Many residents including on the city’s Northwest Side reported flooding in their homes after record-breaking rainfall drenched Chicagoland on Tuesday.
A daily record rainfall of 2.43” was set at O’Hare International Airport yesterday, shattering the previous record of 1.21″ from 1949, according to The National Weather Service. This was the rainiest April day at ORD since the 3.54’’ that fell in 2013.
The Norwood Park area in the Northwest accounted for 114 of the more than 600 flooding complaints logged by the city’s 311 service request hotline from midnight Tuesday to late Wednesday morning.
Benjamin Vance, owner of Rescue Plumbing, said his team has been helping clean up 15 homes, with 14 homes still on their waiting list.
“We’re totally booked out,” Vance said “We can’t take any more calls.”
A flood watch is in effect until Friday evening, the NWS said, adding the Des Plaines River in the villages of Riverside and River Forest area are under the watch area.
Meteorologist Mike Bardou said the metro area, all of Northern Illinois and Northwest Indiana are also under Flood Watch, but the possibility of tornadoes is minimal.
“We’re concerned about maybe some potentially damaging winds, or kind of marginally severe like quarter type size hail,” He said. “The threat is not nearly as great as it was yesterday.”
“Know your area,” Bardou said. “If you’re prone to high water or flooding, or your basement tends to flood if it rains very heavily, be mindful. We’re in a stretch where that could very easily happen.”
The drying out process of a basement can cost as much as $3,000 to $5,000, according to Vance.
Vance predicted lasting damage for some homes, though he said the flooding was typical for the levels of rainfall throughout Tuesday and early Wednesday morning.
“Most of the belongings were destroyed in the basement” He said. “Thank God it wasn’t flooding in the street.”