The Great Chicago Flood
While everyone was watching the Gulf Coast, CNN tells us that Chicago is dealing with flooding:
CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) — Chicago authorities asked Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to issue a disaster declaration after rainfall Saturday in the Windy City broke a single-day record that had stood for more than two decades.
The deluge flooded streets and stranded residents in their homes. Officials worked to rescue people Sunday as the city grappled with another day of drenching.
O’Hare International Airport recorded 6.64 inches of rain Saturday — breaking the all-time record of 6.49 inches set in 1987, according to the National Weather Service. Records have been kept since 1871.
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Saturday’s pounding rain was not related to Hurricane Ike. Remnants of Tropical Storm Lowell, which had come in from the Pacific, got caught up with a cold front, sending a wave of moisture into the region.
Everyone focuses on the winds and the exact point of landfall when they think of tropical storms, but it is the water, i.e. storm surge and rain, that causes the most damage and kills the most people and they can effect people hundreds or, in the case of Chicago, thousands of miles away from where the storm came ashore.
11 comments
Yes!! Lady Min was telling me about this yesterday! 🙁
The weather is crazy. Even here.
I hope everyone stays safe and dry! *sigh*
If we could only tip the country to drain the water to the Left Coast.
I was thinking of her when I wrote it, Kryten. She’s had a lot of “interesting” weather this year.
I blame it on Duncan Hunter’s San Ysidro border fence, Jill. It has to be annoying to know that six-inches of rain that started out as Pacific Ocean water got dumped thousands of miles away.
Compounding the problem, Chicago proper has no storm drain system. Chicago was laid out before the notion of sewers vs. storm drains had come about, when Chicago was founded raw sewage was simply swept out into Lake Michigan via the same tunnels that carried storm water to Lake Michigan. Well, the EPA naturally isn’t going to allow that nowdays, so the water gets diverted to sewage treatment plants today. The problem is that 6 inches of rain puts about 30 billion gallons of water into the sewage system… and it only has the capacity to handle 15 billion gallons of rainfall via the TARP project (and can only clear 2 billion gallons per day). Oops!
So Chicago is not only full of water, it’s full of shitty water.
– Badtux the Sewage Penguin
Yeah, when the drains can’t handle it, it backs up in your basement. I’ve lived in a few cities with antique sewage systems that were one failed pump from filling your basement with crap. Not a check valve in the whole system and the clean out was inside.
All the locks are open, they’re pumping water into the lake and towards the mississippi… Assuming there isn’t any more rain, the floods should have peaked last night… Not, that that is much comfort to those who live in des plaines…
Welcome to the coast, Noelle.
I wouldn’t bet on no rain with Ike just finishing up and hauling a lot of moisture North, but it may pass to the East.
I’m not sure that the people in Louisiana are going to be thrilled that there’s that much extra water in the Mississippi after the effects of Gustav and Ike.
I haven’t seen this much rain in the Chicago area in 20 years! Steady rain for 2 days and nights… it never let up. I put a bucket outside Saturday morning and it had 7 inches of water in it this morning. It got so bad that I put an umbrella over one of my large cactus. The poor thing was flooding and it’s pot wouldn’t drain. And it was too heavy to move. The umbrella worked! Luckily we didn’t have any strong winds.
I live on fairly high ground out in the suburbs. The rain water runs down my driveway and into the street, so the only water I get is a bit of seepage in the crawl space. The sump pump kept running… that’s how saturated the ground is. All around my town the sewers were bubbling and some streets were flooded. I don’t have a basement. Most homes in the midwest have them. They are good for flooding and collecting junk you should have thrown away, so I don’t really miss not having one.
Chicago has been trying to fix it’s sewage and storm water system for years going back to the late 1800’s when they reversed the flow of the Chicago River to carry the sewage away from Lake Michigan. The latest is the Deep Tunnel Project which will eventually move storm water to reservoirs. Unfortunately the city still floods and excess wastewater gets pumped into the lake (or backs up into those basements. Yuk.)
Part of the problem is the city was built, literally, in the mud, only slightly above water level with no drainage system (as Tux said). In the mid 1800’s the city raised all the streets about 15 feet. In some cases the building were raised, others were moved to new locations and still others were left in place and the people moved to the second floor and added a new stairway and a door! There are many Chicago neighborhoods that still have entire blocks of homes that are built below street level. My aunt lived in a house like that, so did my grandparents; as a kid I thought it was normal to have the first floor under the street. Today, a lot of those old sidewalks crumbling … leaving a gaping hole 15 feet to the old street down below. Chicago is an interesting city.
To make things worse, anyone living near a river or stream has that problem to deal with along with the overtaxed sewer system. It will be a few rough days here while we dry out. Actually, it’s been a weird weather year. I hope the upcoming winter is calm. 😐
It’s the constant sound of the rain, a drone in the background, that gets to me. We received over three feet of rain when Georges crept by just North of us, but the sandy soil lets it soak in and than head for the Gulf, so we don’t really have to worry about flooding from rain.
I know that after 24 hours the sound was driving me up the wall and the power was out, so you didn’t want to turn up the volume on the radio to overpower it, because it used up batteries [or required more frequent cranking].
Too bad we can’t ship some of this West where they need it.
Ike was still a tropical depression when it went through here yesterday. We got a brief spell of wind as the rain was finally winding down, and it stayed cool yesterday. But I had to find an alternate route to work this morning, as the one I usually take was closed due to flooding. If the river rises another foot or so, I may have to telecommute until it recedes, as both of the bridges I crossed on the alternate route this morning had water up to within a few inches of the decking.
This is also likely to put a spike in corn and soybean prices. We were having a fairly dry end to the summer until three days ago. Now there’s standing water in a lot of fields and even though most of the crops are mature, there’s bound to be some rot or fungal damage. Depending on how long it takes to drain and dry out, it may also be a late harvest, with the potential for further damage. So I anticipate a rise in food prices for the new year.
Food prices are going up regardless because of weather all over the world. The price of rice has doubled in a few months, and a loaf of bread hasn’t been far behind. Anyone who can harvest will get prices that will make it worth their while.
The people who are getting rain, are getting too much, and other areas are in drought conditions.