Skokie residents who live near Church Street and McCormick Boulevard got a rude awakening Friday morning after a broken water main flooded the areas of the neighborhood and the cold turned much of it to ice.
Skokie and Evanston officials issued a boil order for drinking water and closed down streets while some schools switched to e-learning.
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Skokie officials said the flooding was caused by a burst water main at East Prairie Road and Emerson Street. Both Skokie and Evanston sent out communications instructing residents to boil any water used for drinking for at least five minutes, then let it cool before using it to drink, or in cooking, brushing teeth, etc., to kill bacteria. The Evanston order affected only the part of the city nearest the water main break.
Residents were trying to ward off damage to their properties.
“I don’t want to want to even check (for damages),” Elvir Dizdarevic, a Skokie handyman and resident of the 9200 block of Ewing Avenue, said inside his flooded and frozen-over garage.
Dizdarevic said at its height, flooding was knee high. He said he was concerned for his neighbors who hadn’t opened their garage doors. Freezing temperatures are expected to continue, forming ice, Dizdarevic said, and could make it difficult for his neighbors to open their garages.
Willer Laude, of the 3300 block of Church Street, said it was the first time he had seen flooding this severe on Bennett Street, and that his garage was also flooded. His neighbors on Ewing Avenue said the flooding in that area was worse because the ground is lower.
Residents found that several cars parked on Bennett Avenue did not start due to the flooding. Laude said he was able to move his vehicle before the water set in, but he was trying to help a neighbor get their car out.
Businesses in Skokie were also affected by the boil water order and the lowered water pressure. In a phone call with Pioneer Press, Bill LaPell, the Skokie Chamber of Commerce’s director of partnerships, said several restaurants in Skokie had to close.
“You can’t wash dishes, you can’t open,” LaPell said. The water restrictions also means that bathrooms in some businesses can’t be used.
A Skokie official at a news conference Friday afternoon downplayed any possible connection between work that crews performed Thursday night and the early Friday water main burst and flooding.
On Thursday, emergency crews from the Public Works department were conducting an emergency repair from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m., Skokie Public Works Dirctor Max Slankard said.
“The crew that was on the scene last night departed the scene at approximately 2 a.m. They were responding to water that was coming through a mantle structure. They dug two excavations at the time they were on the scene. Neither of those were fruitful, if you will, in terms of drilling the source of the leak. So they buttoned up the excavations for the evening, barricaded the site, and then left, intending to come back with the benefit of sunlight.”
“They certainly didn’t leave the scene with the water event that we found ourselves confronted with this morning, so I wouldn’t expect that there’s a correlation other than there was a leak of some more minor type going on.”
Niles Township High School District 219 gave students an e-Learning Day on Friday due to the broken water main, school officials said. All before-school and after-school practices, activities, and events were canceled, and buses heading to Niles West and Niles North high schools were rerouted to drop off students at their homes.
Evanston Township High School District 202 officials said many of the district’s students, families, and staff live in the area affected by the freezing flood, but the school remained fully operational, with some limited access to restrooms as a precaution to help maintain consistent water flow.
Evanston/Skokie School District 65 officials said Friday had been a previously planned no-attendance day because of parent-teacher conferences.
At a virtual press conference hosted by the city of Evanston, officials focused on the importance of having residents impacted by the flooding adhere to the water boil advisory.
Road closures were in effect Friday on McCormick Boulevard from Dempster Street to Golf Road and East Prairie from Church Street to Golf Road.