What flood veterans keep safe and dry

Barb Lindahl has lived in her riverside house on Oceola Drive in Algonquin since 1966, so she knows what needs to be done when heavy rain and flooding are in the forecast.

It's a pretty simple plan, really: Move all her appliances off the basement floor and keep valuable items out of the basement and garage.

We asked Lindahl and three other flood warriors to identify items they'd keep safe and dry in the event of a flood. Here's what they had to say:

Lindahl: She'd save: scrapbooks; important papers and documents, such as the deed for the house; photos; appliances; and a set of antique dishes given to her daughter by a family member. "Maybe they have no value, but they're given by family. Anything like that, I'd save."

Curt Wittrock, Algonquin: He also lives on Oceola Drive, and said he makes sure to protect a chest full of personal items from his children and fishing motors; and he'd move large appliances and lawn mowers out of any area that could take on water.

Rochelle Shute, Des Plaines: She lives with her father-in-law, who built a house decades ago in the Big Bend Drive neighborhood. The family has agreed to sell the house in a federal flood buyout program. Her family move leaves the basement empty.

If she had evacuated, here's what she'd take: Food for her pets; tools her husband uses as a carpenter; family mementos, including a box of crafts her children made; the vanity her grandmother gave her as a present.

Mark Allen, Des Plaines: He lives on a 3-acre plot on Hawthorne Drive, and he doesn't want to sell his house built in 1883. If he evacuated, Allen would take vehicles (he's refurbishing a 1966 Thunderbird) and pets; leave a generator and fuel in case power goes out; clear the basements.

"If it's bad enough," he said, "you can pretty much write off your basement."