Sewage backups ruin some Mount Prospect homes

Idania Santiago woke up at 4 a.m. May 13 to a homeowner's nightmare -- a river of water and sewage covering her living room floor.

"It was disgusting and dirty," said Santiago, who lives in the 1000 block of South Cypress Drive in Mount Prospect. "I got on the phone right away. The first person I called was a plumber. The second call I made was to the village."

Turns out, the plumber was more help. This week Santiago received a letter from Mount Prospect officials saying the mess isn't their fault, and they won't be paying her or anyone else for their losses.

Santiago thinks they should. She said she saw two village repair trucks on her street a few days before the sewage damage hit her home.

"I think they were trying to fix something else and it backfired," she said. "It's not fair. We've lived here for eights years and pay taxes and nothing like this has every happened before."

But every now and then it does, and when Mother Nature takes over, the village isn't responsible, said Mount Prospect Village Manager Mike Janonis.

On May 13, about 2.5 inches of water fell in six hours, he said.

"No sewer system can handle that capacity when we get a heavy rain like that in a short period of time," Janonis said. "As a policy, and all communities are in the same position, we don't pay for damages based on these type of backups. From a liability standpoint, it would be a nightmare. We can't control nature."

Santiago's neighborhood is served by a lift station at Hunt Club Drive and Golf Road which takes the sewage to a local treatment plant. Janonis said nothing was blocking the sewers, and public works employees weren't repairing anything in the area the week of the storm.

"There was no defeat and nothing was blocking the sewer," he said.

That's little relief to Santiago, who is looking at more than $5,000 in damage to her split level home's living room and adjacent crawlspace.

Down the street, Hugh Hoffman had the same problem and estimates his damage at more than $30,000.

Both Hoffman and Santiago were told only sewage backup insurance will cover the damage - something neither homeowner have.

"We had water right up to the walls," said Hoffman who has been cleaning up nonstop since the storm. "We lost a bathroom wall and tiles there were lost. They want us to think it's the rain that caused this? I've lived here for 15 years and have never seen anything like it."