Flooding cleanup continues in DuPage
Dennis Krejchi has seen this before.
The flooded road in front of his house was under water just a few short months ago, rising a foot above the floor of the Carol Stream man's ranch home.
"Firefighters had to pull up in a boat to get me, my girlfriend, a cat and a dog out of the house," Krejchi said Monday, as village public works crews spent the morning clearing ice and water along Illini Drive from a weekend storm that still left several DuPage County roads under water.
In addition to the closures in Carol Stream, a section of Route 53 just north of the entrance to the Morton Arboretum was still off-limits to motorists, as were some streets in Lisle, Naperville, West Chicago and Winfield.
The weekend weather sent a Darien-Woodridge firefighter responding to a vehicle accident to the hospital with an injured back, fire prevention director Robert Morris said. A fire engine also was out of commission after it slid off an icy ramp, damaging its water pump.
Williams Road in Warrenville remained closed between Batavia Road and Morris Court throughout Monday. Standing water is blocking the thoroughfare, but city officials say it is slowly receding. The road will be open once all the water is gone, officials said.
McDowell Grove Forest Preserve between Warrenville and Naperville was closed due to flooding. Forest preserve officials are warning that several trails throughout the forest preserve system are under water because of the floods, but McDowell Grove is the only preserve completely closed.
Forest preserves and other open spaces are intended to capture water runoff and prevent flooding, but the rain and snowmelt happened faster than the ground could thaw.
"The ground is frozen so it reduces the absorption factor and that means water is running over the top instead of seeping into the ground," said forest preserve spokesman Bill Wiedner.
Much of Armstrong Park was frozen over Monday, as well as several streets just south of it in Carol Stream. Several neighbors living near the park moved their vehicles to nearby parking lots at Jay Stream Middle School and St. Luke Catholic Church in anticipation of the weekend flooding.
For residents like Danielle Vent, Saturday's heavy rain and melting snow comes too soon on the heels of a similar rainstorm that flooded her home back in September.
She and her husband spent two months living in one of her parents' apartments as they repaired more than $60,000 worth of flood-related damage to the home. The couple just moved back into their home two weeks ago.
"Something really needs to be done about the flooding in this part of town," she said. "It's the third time we've dealt with this in just over a year."
Carol Stream Village President Frank Saverino said the village has increased the capacity of some of its nearby retention ponds to ease flooding in the neighborhood surrounding the park.
"Forty or 50 years ago when some of those buildings were built, it seems like people didn't even know what flood plains were," Saverino said. "This area can only hold so much water."