When the rain comes, Sharen Renee Parish sits on her basement steps and waits for the water to mop up mud, a tall task for the disabled Chicago Transit Authority retiree who needs a caregiver.
It worked as heavy rains fell Monday night. But in the storms over the weekend, the water just kept coming, rising past her knees.
“I’m not even supposed to be in the basement trying to do this, but I have no one to assist me. No one whatsoever,” Parish said.
The 61-year-old caught the attention of Mayor Brandon Johnson on Tuesday morning as he walked through the Gage Park neighborhood, flanked by a number of top city officials tasked with overseeing sewers, streets and emergencies, leaving buckets of cleaning supplies — disinfectant, dust masks, mop heads and more — on doorsteps and in outstretched hands.
A devastated Parish told the mayor that her purple-and-white sided home — now with a broken boiler and a furnace fixed after July flooding broken again — is her one shot at leaving generational wealth for her granddaughter.
“All my efforts are fruitless,” she said. “I’ve called everyone and I can’t get any assistance.”
“Well, we’re here,” the mayor responded. “We don’t control the rain. The infrastructure in our city has been in need of repair for a very long time. We’re committed to that repair. We need your help and support, because these repairs do require investments. We are living in a time in which people want me to cut the budget.”
From the flooded basements on the city’s Southwest Side to a flooded riverwalk in Naperville, thousands across Chicago and the suburbs were affected by storms Monday night into early Tuesday. Damages were only made worse by the weekend’s storms, a meteorologist said.
Allison Anderson, director of the Will County Emergency Management Agency, said “every corner” of her county has felt the impact of this weekend’s severe weather. Residents have reported flooded basements and roadways, she said, and it will take a few weeks to fully understand the scope of damage. There were at least 45 reports of storm and flooding damage to homes after opening an assessment survey for just a few hours Tuesday.
“This one is definitely elevated compared to other ones this year,” Anderson said, referring to previous summer storms that caused widespread flooding.
In DuPage County, officials estimated that flood control facilities took in more than 82 million gallons of water during the recent storms. The DuPage River even overflowed its banks, covering the Naperville Riverwalk Tuesday. The county’s stormwater management field crew responded to calls for assistance Saturday night and again on Monday by pumping floodwaters in portions of Westmont and Lisle, officials said.
Up to 7 inches of rain in northwest Indiana led to scattered flooding, school delays and power outages. BP’s Whiting Refinery operations were also impacted by the thunderstorms after an odor was reported near the refinery.
More Top Picks Best Cold Therapy Machines For Knee Surgery
The repeated storms are taking their toll.
In Emetric Whittington’s bungalow, an “unbearable” smell lingers in her basement, she told the Tribune from her porch in Gage Park. She was also forced to move her brother to an upstairs room after the basement’s ceiling collapsed from water damage.
On Tuesday morning, boxes filled her living room, a sign of the decision she made after July’s flooding. Whittington, 59, said she will move from her home of 15 years, although she isn’t sure where she will go.
“I’m trying to find a place, it’s like a needle in a haystack,” she said, adding she hopes to stay in the city near her job as a home health care aide. “It’s frustrating and sad and depressing. It’s making me nervous. You know, we’ve been here for a long time.”
‘Highly variable’ rainfall
Rainfall totals were “highly variable,” from half an inch in downtown Chicago to 3 to 4 inches in the south suburbs Monday and Tuesday, said Lee Carlaw, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Carlaw said the storms were caused by a low pressure area that was able to “wring out all the moisture from the atmosphere” because of Monday’s high humidity, leading to slow-moving, heavy-rain producing thunderstorms.
Carlaw said flooding was likely exacerbated by the weekend’s rain, which saturated the soil and made the conditions more favorable for flash flooding. The weather service also warned that swimming conditions at Chicago’s beaches remain “life-threatening” until Thursday, with expected waves of 3 to 6 feet.
One bright spot, however, is that a cold front will gradually work its way through the Chicago area, Carlaw said. By Wednesday, he said conditions will be cooler and less humid. Precipitation isn’t in the forecast this week either, he said.
That’s good news for crews working to clean up storm damage at one Mount Prospect apartment complex.
Officials believe a “microburst,” a downdraft of air that can cause damaging winds, caused the roof of the four-story apartment complex at 701 Huntington Commons Road to partially blow off Saturday afternoon, displacing residents from its more than 60 units.
As crews carried out water-soaked carpeting and other destroyed belongings Tuesday morning, some residents waited outside to ask for updates on their homes. Olga Bruessel, lives on the building’s first floor with her son. She said she had lived in the apartment for about a year, and is staying with a friend for the time being.
“We finally settled in just for this to happen,” she said, adding that she doesn’t have renters’ insurance.
Bruessel was in her car during the Saturday storm. She said she had only about 40 minutes to grab her belongings from the apartment.
“Some (residents) didn’t even have a chance to get any of their things,” she said.
Kylie Cerk, a spokesperson for Mount Prospect, said the property owner hired a structural engineer and restoration company to assess and clean up the damage. She added that a few people remain in temporary shelters.
Cook County officials also reported storm damage in Cicero and Berwyn.
How will the city respond to a ‘100-year’ downpour?
Meanwhile, Chicago’s Department of Water Management Commissioner Randy Conner called the rain, nearly 6 inches in under two hours, a “100-year” downpour. The emergency management office is asking residents impacted by the storms to fill out a flood damage assessment survey, which they say helps them pursue options for additional resources.
“It’s like trying to put 10 gallons of water into a five-gallon bucket at a rate of 20 gallons per 30 seconds,” Conner said.
Speaking with reporters, Johnson officials floated a few quicker solutions — adding sensors in drains, planting thousands of trees and more aggressively clearing pipes. But, ultimately, the mayor said with a changing climate and an insufficient drainage system on the South and West sides, the city must raise “progressive revenue” to pay for major fixes.
“The ultimate goal is to make sure that this doesn’t become the norm, and it really requires us to invest in people, and that will require progressive revenue,” he said. “We’ll bring it to the residents and people can decide if we want to remain stagnant and continue to get what we have received or do we want to press forward … so that families who are hurting from these floods don’t have to worry every time it rains.”
Ald. Raymond Lopez, 15th, praised the mayor for visiting flooded homes but criticized him for pushing for more city revenue at the scene and pinning blame so heavily on the area’s sewer lines. A major water main nearby was replaced last year and is still covered in fresh concrete, he said.
Lopez and five other South and Southwest side aldermen sent Johnson a letter Monday asking him to establish a rebate for homeowners who install flood-preventing backflow valves, a spend he estimated could cost as much as $50 million. He wants Johnson to spend city money to help residents clean up now, in anticipation of federal funds that could take years to come, or never arrive.