H&R staff and wire reports

LINCOLN - Mother Nature on Friday continued to mix it up in Central Illinois by following snowstorms and blasts of Arctic air earlier in the week with freezing rain, then fog and rapidly rising temperatures that threatened flash flooding.

Central Illinois, including Macon County, is under a flash flood watch through Saturday afternoon, the National Weather Service reported.

Between 1 and 3 inches or more of rainfall was expected by Saturday, and the weather service warned of a significant flood risk in some areas as mild temperatures continued to melt ice and snow. The high today in Decatur is expected to reach 60.

Roadways lacquered with ice during early morning commutes thawed quickly, but mountains of melting snow began to create hazardous pools of water on those same roads later in the day.

"It's a Catch 22," said Marisa Kollias, spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Transportation. "We're getting rid of one problem, the ice, but we're getting another problem with the flooding."

The weather service warned that major flooding and near-record crests may occur on some of the larger rivers that feed into the Mississippi River.

"The potential exists for very serious and potentially life-threatening flooding to develop," the weather service warned.

The flood threat comes after a string of chilly and icy days in Central Illinois. On Friday, overnight rain that started around 1 or 2 a.m. combined with cold ground conditions for a very light amount of icing, said meteorologist Chuck Schaffer at the National Weather Service in Lincoln. The cold ground made roadways slick until things thawed out.

Icy roads were blamed for an accident involving-;nine vehicles at 7 a.m. Friday on Illinois 130 at the Embarras River hill, adjacent to Lake Charleston, in Coles County.

Three people were hospitalized due to the weather-related accident, said Deputy Thomas Williamson of the Coles County Sheriff's Department. He said the accident involved vehicles in the northbound and southbound lanes, and knocked one vehicle onto its top.

Williamson said the last vehicle was towed from the scene by 10 a.m. No one was injured seriously.

It was worse further north in Chicago, where almost all streets and highways were ice-glazed during the morning commute, and the Chicago Transit Authority's elevated train tracks were also covered with ice.