Lifelong Aurora resident Joanna Weiland said she felt shocked to be standing in her basement, slippers on, with flood water rising up past her ankles early Friday morning.
By Tuesday, she had bags of damaged drywall, family antiques and Christmas decorations piled up on her lawn. She said she didn’t know what to do with it all and worried her insurance wouldn’t cover flood damage.
Weiland was not alone in this situation. Residents across Aurora, and particularly in the 4th and 6th Wards, experienced basement flooding, tree damage and power outages Friday and Saturday morning, with varying degrees of damage, said Ald. Jonathan Nunez, 4th Ward.
Nunez said some basements flooded twice, including his own, and residents struggled to keep the water out.
“It’s disheartening when you spend several hours, you know, trying to save whatever you may have,” he said. “A lot of us had to throw away a ton of different items that you just can’t recover.”
The Aurora area received eight inches of rain within 48 hours during multiple rounds of storms that hit the area on Thursday and Friday, said Jon Zaghloul, director of communications for the city of Aurora. Cleanup was still ongoing as of Tuesday, he said.
Some residents lost power for up to three days, and fallen trees blocked roads, such as Roberts Street, and even hit a few houses, according to Ald. Mike Saville, 6th Ward.
“It was quite a mess in my ward,” he said. “It kind of took everybody by surprise.”
Ald. Carl Franco, 5th Ward, also said he received calls from residents Friday worried about flooding. He said some still remember major flooding in 1996, but he assured residents that flood mitigation measures had been installed over the years.
Fox Valley Park District officials said a few trails and facilities also closed due to flooding. Gilman Trail remained closed between Terry and Edgelawn avenues as of Tuesday afternoon, said Tim Wagner, public relations and content strategist for the Fox Valley Park District.
Weiland said that following the storms, she and her neighbors were especially worried that insurance would not cover the flood damage to her house and belongings. She said a lot of damaged drywall had to be removed from her basement, and her water heater, located in the basement, had stopped working for a few days.
She also had piles of damaged belongings, including a treadmill, a rowing machine and old family furniture, that she hoped could be covered by insurance. She was unsure how much it would all cost to replace.
“This is gone and this is gone, and I’ve just been taking pictures of everything,” she said. “I have a bunch of holes in my wall because there was water behind the walls and insulation.”
Both the city of Aurora and Kane County encouraged residents to report uninsured damage through storm damage self-assessment surveys.
The Kane County survey, available at www.kanecountyil.gov, is meant to help local and state officials assess the extent of the damage from the storms and determine whether the area may qualify for state or federal disaster assistance, officials said.
Theodore Van De Sampel, Emergency Management Coordinator for the city of Aurora, said he has already received responses to the Aurora survey, available at https://arcg.is/00ieDf0, but that some reported damage on public property.
He urged residents to use the myAurora 311 app to file reports of damage on public property and the EMA survey for damage on private property.
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The 311 app is available on the App Store and Google Play, or at www.myaurora311.com, according to a Facebook post from the city on Friday.
Nunez said he also plans to ask the City Council to reopen the Ward 4 Residential and Businesses Storm Damage Grant Program to help residents with uninsured costs from the storms. The grant program previously helped residents with out-of-pocket costs after a major storm in mid-August 2025.
In addition to the storm damage, Nunez and Saville said some residents struggled without power for days. Saville said local businesses that had power like Society 57 in downtown Aurora stepped in to support residents.
“It was nice to see local businesses stand up, show up and really offer a place of safety and comfort for the residents,” he said.
Saville said some residents in his area were without power Thursday through Sunday, and struggled to stay cool without air conditioning. Some residents stayed with family during that time while others beat the heat by spending time in their cars with the air conditioning on, he said.
Wagner said Fox Valley Park District officials hope to reopen Gilman Trail by the end of the week, although he noted officials expect more rain later this week. He said water had receded a bit but was still ankle-deep as of Tuesday.
Aurora Mayor John Laesch said Tuesday that the Fox Valley Park District helped out with tree removal and storm damage clean-up, especially on the West Side of Aurora.