The day after a storm dumped more than 4 inches of rain on the Chicago area, homeowners on Friday were again mopping up and weather forecasters were puzzling over how they missed predicting such a torrential downpour.
In Chicago, city officials began evaluating whether the new, $75 million system to stop basement flooding was actually contributing to problems in some neighborhoods.
In three hours Thursday night, the lightning-packed storm flooded hundreds of basements, swamped cars and closed roads, including portions of the Edens Expressway, until dawn. State transportation officials on Friday said they will investigate two aging storm sewers to determine why the Edens, in particular, has been submerged by pooling water in recent storms.
The storm also contributed to the deaths of two men, authorities said.
Eli Tarter, a 21-year-old North Side man, drowned in Monroe Harbor after he became tangled in the leash of his dog, who was frightened by the lightning and thunder, police said.
On the city’s South Side, a motorist who said her vision was impaired by pounding rain struck and killed a pedestrian, William Herzog, 23, of Schaumburg.
The second of its kind in just four weeks, the storm dropped 4.3 inches of rain, especially along a 6-mile band through the North Side and the northwest suburbs. Along with the soggy Aug. 2 storm, the latest downpour brought the city’s total official rainfall last month to 12.25 inches, making it the second wettest August on record. (In August 1987, 17.10 inches fell.)
The rainstorm stunned weather officials, who had predicted scattered evening thunderstorms, but nothing the magnitude of Thursday’s drenching. “What happened with this one was pure fluke,” said Paul Merzlock of the National Weather Service. “We were expecting a slower, methodical rate, maybe half an inch of rain. When I saw flash flood warnings being announced, I thought, `Oh no.'”
In the end, a cold front moved into Chicago from the north and west, as expected, but another line of unstable air, south of Chicago, also unexpectedly traveled north into the area. “Why it decided to do what it did is a big question mark,” Merzlock said.
In the city, 1,200 people reported flooded basements to Chicago’s non-emergency call center. Another 445 complained of streets soaked by high waters.
`Rain blocker’ criticized
The storm sparked new questions over the city’s much-heralded “rain blocker” system, which is almost complete. Since 1998, the city has installed thousands of restriction devices in the catch basins under street drain grates to slow the flow of rain water and stop sewer lines from backing up into homes. After recent storms, though, some residents complained that the system has simply spawned a different brand of home flooding: Restricted from flowing into the drains, water pools in the streets to the point where it spills over curbs, across lawns and sidewalks, through basement windows, under doors and down stairwells.
“I have spent a lot of time in India and, even in the monsoons, downtown Bombay wasn’t as bad,” said Sherri Kranz, property manager for the Belle Shore, a landmark building at 1062 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. “We want the city to take out the rain blocker.” At the height of the storm, Kranz said, water flowed from the street, over the sidewalk and inside Salon 64, a beauty shop on the Belle Shore’s ground floor. “It was so bad we had to open the back door of the hair salon to let water out into the lobby of the apartment building, and we had to stop the elevator to let it go down the elevator shaft.”
On Friday, city officials said the system will be fine-tuned. “We are assessing performance … and will make whatever changes are necessary to eliminate any unintended consequences of rain blocker,” city sewers commissioner John Roberson said. Possible remedies, he said, could range from building higher street curbs to modifying or even removing the rain blockers in some spots.
Ald. Bernard Stone (50th) said the rains created “an extremely dire situation” in his ward, with numerous flooded streets and basements. “I have told Commissioner Roberson that the restrictors have only caused more trouble, and not cured the major problem, which is basement flooding,” Stone said.
The volume of rainfall swamped the Deep Tunnel, which can hold 1.6 billion gallons of water. When the rain began, it already was holding 400 million gallons, and within about an hour, there was no more room. The only option left, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District officials said, was to open the locks of the Chicago River in Wilmette. That sent 75 million gallons of untreated wastewater and sewage from the swollen North Shore Channel into Lake Michigan.
Opening the locks also triggered swimming bans at North Side and North Shore beaches, including Evanston, Wilmette and Glencoe. Chicago officials banned swimming at the city’s 18 beaches from Ohio Street to its northern limits. It was uncertain when the beaches will reopen.
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On the Edens, the worst spot was near Pratt Avenue, where rain accumulated to depths of more than 8 feet in places. Firefighters swam to rescue one Winnebago camper driver. Illinois Department of Transportation officials said they plan to use video equipment to investigate two 1950s-era sewer lines nearby to determine if they may be leaking or causing the repeat flooding.
Edens under water
Some regular motorists in the area were already out of patience. The scene under the Pratt overpass Thursday night was almost identical with the morning of Aug. 2. Same water, different cars.
Among them this time was Edward Cooper’s 1992 Nissan Pathfinder. Cooper was headed to pick up milk when he whooshed into the high water. It looked manageable, he said, until a truck rushed past, sending a wave over Cooper’s vehicle and stalling it. Eventually, Cooper escaped from the passenger side, jumped onto an embankment, and watched as the waters rose and his belongings floated out of the windows.
Gone was his 7-year-old son’s prized baseball, signed by Cubs coach and Hall of Famer Billy Williams. By Friday night, Cooper said he had not yet summoned the heart to tell his son the ball was gone–perhaps even washed clean, wherever it was.