Jun 19, 2009 9:59 pm US/Central
After Rain, Flooding Is A Concern For Many
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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John Berkley of Lincolnwood bails out his flooded basement following Friday's torrential downpour.
CBS
All the water from this week's storms had to go somewhere -- like someone's basement. Homeowners are mopping up big messes.
CBS 2's Dana Kozlov reports some wonder if their mess could have been prevented.
It's the last thing Susan Kraut wanted to see: another downpour after she and her husband spent the better part of 24 hours draining the first floor of their Albany Park duplex. But Friday, they were in ready mode.
"For some reason, this unit seems to be the low spot for the whole building. Every single time we get these torrential downpours we get anywhere from 2 to today's 13 inches," Kraut said.
Kraut says it's the fifth time they and others on the 4500 block of Christiana have flooded in two years. And they don't know why.
Farther northwest, in Jefferson Park, Brian Hughes worked furiously to dry out his basement apartment after water spewed up from floor drains. But hours after Round 1 of the storms his bathroom floor still squished to the step. Across the street, Brian's brother Randy's house was soaked, too, and he wonders if water reclamation engineers failed to open the locks in time.
"They just closed it a little bit too soon on us," Hughes said.
There were similar stories all over the North Side and beyond. Edward Milevski worked on his drains but blames a broken city sewer pipe for his flooding repeat.
In Lincolnwood, the Berkley brothers knew only they could keep floodwater at bay the old-fashioned way, by removing it one bucket at a time for the second time this year.
"Last time we did it from about 7 p.m. to 8 in the morning. Tonight might be a similar situation -- we'll see," John Berkley said.
But the biggest concern to flood victims like the krauts is what's coming up from their drains. They fear it's sewage.
Kraut says, in their case, there's only so much they can take.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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