Local News

CHICAGO (CBS) ― The skies may not be dumping buckets anymore, but disastrous flooding continues to plague the Chicago area from the northwest suburbs to Northwest Indiana.

So far, the storm is being blamed for at least six deaths in Illinois and Indiana, four of them in the greater Chicago area.

In Chesterton, Ind., a father and grandfather died trying to save a 12-year-old who fell into a rain-swollen ditch in Chesterton, Ind., according to the Chesterton Fire Department. Mark Thanos, 48, and his father, 74-year-old John Thanos both jumped into the rushing waters of a ditch near their home.

In Oak Lawn, Eduardas Jokuvauskas, 83, of 10320 Linder Ave. in Oak Lawn, drowned in a window well outside his southwest suburban home Saturday, said the Cook County Medical Examiner's office.

In Arlington Heights, Alan G. Byrd, 28, of 2703 School Dr. in Rolling Meadows drowned Saturday afternoon trying to swim across a retention pond at Sunset Meadows Park, 700 S. Dwyer Ave., authorities said.

Additionally, emergency crews are still looking for a man who is missing in the flood waters Sunday night in downtown New Lenox, authorities said.

Standing floodwaters have also shut down expressways. Two of the three southbound lanes on the Bishop Ford Freeway reopened Monday morning at 130th Street after being closed for half the day. But the far right lane remained closed early Monday afternoon because of flooding, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation.

The entire northbound side of the expressway is shut down, though two lanes are expected to reopen this afternoon.

Interstate 80/94 in Indiana is closed because of high water. Eastbound traffic is being diverted from the expressway at Illinois 394 before drivers are pointed east at U.S. 30.

Large parts of Munster, Ind., have been left underwater, particularly in the northern part of the town. An entire neighborhood was evacuated, and at the Munster Med-Inn nursing and extended care facility, a custodian said the employee parking lot was underwater.

In Des Plaines, hundreds of homes were evacuated, and people were advised to avoid traveling to or through the town. Floodwaters shut down numerous roads and damaged several businesses, including the McDonald's Museum on the site of the first McDonald's opened by Ray Kroc.

In Plano, about 50 miles southwest of Chicago, floodwaters inundated The Farnsworth House, a historic home designed by architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Justin Lyons, with Landmarks Illinois, said the home built in 1951 on the Fox River's floodplain took "a bad beating" Sunday.

The flooding closed Brookfield Zoo on Sunday for the first time in its 74-year history. The zoo is now open again, although some exhibits are closed.

The zoo sustained severe damage from the rain over the weekend. Basements flooded in many animal building basements, and in many animal building basements and flooding that required some animals to be sent to other areas of the park.

"Our primary concern is the well-being and safety of the animals and our guests. Staff went to extreme measures to ensure the park is safe for all," said Stuart Strahl, chief executive officer and president of the Chicago Zoological Society, which manages the zoo. "Because there is limited access to some of the animal areas, we are offering guests free admission and parking today."

Big cats and bears were taken off exhibit due to flooded moats. Also off exhibit on Monday are Mexican gray wolves, dolphins, sea lions, seals, and the Fragile Kingdom Exhibit.

Those who do come to Brookfield Zoo on Monday are reminded that First Avenue is closed between Ogden Avenue and 31st Street.

U.S. Sen Dick Durbin was scheduled to tour flooded areas of Chicago and Des Plaines on Monday morning, but later had to cancel his visit to Des Plaines. Cook County Board President Todd Stroger declared a county-wide state of emergency on Sunday, and officials said they would ask Gov. Rod Blagojevich to issue a disaster declaration for both the city of Chicago and Cook County, a move that would make additional funds available to deal with flood-related costs.

In a statement released Sunday, Blagojevich said he directed staff from the state's Emergency Operations Center to monitor flooding and facilitate resource requests from officials in flooded communities.

Substantial Damage In Albany Park
In the Albany Park neighborhood on Chicago's Northwest Side, the torrential rainwater ended up in many people's basements.

Sump pumps there have been working overtime, and residents have been hurriedly sandbagging to keep flooded streets at bay.

Crews remain in neighborhood sandbagging, and police will continue to patrol the area Sunday night to provide additional safety, authorities said. Traffic control officials will also be on the scene to deal with the morning rush.

Street closures have been reported between Foster and Lawrence avenues and between Kedzie and Pulaski Road. Commuters are advised to avoid the Albany Park neighborhood if possible, but if they need to drive through, traffic aides will be on the scene, according to Office of Emergency Management and Communications spokeswoman Jennifer Martinez.

The city Department of Health and Human Services is providing resources to anyone who needs them. Any residents of the city of Chicago in need of assistance are asked to call 311.

Albany Park resident Helen Rehana lived through the notorious floods of 1986 and 1987, but this weekend seemed worse as 6 feet of water swamped the lower level of her home.

"It's very bad,'' said Rehana, who has spent 28 years in her home, which sits seven houses from the North Branch of the Chicago River. "In '87, we had a lot of water, but not like this."

On Sunday, she tried unsuccessfully to find a pump -- local stores were sold out -- but she hopes to borrow one from a relative after he uses it to drain his home. She's keeping her fingers crossed, meanwhile, that the electricity stays on so she can use the pump to empty her flooded bathroom and bedroom. But she's not planning to leave her home, even if the power fails.

"We're not going to leave. We're going to stick around," she said, adding she didn't expect -- after a break of more than 20 years -- to see her home flooded again. "We never had any fear, or we would leave,'' Rehana said.

A few blocks away, 31-year-old Alex De La Pena had to abandon his below-ground-level apartment near the river when floodwaters rose chest-deep inside. He was working Saturday when a friend called about the flooding -- and he rushed home to find the water inside knee-deep and rising fast.

"I just grabbed some books and papers and left. There was no time,'' said De La Pena, who worries he might be out of the apartment for a week or more.

In near west suburban River Grove, firefighters had to rescue a driver by boat Monday morning after he turned onto a flooded road at River Road and Grand Avenue. The driver's wheels were off the ground and his car was floating.

In southwest Plainfield Township, a boil order is in effect after wells might have been contaminated by floodwaters.

And back in Des Plaines, Gary Zanto had about 4 feet of water in his basement on Hawthorne Lane, a couple of blocks from the Des Plaines River. "The freezer is floating, the furnace is underwater, and the pool table is up on blocks, but it's not enough,'' Zanto said Sunday, calling the flooding the worst he has seen since he moved into the house in 1989.

He was aware of the damaging floods that swept the neighborhood in 1986 and 1987 but said he and his wife, Peggy, accepted the risk because they adored the tidy, two-story home on a tree-lined street near downtown Des Plaines.

"We fell in love with this place,'' the 53-year-old Zanto said. "We thought we could live with this."

Around the corner, Vicky and Mike Benziger had 6½ feet of water in their basement, prompting Mike to dub it "a retention pond."

By Sunday, the couple had given up on pumping out their basement and instead were trying to keep the floodwaters out of the nearby home owned by Vicky's mother.

Vicky grew up in the neighborhood and remembers the flooding in 1986 and 1987 but still was amazed at how quickly the floodwaters rose this weekend. The river swept up the street in a few hours, flooding homes before most residents could put out sandbags.

"This just happened out of nowhere,'' Vicky Benziger said.

In Elmwood Park, Linda Tumasz is living on a virtual island because most of the streets -- including hers, the 7900 block of West Barry -- are covered by at least a foot of water.

That's not keeping some people from driving through, triggering wakes that make it worse.

"They're idiots,'' Tumasz said. "There's the [saw]horse with the sign on it 'Road Closed,' and they keep going. And they're not just cruising by, they're going fast enough that there's a ripple" pushing the water onto front lawns, and in some cases it's enough to flood area basements. She's lucky, she says, because she and her husband installed a flood-control system to keep water out of the basement.

Control Locks To Lake Michigan Open
Meanwhile, while the Deep Tunnel system is designed to collect the rainfall major rain events and storms, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District was forced to open all three locks that lead from the river system to Lake Michigan -- at the end of the North Shore Channel in Wilmette, at Navy Pier, and at 130th Street and Torrence Avenue.

As of Monday morning, water control gates remained open. The Water Reclamation District said they have released 62 billion gallons of water from Chicago area waterways since Saturday morning. The Lockport Controlling Workds has also discharged another 13 billion gallons toward the Mississippi River.

More than 100 people displaced by floods in the Chicago area stayed at Red Cross facilities throughout the city and suburbs Saturday and Sunday, American Red Cross spokeswoman Martha Carlos said.

The current Red Cross shelter locations are:

* Des Plaines Park District at 515 E. Thacker St. in Des Plaines

* St. Stevens Lutheran Church at 14700 S. Kildare Ave. in Midlothian

* Mt. Carmel School, 1101 N. 23rd Avenue in Melrose Park

* North Park Village at 5801 N. Pulaski Rd.

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama released a statement in support and sympathy for those affected by the flooding:

"My thoughts and prayers are with all of those in the Chicagoland area who are experiencing flooding and those forced to evacuate their homes and businesses. My office is working with state and local officials to ensure our emergency response and disaster relief personnel have the resources they need to keep our communities safe," Obama said in the statement. "We must do everything we can to get our electricity up and running again, reopen our schools, and clear our roads as soon as possible. In the weeks ahead, I will work with Senator Durbin and members of the Illinois delegation to help Illinoisans recover from the damage."

Saturday's rainfall of 6.64 inches at O'Hare International Airport set a new record for a single calendar day. The previous record was 6.49 inches, recorded on Aug. 14, 1987. Climate records for Chicago date from 1871.

CBS 2's Mike Puccinell, Joanie Lum, Kris Habermehl, the Associated Press and the STNG Wire contributed to this report.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

---