Four people were dead and thousands of others struggled with flooded basements and power outages Sunday after a violent overnight thunderstorm had raked the area.
The spectacular, marathon storm was so severe that scores of commuters were left stranded at airports, flooded underpasses snarled traffic and Chicago beaches were closed after the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District was forced to release untreated storm water into Lake Michigan to relieve flooding.
For many taking advantage of typical hot-weather activities–picnics, dips in the pool–Saturday had been just another steamy August day.
But by mid-afternoon, the ingredients for a summer storm were brewing. Prevailing southwest winds carrying extremely humid air clashed with a cold front blowing in from the east to create skin-curdling thunder and lightning–and a traffic and safety mess.
Though temperatures only reached the high 80s, the high humidity–possibly the highest of the summer–made it feel even hotter, said National Weather Service meteorologist Jim Allsopp.
Meteorologists measure humidity in the air by the “dewpoint temperature.” Saturday’s dewpoint was 75 to 80 degrees, 15 to 20 degrees higher than average, Allsopp said.
“Anytime we have very high dewpoints, it’s not a good thing,” he said. “If you have thunderstorms, they’re going to be severe.”
The storm was strong enough to claim four lives.
Chicagoans Derrick Hall, 36, of 5123 W. Crystal St., and his girlfriend, Debra Nunnery, 36, of 5138 W. Hirsch St., were electrocuted at Hall’s Crystal Street address Saturday night, a Cook County medical examiner’s spokeswoman said.
Chicago police would not provide details of the incident but a neighbor, Demetrious Ramsey, said Nunnery died after opening the refrigerator in a flooded basement. Her boyfriend was killed trying to assist her, Ramsey said.
Carmen Sierros, 36, was also electrocuted while working at his home at 4446 N. Drake Ave., Chicago, a medical examiner’s office spokeswoman said. And a fourth woman, Lillie Rankins, 72, of 3817 W. Grenshaw St., Chicago, died after lightning apparently struck her home and ignited a fire, said Fire Department spokesman David McKoy.
While the hours of fierce lightning caused several fires in the city Saturday night, no one else was seriously injured, McKoy said.
For many people, though, the rain seemed to have no end. Some of the heaviest showers fell on the city’s North Side and north suburbs between about 5:30 and 9 p.m., but violent rains continued to dump water on the south suburbs and South Side through midnight, weather service officials said. Rains lingered throughout the night and didn’t stop until about 9 a.m., they said.
The heaviest rainfall reported was south of O’Hare International Airport, Allsopp said. Unofficial observers reported 5.19 inches on the West Side of Chicago and 4.78 inches in west suburban Northlake. Near Midway, weather service officials reported 2.25 inches, and south suburban Park Forest had 1.5 inches, he said.
The onslaught created a nightmare for travelers. Both O’Hare and Midway airports had flight delays of at least an hour and several cancellations, said City Aviation Department spokesman Dennis Culloton, and about 500 passengers at O’Hare slept on cots provided by airport personnel.
Filled sewers and underpasses spilled water as deep as 3 feet onto the Kennedy Expressway at Addison Street and on the Eisenhower Expressway at North Avenue, stranding and delaying hundreds of drivers.
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The rains forced the water district to open the lock gates at the Chicago River and Wilmette Harbor at about 8 p.m. Saturday, releasing 550 million gallons of potentially polluted water into Lake Michigan, said Hugh McMillan, the district’s general superintendent. By 7:30 a.m. Sunday the gates were closed again.
District officials try to avoid releasing the water–which can contain diluted sewage–unless the threat of flooding is severe, McMillan said. However, McMillan said the level of polluted water released Saturday was minimal.
“A lot of it was surface runoff water, rather than a combination of sewage and rainfall,” he said.
As a precaution, though, the Chicago Park District closed its beaches to swimmers Sunday because the lock gates had been opened, said Park District spokeswoman Nora Moreno. After bacterial counts on Monday, the district will decide whether to reopen the beaches, she said.
At the height of the storm Saturday night, 108,000 Commonwealth Edison customers were without power, with the north and south suburbs the hardest hit, company spokeswoman Lucille Younger said. That was slightly fewer than the 150,000 customers left in the dark by bad storms in mid-July, she said.
Company officials expected to have all service restored by Monday, a spokeswoman said. But even if they had their power returned, many Chicago-area residents were still in a foul mood Sunday.
Gloria Fishman, of 3814 N. Fremont St., Chicago, was among those trying to deal with flooding and a lack of electricity on Sunday. The carpeting she had installed for $4,000 in her duplex was ruined.
“I sent my husband and 5-year-old son to the Embassy Suites at $229 a night,” Fishman said. “I’m going as soon as the carpet people come. There’s no electricity. You can’t eat here.”
Servpro, an area company specializing in restoration and cleaning of water-damaged homes, got about 500 calls between Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, said employee Chris Long.
Long was busy operating a 200-gallon pump at a building near Fishman’s. He said most flooding was from raw sewage that had backed up into homes through toilets, sinks and other pipes.
“If the county or city (sewer) line gets full, it comes through, and there’s nothing you can do about it,” Long said. “When you get raw poop on the floor, people tend to get upset.”