2020-2024); weather from NOAA nClimGrid-Daily county averages (EpiNOAA), 2015–2024, averaged across the county; county boundaries from Census TIGER. Reviewed 2026-10-21. Methodology