Cronin declares emergency in DuPage

DuPage County Board Chairman Dan Cronin Thursday declared a countywide state of emergency in order to speed up the county’s response to the flooding caused by torrential rains.

“The floodwaters are a real concern for residents’ homes in addition to some of our roadways that are completely impassible,” Cronin said in a statement.

Cronin said that signing the emergency declaration provides quicker access to resources to help with the cleanup, which is expected to take some time.

The emergency declaration allows the county to forgo normal business practices to quickly access emergency resources such as generators, pump systems and sandbags, officials said. It also allows the county to reassign employees to various flood response and recovery operations.