Some flooding in Chicago area

7-24-10 | mlizzy

[mlizzy]

ELMHURST, IL -- Considerable rainfall last night (and into the morning) flooded our street for the first time in twenty years. While our dogs found their 6:00 a.m. walk lots of fun, the man (and his two daughters) whose car was sitting stalled in the middle of the flooded street, wasn't so thusly amused. A few neighbors pitched in their brawn, pushed out the car to a neighbor's driveway, while a friend was called to rescue the dampened trio.

My husband and I continued walking on to Mass, passing by the park (which doesn't usually have a water effect).

The water in our street has now subsided, but traffic is still crawling (there must be a light out somewhere) on the four-lane highway outside of our home, and a few of our neighbors do not look so happy, as they pump out water from their yards, garages, and basements.

[Condor51]

My MILs 'finished basement' in Chicago (SW Side) was under 40" of water, 'almost everthing' in it is ruined.₍₁₎ And her street was under water too, up the the 1st step of her house, and that's raised from the street level.

To boot her phone is out of order, a constant busy signal so we had no way to see if she was okay, and she's 83yo. So that wasn't good for our nerves either. My wife finally got there about 2:30 driving around to miss all the flooded viaducts where the streets dip down. Her house location (and my old hood) is boxed in by RR Tracks and Viaducts.

But my question was and still is - where was The Deep Tunnel? That thing was supposed to end Flooding like this! Did Daley steal the operating funds over the years???

(1) 'Hopefully' after things dry out today, the electrical stuff will restart. Like the furnace fan motor for the AC.

[Ditter]

I always wished I could have a basement. This is one reason that houses in Houston don’t have basements, it would happen several times a year.

[Condor51]

*** I always wished I could have a basement. This is one reason that houses in Houston don’t have basements, it would happen several times a year. ***

Yeah, a house with a basement was our 'eventual plan' for when we out grew our first house. I had ideas for a 'Wood Shop' and a 'Photo Darkroom'. Plus a Wet Bar and Pool Table in the 'Rec Room' area.

But we stuck with our first and only house - a Townhouse with a crawl space₍₁₎. Our sump pump only went off for about the first year or two and that was back from 78 to 80 and it hasn't went on since, and neither has any of the neighbor's pumps. All that original ground water is now long gone. (Our Development was built on what was previously a big Farm).

And our cul-de-sac and immediate area is at a raised elevation too over other areas in our development. We were early buyers and I picked our lot for many specfic reasons, one was potential flooding.

(1) And now that our two daughters are grown and gone there's no reason to move either. I still don't have that Darkroom but the garage is fine for Wood Working.

[Ditter]

Big buildings in Houston have basements and I always wondered how they managed to keep flood waters out until the time that it happened. One of the hospitals’ basement flooded and ruined a lot of equipment. Then a basement parking garage flooded and a woman went down into it in the elevator and drowned in the elevator. That would be one of my worst nightmares, being in a flooded elevator and not being able to get out.

[mlizzy]

Oh, what a mess. I’m sorry regarding your MIL’s home and her losses. I hope she wasn’t too nervous about everything. Your wife must have been going a little crazy driving around the viaducts. Elmhurst was just a mess of traffic, not just on North Avenue but through town; our viaduct was flooded as well. I’m not sure about The Deep Tunnel. I’ve heard no word on that. I believe Elmhurst opened up one of its quarries to catch water, but I’m not even positive about that because we had flooding all over the place.

[mlizzy]

Wonderful photos! You suddenly have a bunch of new lakes! Hope you all are not too impacted by all that water.

Thank you! And the park did look beautiful; I wish it was like that always. I imagine the water has probably gone down by now. And we haven't even been in our basement yet. My husband and I were laughing about that last night. We don't keep much clutter anymore, and it's not a nice enough basement to actually use, so there's nothing down there to get ruined. But our neighbors have their trash out, though; their carpeting, and other various basement items.

[flaglady47]

I was raised in Elmhurst. I wonder if my old neighborhood got flooded. I lived on the corner of Fern and Niagara.

[mlizzy]

I looked up your area on Mapquest and I don't know anyone that lives that direction to check if it flooded. Many surrounding areas to ours had water, and the viaduct was flooded up high, but that's all I know of personally. In our area, it's sad, there's a fair amount of basement furniture/etc. hauled out to the curb. We just checked our basement today. We have nothing down there except our water heater which is/was working fine (the pilot did not go out), and our dryer which is/was working as well. I mentioned to my daughter, who doesn't always support our "Amish" way of life, that if you don't have much material to begin with, you can't be sad losing it. She did a bit of an eye-roll; I would have great enormous difficulty living without electricity myself. The Amish are a hardy group.:) Are you still in Illinois?

[mlizzy]

My husband told me today that Westchester was one of the hardest hit areas. His friend who lives there had water completely fill his basement and stopped just at the main floor. While he lost things that could be replaced, he was most upset that his baseball card collection and stamp collections were ruined. What a mess!

[mlizzy]

About 90% of the homes on our block lost everything in their basements. Our neighbor, I think, lost his tenant as well ... and State Farm is shown (in my parking spot!) at the house next door assessing the damage ...