Chicago’s summer of 'thousand-year' storms: Why flooding hit hard — and why it’s poised to get worse

CHICAGO - Chicago was hit hard by severe storms at least twice this past summer. Storms were so severe that the city and Cook County declared the affected neighborhoods disaster areas after seeing how much flooding they caused.

In a Fox Chicago special report, Unit 32's Dane Placko looks at why those floods were so bad and what the city is doing to prevent future flooding.

What we know:

"I'm losing everything," said Gage Park resident Sharen Rene Parrish. "I'm not looking for sympathy or compassion. But, I just need somebody to show they care about us here in Gage Park."

Parrish was nearly in tears after a massive flood on the southwest side in late August on the heels of another catastrophic flood in the same area in July.

"It's like a nightmare. A never-ending nightmare. With no relief," she said.

Danita Smith of Marquette Park shared pictures of her basement, another double victim of last summer's one-two punch.

"Even as being commissioner, my basement flooded during the rain. So, I get it," said Randy Conner, commissioner of the Chicago Water Department.

Climate change and aging infrastructure

Conner said he can sympathize with frustrated residents after the double deluge. And if it seems Chicago is experiencing more intense flooding events, Conner said there's a reason.

"Anybody who does not believe that climate change is real, it really is. Because we're seeing it more and more day because of the amount of rain that we're getting and the severity of the storms and how they're being isolated to certain areas," he said.

Conner said both storms this summer — called "extreme rainfall events" — are good examples.

The backstory:

On July 25, what meteorologists called a "one thousand year" storm dumped more than five and a half inches of rain on a tight corridor that crossed Chicago's southwest side in about two hours. Less than a month later, it happened again.

On Aug 16, more than six inches of rain fell in nearly the same location over a 24-hour period. At one point the rain falling at a staggering four and a half inches an hour.

Fox Chicago's Unit 32 obtained records through a freedom of information request showing the city received more than 2,000 reports of basement flooding from the July storm and nearly 7,000 calls to Chicago's 311 service to report basement flooding in August.

After reviewing the damage, the city's Office of Emergency Management said the storms destroyed at least 143 homes and damaged about 6,000.

A sewer system that can't keep up

What they're saying:

"It just overwhelms the system," Conner said. "The system is designed to only hold so much water and once the system gets to capacity, the water has to go somewhere."

Conner said much of Chicago's sewer system, which handles both storm water and sewer water, was built over a century ago and simply isn't equipped to handle these new intense storms.

"So we're doing a lot of things, right? We're piloting a bunch of different things moving forward. We're going to be doing some grid sewer cleaning, which will actually help the system a lot more. And what that consists of is systematically cleaning the system where we know that we've had this flooding, and then we will branch out from there. We're also doing a pilot program for what we're calling some storage tanks," Conner said.

Also, among those fixes — replacing old sewer pipes that are as small as 15 inches in diameter with new pipes as large as 48-inches wide. But it's slow work.

The city plans to replace six miles of sewer lines this year and nine miles next year in a system that includes thousands of miles of sewer lines.

So how does the city decide which pipes to replace?

"We take a look at the age of the main itself. And we also look at break history or look at how many times it's collapsed," Conner said.

Who gets hit the hardest

"It's only going to continue to get worse if we don't address this now, and head on, with a holistic approach," said Illinois Institute of Technology political science professor Matthew Shapiro.

"We see more and more people’s homes flooding every year. This is a severe problem, and it’s only going to get worse. And it’s only going to be felt disproportionately more in those areas that are non-white and lower income," he added.

Shapiro heads the university's Storm Water Infrastructure Project, a group of students and academics studying Chicago's flooding problem.

We asked the team to look at the 3-1-1 calls we obtained from last summer's separate flood events, and they told us it confirms a pattern of underserved communities being hit the hardest.

"Currently, we find the disparities show the Latin and Hispanic communities and African American communities are vulnerable from these flooding events," according to Hao Huang, of the Stormwater Infrastructure Project.

They also told us these communities have a "natural" risk when it comes to flooding because of the city's topography.

"The natural drainage pattern of the city goes from different parts of town all toward the I&M Canal in the southwest part," said David Lampert, a co-principal investigator on the project. "So, as water moves from one part of town more quickly it can end up in the southwest part of town more quickly and therefore, they have more issues with flooding there."

But Chicago's water commissioner said these new highly localized and intense rain systems don't discriminate.

"When you talk about underserved areas, I think that's a misnomer. Because it all depends on how old the system is. You have parts of the city where the system is back from the 1800s that never experienced flooding, like the west side and south side. Then you have parts of the city where the system is from the late 1900s, early 200s that are experiencing flooding," Conner said.

Fixes above ground: Green alleys and more

The holistic approach Shapiro and his team say needs to happen means not only making improvements below ground like replacing sewer lines and water storage basins, but also making some improvements above ground.

"Some alleys have pavers. Some have sewer pipes and restrictors to prevent water from overcharging the sewer system. Some have both," said Chicago Department of Transportation engineer, Matthews Crocker.

Chicago's green alley program started in 2007, 50 alley projects each year spread across 50 wards.

"The alleys are selected by aldermen each year. There's a capital bond program to select one alley per ward through that. Green alleys can also be built with aldermanic menu funds," Crocker said.

While Shapiro and his team say green alleys are an important part to help reduce flooding in Chicago, they do have a concern about where they are being built.

"These, we found, have been disproportionately distributed. Not necessarily one per ward, but it’s haphazard, at best," Shapiro said.

Unit 32 looked at the location of the city's nearly 500 green alleys and found the 40th ward on the north side has the most, 35. But just three green alleys in the 15th ward, where last summer's flooding occurred.

The ninth ward doesn't have any.

"Not every alley needs this green alley treatment. Some alleys just happen to have what we call sheet flow where the water will drain naturally to a catch basin in the street or in the alley itself. But in cases where the water doesn't have anywhere to go, these green alleys are really helpful for those situations. As climate change gets worse, that might increase. There might be more alleys in the future that are needed," Crocker said.

Federal aid denied

What's next:

And in a move that some say adds insult to injury, the Trump administration last month denied federal disaster funding to help Chicago flood victims, but approved similar relief for Republican-leaning states.

The city says it plans to appeal that decision.