DuPage dries out, officials assess damage

As DuPage County residents wring out from the weekend deluge, officials from at least five communities are busy assessing how much the flooding cost.

Addison, Bensenville, Glendale Heights, Warrenville and Wood Dale all declared states of emergency during the weekend, and county leaders followed Monday with a countywide declaration Monday.

The moves allow government leaders to seek expedited assistance and funding to recoup costs of the cleanup. State emergency management officials said 14 municipalities in the Chicago area had declared emergencies because of the flooding. More are likely to file disaster claims as damage estimates are tallied, said Illinois Emergency Management Agency communications manager Patti Thompson.

No DuPage towns yet have projected the costs of the flooding that caused residents to evacuate their homes and more than 120 road closures at various points throughout the county. Several of those thoroughfares have reopened, but many remained closed Monday afternoon.

By Sunday afternoon most east/west routes in Warrenville were closed off as the West Branch of the DuPage River breached its shores and caused extensive flooding throughout the city. Several residents living along the river were evacuated, city officials said.

Marie Gnesda and Marge Couden spent much of Sunday moving material in the Warrenville ceramic art studio ClaySpace to higher shelves as water from the adjacent river steadily rose, eventually seeping into the space at 28W210 Warrenville Road by early afternoon.

No injuries or deaths were reported as a result of the flooding in DuPage County. However, several people had to be rescued from flash floods. In Carol Stream, firefighters rescued residents by boat from about 50 flooded homes. Emergency shelters were opened in several locations throughout the county. Most displaced residents had found temporary housing elsewhere by Monday and most shelters were closed.

Addison Community Relations Director Don Weiss said Salt Creek was responsible for the flooding there, but he admits it could have been a lot worse if not for the flood control measures that have been implemented in recent years.

"Louis' Reservoir is probably the largest stormwater management program that was put in since 1987," Weiss said. "And we benefit from the Elmhurst and Wood Dale-Itasca quarries as well, but we got a lot of water."

County officials said the Wood Dale-Itasca reservoir was full by Monday and Elmhurst was at 75 percent capacity. The combined capacity of Louis' Reservoir and the two quarries is more than 3.3 billion gallons.

Sewage backups were another issue many property owners had to deal with, but some leaders said improvements to the sewer infrastructure in recent years reduced the number of calls. In Naperville, the city received only 19 sewage backup calls during the weekend, said Allan Poole, the city's director of utilities.

"To have no backups would be impossible in a storm like this, but certainly we could have had a lot more than 19," Poole said.

• Staff writers Christy Gutowski and Justin Kmitch contributed to this report