Flooding

[buzz]

Anyone drive through Riverside ?  It's all out on the curbs; not 1 piece at a time.
Our residents are the ones that have been affected.  I'm not worried about WM.  As long as the alley isn't blocked, and there's no health or environmental risk, what's the problem?
Many folks needed help to even get the stuff out of the house, up stairs, carried to the alley, etc.

[Juliet]

When I drove home through Riverside on Friday about 5:30, they had FOUR trucks at one intersection and were picking up everything.

[Sandy]

As we were cleaning, we made a pile of things scrappers are probably looking for. They took that and didn't rummage through anything. The way we look at it, if this is how these people make a living, why make it harder for them? It didn't cost us any extra effort either. We just stacked anything metal in a pile, then wood, then the rest that didn't fit into the toters along the front of the garage. The metal disapeared in less than an hour!

[J'sMom]

Anybody have any idea what it costs to have overhead sewers put in?

We had an overhead sewer put in about a year ago and it was under $6k. There was no water in my basement last week! I got quotes from 4 different companies ranging from $1k to $14k. The lowest and highest were complete idiots. PM me if you are interested in the contractor I used. It is well worth the expense.

[Robert Pauly]

My flooding is evolving from a minor, carpet replacement nuisance to a big-ass project.  Doors aren't closing .  The bottom of my drywall was soaked and has now swelled and hardened, thus kicking the oak baseboard out from the wall about 1/4 of an inch.  The baseboard is going to have to be removed, and 12" of new drywall is going to have to be installed at the bottom my walls.  Then repaint ......

[jake]

Robert Pauly,

Take this as an opportunity to upgrade materials.  For example, if you have fiberglass batts in the walls, change to foam (rigid board or sprayed).  If you have wooden baseboard and quarter round in the basement, change to plastic-based.  And if you have traditional drywall, find the most up to date option to replace it with (blue board?).

[Venn Diagram]

What an effing pain in the ass.  This is our 4th flood in the 4 years we've lived in Berwyn, but the only one that was backed up sewage (the others were clear water and no big deal).  I was downtown when it happened, but my SO said it blew off the drain plugs (which were not terribly tightly plugged, just to be safe).  Gross.  Lost a lot of stuff - 8 inches, pure sludge and shit.  We hired a remediation company and now the basement smells like roses.  Just what we needed to force ourselves to downsize, I guess.

So, why was this one so bad? Neighbor next door said he had never had a flood in 25 years until this.  What made this one so different?

VD

[jailbee]

What an effing pain in the ass.  This is our 4th flood in the 4 years we've lived in Berwyn, but the only one that was backed up sewage (the others were clear water and no big deal).  I was downtown when it happened, but my SO said it blew off the drain plugs (which were not terribly tightly plugged, just to be safe).  Gross.  Lost a lot of stuff - 8 inches, pure sludge and shit.  We hired a remediation company and now the basement smells like roses.  Just what we needed to force ourselves to downsize, I guess.

So, why was this one so bad? Neighbor next door said he had never had a flood in 25 years until this.  What made this one so different?

VD

I heard the drainage valve in Cicero broke and it took them awhile to fix it.
I don't know how credible that is, but it's the only explanation I heard.

[Regularguy]

Drainage valve in Cicero? Co to jest?
Your mothers spents good moneys to educate,
and this is what she gets?
Przepraszam? I trust you are not duplicating childrens?
Cheers,
Stanislov

[OakParkSpartan]

Drainage valve in Cicero? Co to jest?
Your mothers spents good moneys to educate,
and this is what she gets?
Przepraszam? I trust you are not duplicating childrens?
Cheers,
Stanislov

Your BS is getting old.

[buzz]

Drainage valve in Cicero? Co to jest?
Your mothers spents good moneys to educate,
and this is what she gets?
Przepraszam? I trust you are not duplicating childrens?
Cheers,
Stanislov

Anyone here speak with the language of the Ursi ?

[jailbee]

Look what your mother got

Drainage valve in Cicero? Co to jest?
Your mothers spents good moneys to educate,
and this is what she gets?
Przepraszam? I trust you are not duplicating childrens?
Cheers,
Stanislov

[LetsGoThrow]

Got 18 inches in the basement last week. None of my garbage was picked up today.  Not even the regular bin.  One street over is totally cleared... so much for following the rules.  Thanks, WM!

[psychomom]

What an effing pain in the ass.  This is our 4th flood in the 4 years we've lived in Berwyn, but the only one that was backed up sewage (the others were clear water and no big deal).  I was downtown when it happened, but my SO said it blew off the drain plugs (which were not terribly tightly plugged, just to be safe).  Gross.  Lost a lot of stuff - 8 inches, pure sludge and shit.  We hired a remediation company and now the basement smells like roses.  Just what we needed to force ourselves to downsize, I guess.

So, why was this one so bad? Neighbor next door said he had never had a flood in 25 years until this.  What made this one so different?

VD

I heard the drainage valve in Cicero broke and it took them awhile to fix it.
I don't know how credible that is, but it's the only explanation I heard.

I don't know how it all works, but I heard from two completely different sources that the Water Reclamation District did not open the locks.  As I said, I have no idea how that works, this is only what I have heard.

[EC]

That whole "drainage valve/locks" is an urban legend I think. It just rained too fast for the system to handle it. Why would one drainage valve or lock control the entire western suburbs? Don't think that's how it works. Anyone else?

[OakParkSpartan]

That whole "drainage valve/locks" is an urban legend I think. It just rained too fast for the system to handle it. Why would one drainage valve or lock control the entire western suburbs? Don't think that's how it works. Anyone else?

I agree.  It was just such a huge amount of water that came down that the pipes couldn't take it (the fact we have combined sanitary/storm sewers doesn't help matters).

[Robert Pauly]

In the 8 years that I've lived here, there's been plenty of big rainstorms, and this is the first time I've seen a drop.  My flooding occurred in 15 minutes - it cleared just as quickly.  Urban legend or not, it seemed like someone turned a switch - full on and full off - I'd think an overloaded system would flood and clear in a more gradual way.

Got the insurance agent here now - even before replacing drywall, I'm at my $5,000 max - going to have to increase that coverage now.

[mustang54]

  Wasn't the infamous deep tunnel project supposed to stop flooding in the area? Another old excuse for years was that during heavy rains the locks would be closed to prevent water from flowing into the lake. The weird thing to me is after all these years and floods the media never questions the reclamation district on the cause of so much flooding.

[Cathy]

The Deep Tunnel Project has not been completed.  I also think it was just too much rain all at once.  I've lived in my home for years too and this is the first time we had water in the basement.  (I hope it will be the last).

[rbain]

It's also not just the single rain event, but the two weeks of rain we had prior, so that the ground was pretty saturated before the rain started falling, and thus wasn't able to absorb so much so fast.