Felipe Rocha, a lifelong Aurora resident, said he woke up a little past 1 a.m. on July 3 to his children telling him the power was out and the basement was flooded.
His basement held a foot of water for over seven hours that night, due to a combination of power outages and flooding that knocked out his home’s sump pump, he said.
Like many Aurora residents in a similar situation that night, Rocha does not live in a floodplain, which means he is not required to have flood insurance. Flood damage is not covered under home insurance plans without the add-on flood coverage, Rocha, a local insurance agent, said.
So although Rocha knew to have that additional flood coverage, he said many residents, including those living on the West Side around him, were shocked to find their insurance did not cover flood damage costs from that weekend, leaving a deep hole in pockets throughout the area.
“There was this disconnect in understanding what insurance will and won’t cover,” said Ald. Jonathan Nunez, 4th Ward, who represents a portion of the West Side of Aurora.
Almost solely due to reported uninsured flood damage, Kane County and The U.S. Small Business Administration declared those storms in early July a disaster weeks later, according to Scott Buziecki, director of the Kane County Office of Emergency Management.
Aurora and Elgin were hit the worst with uninsured damage, Buziecki said. Put frankly, he said the floods that weekend caused more widespread out-of-pocket costs than some tornadoes.
“Think of a tornado, it could be a mile wild, but that’s just one line and usually covered by insurance,” Buziecki said.
“A flood is usually more area and in this case because no one has insurance, virtually no one, it caused so much more impact and those major impacts were not covered by insurance, and paying out of pocket is usually a lot of money,” he said.
The county received just over 200 reports of uninsured or under-insured flood damage from residents and businesses, 89 of which were filed by Aurora residents, said Aurora Emergency Management Coordinator Theo Van De Sampel.
At least 25 of the total county reports contained major damage, said Buziecki. Major damage included sewage backups, broken utilities and uninsured property losses reaching 40% of the home’s value, said Buziecki.
Rocha said his own water heater broke due to flooding over the Fourth of July weekend, and it cost around $1,500 to replace, which was covered by his flood insurance. He said furnaces also often need to be replaced due to flooding, which can cost at least $3,000.
On top of mechanical costs, Rocha said replacing drywall to prevent mold after flooding can be costly, along with replacing any valuable items, which he said are often kept in basements.
Costs associated with flooding are tricky to cover without flood insurance, he said.
“When you use the terminology ‘flood,’ that kicks it to flood insurance,” he said “When people are like ‘my basement is flooding,’ well, you just used the naughty word flood, and it’s not going to be covered.”
Joanna Weiland, a lifelong Aurora resident, said she and her neighbors worried that insurance would not cover damage costs after storms flooded their basements the weekend of July 4.
She said the flood damaged her drywall, water heater and a lot of valuable belongings. Luckily, she said she figured out weeks later that she had paid for additional insurance to cover drain and sewer backups, which covered some of the costs.
“I wouldn’t get anything at all if I didn’t have this,” she said of the insurance.
But some residents, like Phyllis Toscano, are still struggling to cover damage costs.
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Toscano said her apartment parking garage flooded over the July 4 weekend, totaling her car and damaging at least 26 of her neighbors’ cars, according to photos and evidence she gathered from her neighbors.
She said some neighbors were partially reimbursed by their insurance company.
Other neighbors, she said, did not have full coverage and were not reimbursed. Those neighbors are now using public transportation to get to and from work, she said.
“The impact is substantial,” she said. “I’m 70 years old … my monthly income is Social Security and that’s for my expenses, my mortgage, all those other daily and monthly expenses. I’m in the hole.”
Rocha said he was unsure how to address these vehicle costs.
He said fallen trees are another common storm cost that can be tough to cover under insurance. Insurance typically covers and removes trees that damage the house but not trees that fall in the back yard, Rocha said.
Nunez said he witnessed this in the 4th Ward and that at least one resident paid out of pocket to remove a fallen back yard tree.
Storm damage tips and resources
Rocha recommended that the city and residents both better prepare for these storms because he said they’re only becoming worse and more frequent.
“It’s something that the insurance industry, they’ve projected for years,” he said. “These storms are going to get worse so we really need to look at an investment in our property, but I’m not talking tens of thousands of dollars.”
Rocha said there are several affordable, small ways that can help people stave off flood damage to their homes.
Most importantly, Rocha recommended people talk with their insurance company and review their policies. He recommended adding “water back-up and sump pump endorsement” to cover flooding and to ask about insurance for any valuables.
Also important, Rocha said, is that people have sump pumps and backup batteries for the pumps. These pumps collect and pump out extra groundwater or rain before that water can flood the home or damage its foundation, he said.
Often, Rocha said, basement flooding is due to failed sump pumps because power outages knock them out, and people don’t realize their backup battery for the pump is out of charge.
He also said it’s helpful to have a heavy-duty utility vacuum to quickly remove water.
Rocha recommended purchasing gutter extensions and running them into the yard to prevent water spilling onto the house’s foundation.
He said homeowners could also reduce yard inclines that cause water to run towards the house. Also helpful, he said, is to clean debris from sewer drains when it rains.
“Most of the time it’s these little things that are making the water come into your house,” Rocha said. “It’s the little things that can minimize claims and insurance that will go a long way.”
Besides preparation, there are also resources for people who have already sustained flooding costs and paid out-of-pocket, Nunez said.
Nunez moved forward Tuesday with asking the Aurora City Council to reopen the Ward 4 Residential and Businesses Storm Damage Grant Program to help residents with uninsured costs from the storms.
The level of reported damage in Kane County also qualified the county for federal recovery assistance, which includes low-interest disaster loans to help affected residents and businesses cover uninsured or underinsured damages.
Residents can apply for this aid until Oct. 5, 2026. Businesses can apply until May 5, 2027.
Aurora area counties were also included in the state’s disaster proclamation issued Aug. 18 by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. The proclamation was issued in part due to severe storms in Kane County July 2 through 4, along with storms in DuPage and Will counties July 27 and Aug. 9 through 11.
Additional resources were made available through the state’s proclamation, such as temporary tax relief for individuals and businesses affected by severe weather in the referenced areas, according to an Aug. 20 press release from the Illinois Department of Revenue.