The river's rising edge, "There is no stopping it"

SALEM, Wis. -- Water blankets the yard, making an island of the ranch home on this quiet street."No trespassing" signs warn against visitors in the garage, now swamped by two feet of rain that the too-full river cannot whisk away and the too-soaked land cannot absorb.Standing on her porch, Susan Boss nurses a cigarette and surveys her swamped yard in this town six miles north of the Illinois border.She flips the switch on the electricity, turns off the water and clears away hand-me-down clothes, shoes and tools from the waterlogged shed. She opens the door to a young couple and toddler stranded when water drenched their home just 50 yards away.For now, Boss has done all she can.And so, she sits. She smokes. She chats with neighbors.She waits, knowing every inch of rain worsens the flood risk here and everywhere else along the rising Fox River."It's only going to get worse, too," Boss says.NEW MUNSTER, Wis. -- Five days of rain brought 8 feet of water to this southeastern Wisconsin town. And its effects will be felt in the Chicago suburbs.The Fox River inched higher with every dose that fell upon the area's saturated fields, yards and roads.It wasn't just the Fox, though, that was swelling from local rains. Southern Wisconsin downpours flooded myriad rivers and streams this week, sending the region into a tailspin that ruined scores of homes, rang up a $31 million tab in damage and sent relief agencies scurrying to help residents recover.Those riding the river's edge in the suburbs should take note. What starts in Wisconsin ends in the muddy Mississippi and travels through towns like Algonquin, West Dundee, Elgin and St. Charles on the way.The Des Plaines River suffers these pains, too. Flooding just over the state line is traveling slowly south through Gurnee, whose riverside residents worry and wait with sandbags. But the Fox may be poised to soak neighboring homes and roads with one of the worst floods in its history. After all, the flooding in New Munster is some of the worst that area has seen.Experts who study the river cannot say for sure how long it will take the floods in Wisconsin to move south. Some say two or three days; others just won't give an answer. Plus, the rain likely won't let up until Saturday."We are not good at making these predictions," says Rita Lee, project manager for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.Floods coming swiftly down the river are the result of a simple and constant principle -- water seeks its own level. Add to that stress the nature of rivers -- the higher they swell, the faster they flow. "Think of it like a conveyance system," says water leader Ken Johnson with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. "Streets run into streams and creeks. Creeks discharge into rivers. ... It's not a problem unless it overflows the banks."For those not on the banks, such floods can be a curiosity. For those on the river, this is nothing they want to see.In New Munster, Deborah and Rob DeDecker head out Tuesday on their Harley-Davidson to check out the pooling water during a respite from the rain.They pull into a country lane where waterlogged pastures strand farmers and chase away cows. The runoff stretches across the heavily trafficked Route 50 nearby."Water has got only so many places to go," Deborah DeDecker says.SILVER LAKE, Wis. -- A drive through town is all the warning he needed. Silver Lake Fire Chief Mike Stark knows he's looking at a string of long days and hard nights."If it does get higher, we probably will have to evacuate some people," Stark says as he pulls a shallow, emergency boat from its lakeshore dock. He wants it handy for river rescues.Silver Lake is calm, for the moment at least, empty but for a handful of swimmers. Less than a mile away from the lake ringed by resorts and summer cottages, the river sweeps through picnic areas and soaks parks.Four more inches of rain is forecast across southern Wisconsin through Friday. Water will have nowhere to go with the Fox River already four feet above flood levels."It's getting up there," Stark says. "We're getting ready."CHAIN O' LAKES -- Ten miles south, a pair of Lake County sheriff's deputies race across the lake, chasing the wake of an unknowing boater.Pistakee Lake -- like the six others the Chain comprises -- is full, Illinois Department of Natural Resources officials say.That means no boat wakes on the Chain. And on the river, no boats at all.With water coursing south from Wisconsin and rain forecast, the vast chain of 6,500 acres of water will climb steadily, experts caution. This ratchets up the flood risk for towns skirting the Fox River farther south."I don't think it's going to change anytime soon," says Lt. Bert Foster of the Lake County Sheriff's Office Marine Unit. "Not if we get more rain."MCHENRY DAM -- The Fox's lock and dam stretches across the river's wide mouth as water chugs under its iron flood gates."Look at it as a funnel," says lock tender Todd Miller, forming his hands into a V with the top representing the Chain O' Lakes about 7 miles north.Water that the lakes can't hold shoots down the river and runs over the banks. The dam's gray gates can rein in the flow, but then upriver will become a reservoir. Opened wide, the gates unleash the water faster downstream to make the pain of flooding end as soon as possible."There isn't much we can do right now but just keep pushing it on down," says Miller, an outgoing, wide-eyed man wearing a forest green jumpsuit and worn brown boots. "It's up to Mother Nature."From the grassy man-made island leading to the gates, Miller hears the office phone ring over an outdoor speaker. Calls have cascaded in for days: river residents wondering if the water will stop rising, what they can do and who can help.When Miller is told Wisconsin is getting even more rain overnight, his head wobbles."Don't say that," he says.MCHENRY -- Across the chocolate brown breadth of fast-flowing water, a handful of men cast lines into the hot air.Jerry Lameka wears his neon-orange Bears cap low. Thick glasses and a bristly beard cover his face."The fishing sucks," the Lakemoor laborer says flatly.With the flood gates roaring, no water pours over the dam and the prime fishing holes disappear.On most days fishermen stand shoulder-to-shoulder on this concrete bank. But today, rental boats are shackled to the shore. Rusted barbecues and picnic tables sit in the water.Gill's bait shop is shut down -- "This concession is closed today!" says a yellow sheet of paper taped to its metal door.Lameka reeled in 30 stripers earlier this week. Today, nothing.The water is too hot, too high and too fast.Waving his green pole to outline a stand of trees rising from the river, Lameka reveals his old lucky spot."Usually you can walk over there and not get your feet wet," he says, pointing out that three days ago it was an island. "This is more flooding than I have seen in a long time."HOLIDAY HILLS -- The current races, tumbles and whirls 3 miles downstream to Gene Vierush's small, white home. It runs over his pier, up the yard and around back to his tiny pumpkin patch.Answering the door with groomed silver hair and black jeans, Vierush exclaims: "She jumped up pretty ... fast, I tell you."Vierush has seen this before after living on the water's edge for four decades. The river floods every few years and threatens to drown his home.This week he watched the river climb up his pier's makeshift water gauge -- five inches in the last 15 hours. Still, he doesn't bother with sandbags."That would take thousands of bags," he says, throwing his arms open.Instead, he had the crawlspace sealed with plastic and sand in the 1980s. So far Vierush's living areas have kept dry. He hopes the same will happen this time.But he knows the water will continue to rise long after the rain stops. "It'll be an island by this weekend," he says. "Jesus -- when it starts coming up it is just a stinkin', sloppy mess."WEST DUNDEE -- A lone inch separates the river walk here from the water that runs alongside it.The lunch crowd packs into the waterfront restaurant M.T. Barrels to watch."Oh, yeah, people notice it, definitely," manager Lynn Konicek says.The restaurant itself has not escaped the river's rising tide along this stretch of the Fox in Kane County. Water seeped into the basement, high enough to ruin a pair of shoes but not yet break out the sandbags."That may change in the next 24 hours," Konicek says.EAST DUNDEE -- A cul-de-sac of cottages-turned-homes juts into the Fox as it bends and curves.Those in the house on the point of this lowland are responsible for letting the rest know when the water starts rising. And when it does, the brown soup quickly covers the narrow road and heads inland."We are assuming this will be just like a regular spring flood," says Pam Schwartz, standing on her ranch home's gravel driveway dozens of yards from the river. The soup is already creeping up to Schwartz's home, and this happens a lot -- so much so that her washer and dryer are up on blocks on the first floor.Schwartz still doesn't expect the flooding to get much worse. There is little she can do about it anyway."It is going to leave its bed and come into yours at some point," she says with a soft smile. "There is no stopping it."SOUTH ELGIN -- Fifteen sandbags sit in the garage ready to buttress the riverbank around Mary Loechner's home.For now, there's no need.Fifty miles from New Munster, Wis. -- where water is lapping nearly five feet above flood stage -- this stretch of the Fox River remains dry.Loechner knows that could change in a moment.A 20-year veteran of riverside living, Loechner understands whatever falls in southern Wisconsin -- "There's a lot of water in the system that has to make it through here even if it didn't rain anymore," says Ingrid Ruttendije of the Fox Waterway Agency -- will ultimately flow into her back yard en route to the Illinois and Mississippi rivers."At this point, we are safe," Loechner says.If the river crests as is expected, she has the sandbags her husband picked up this week. From Carpentersville to South Elgin, village officials are doling out sandbags to riverside residents."Here I am sitting in a dry yard and there are others whose homes are flooded," Loechner says, glancing around from her front door step. "I'm very humbled." 512300A farmhouse in New Munster Wisconsin becomes an island as the Fox River floods beyond its banks.Bill Zars | Staff Photographer