more space than water, you can see it hammering into bridges piers and river front homes. and gary tuchman, these days he's looking like a south pole scientist. where are you? what are you standing on? >> reporter: anderson, right now i'm standing on top of the kankakee river, about an hour south of chicago in the town of wilmington, illinois. just a few days ago this weekend, this was iced over. as flat as a hockey rink. then it started to thaw and melt and it got ridiculously cold again. the windchill is about 20 below zero and this has become a river of ice boulders. it looks like scenes from an arctic tundra. seemingly frozen to a halt. it's called an ice jam. everyone we're talking to who lives around here says they've never seen this river looking like this. during the summer, this is a popular place to go boating. but right now it looks like a glacier landscape in alaska.