Road closures, flooding in DuPage County

Heavy rain and saturated ground caused rivers to rise, forced numerous road closures and triggered localized flooding Wednesday in many parts of the region, especially DuPage and Will counties.

Roughly 4 inches of rain already has fallen this week in DuPage, with more expected.

Officials said the county is operating all of its flood-control facilities and will continue to do so through at least Friday. The precipitation elevated DuPage streams enough to trigger both larger, mechanically operated flood-control facilities and smaller, gravity-operated ones.

The east branch of the DuPage River is already full and starting to flood. The river was expected to crest at moderate flood stage in Bolingbrook late Wednesday and then Thursday in Lemont.

Route 53 between Park Boulevard and Ironwood Drive near the Morton Arboretum in Lisle remained closed Wednesday evening as did the Riverwalk in downtown Naperville.

Residents in flood-prone areas were keeping a close watch on water levels. In Lisle, the village made sand and sandbags available at River Road and Burlington Avenue and at Lacey Avenue and Main Street.

Of the 16 flood-control facilities DuPage operates, the five larger ones have mechanical equipment allowing staff to control them according to a predetermined operating plan. The remaining facilities protect the surrounding areas without human intervention using fixed weirs and natural drainage systems.

In total, DuPage's facilities have a floodwater storage capacity of nearly 6 billion gallons.

The county's stormwater management staff will continue to monitor stream elevations and provide updates as they become available, officials said.

For more information, local agencies and residents may visit ec.dupageco.org/dec/stormwater/watershed/index.html to learn about flood control facilities throughout DuPage, as well as to view rain and stream gauges, forecasts and real-time pictures.