Fox Valley, suburbs battered by storms

An already drenched Fox Valley got another soaking Thursday afternoon -- and there's more in store for this weekend.

With many homes already flooded from earlier rains, afternoon storms pushed water into more homes from Algonquin down to St. Charles.

Trains and planes were delayed or canceled, and phone and power outages were widespread.

"Outside of the floods of '96, this is probably the worst I've seen so far along the Fox River," said Don Bryant, director of the Kane County Office of Emergency Management.

In addition to flooding homes and streets, Thursday's storms also were blamed for house fires, traffic accidents, downed trees and power lines, water main breaks and more.

And with more rain in the forecast for the weekend, flooding is only going to get worse, officials say.

"They're predicting more rain tonight, more rain tomorrow and more rain Saturday," Bryant said. "It's going to be awhile before the Fox River crests."

The river already was above flood stage in East Dundee and Algonquin, and Elgin and South Elgin were also reporting flooded homes and streets near the Fox.

Bryant said his office has distributed 10,000 sandbags to Kane County towns.

Many of the sandbags went to residents of the Algonquin Shores subdivision, the Richardson neighborhood south of East Dundee and the Valley View subdivision north of St. Charles.

Flooding wasn't the only problem brought on by the latest storms.

ComEd said more than 265,000 ComEd customers were without power in northern Illinois.

A roof collapsed at the dock area of a West Chicago industrial building, injuring 40 people, officials said. Seven people were sent to hospitals and the rest refused treatment at the scene. None of the injuries was considered life threatening.

The severe weather forced the halt of commuter rail lines throughout the Chicago area. All flights were grounded at O'Hare International Airport and Midway Airport during the storm. They resumed about 40 minutes later.

About 350 flights were canceled Thursday evening at O'Hare and passengers should expect delays of up to 2½ hours, according to Chicago Aviation Commissioner Nuria Fernandez. Flights at Midway were delayed up to 90 minutes.

Judy Pardonnet, a spokeswoman with Metra, said there were delays throughout the system because of debris on the tracks and malfunctioning signals.

"It's going to be a slow commute home for us," she said.

In South Elgin, officials say lightning or downed power lines sparked a house fire along Park Avenue.

Officials there also had to evacuate some residents living along the river -- and said more evacuations were likely.

In East Dundee, people had to be helped from vehicles seen floating down Van Buren Street, according to initial reports.

And emergency responders across the northern Fox Valley were busy dealing with accidents, downed trees and branches on cars and dozens of flooded and impassable streets.

They also are standing by to evacuate residents if necessary.

"If rain falls over southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois again, we could get record flooding," said Jim Allsop, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

That's not welcome news in Algonquin, where officials estimate they've already handed out 3,000 sandbags to residents, and expect to receive another 5,000 from the state.

The sandbags might not help the Marmol family, who Thursday morning already had water up to their back door.

"We just remodeled this house from top to bottom," said Ruth Marmol, whose family lives along Filip Road in Algonquin. "If this floods, all my hard work is done."

The neighboring Hendricks family was busy putting up sandbags around their home Thursday on Algonquin's Rattray Drive.

Water from the river and nearby creek already had formed a 2-inch moat around the family's house.

"We've been here nine years. This is the worst we've seen it," Vicky Hendricks said. "If it keeps going up, it'll be in the house."