CHICAGO– It’s a disturbing phenomenon almost every time Cook County experiences a heavy downpour: Communities, sometimes entire neighbourhoods, are left underwater.
This kind of flooding can lead to tens of thousands of dollars in damage and health risks for low-income residents who aren’t equipped to clean up and repair what’s left of their homes or basements.
According to the First Street Foundation, more than 200,000 properties in Cook County are at great or severe risk of flooding in the next 30 years. Of those at-risk properties, 94% are uninsured, ABC7 found.
Many of these at-risk properties are nowhere near a river, lake or designated floodplain, which doesn’t surprise researchers like Syracuse University professor Sarah Pralle.
“We get a lot of intense rain in a short period of time. And that just means that a lot of the drainage systems in cities, especially with the old kind of infrastructure, can’t handle that much runoff in that short of a time,” Pralle told ABC7.
Pralle explained that the type of flooding Chicago has experienced recently is classified as pluvial or surface flooding, caused by overwhelmed and outdated sewer or drainage systems that are not equipped to handle the high volume of rainfall that falls in a short period of time.
“This water has nowhere to go, it can’t be absorbed into the ground,” says Pralle. “So what homeowners are finding is that their basements are backing up.”
That’s what happened to Austin pastor Cy Fields last summer, when severe storms in Cook County dumped eight inches of water in a short period of time, according to state officials.
Fields said he was with his congregation in East Garfield Park on the morning of July 2 when his wife called him frantically.
“My wife was screaming, saying, ‘The basement is flooded!'” Fields recalled. “It was uncontrollable, and it was sewer water, it was dirty water.”
More than a week after the storm, Governor Pritzker issued a major disaster declaration, which was approved by President Biden in August. This declaration unlocked federal assistance from FEMA for homeowners affected by the storm.
Homeowners have until October 16 to file claims with FEMA for damage caused by the July storm.
But many homeowners tell ABC7 the money they received from FEMA did not fully cover their damages.
Researchers say that’s not surprising and stress the need for property owners to research flood insurance options.
“When there is a federally declared disaster… you may have a chance as a homeowner to get a little bit of help from the federal government,” Pralle said. “But it’s very small, and those who are insured are able to get quite a bit back and get back on their feet much faster than people who don’t have flood insurance.”
For example, Fields told ABC7 he was approved for assistance from FEMA and had flood insurance on his home. Fields said he bought the policy after previous floods on his Austin street.
But this time, he said, the money he received from his insurance company was more than what he received from FEMA.
Fields said he worries about those who may not be able to afford annual insurance policies on top of other living expenses.
“We have seniors in this community who are on fixed incomes. We have people who live in garden apartments and buildings that are not their own. And, and, so there’s an uncontrollable variable here that makes it difficult to get insurance,” Fields said.
Professor Pralle agrees and believes that flood insurance needs to be made more widely available to people of all income levels.
“For some people it is a heavy financial burden,” Pralle said. “But I think the solution is not to do without flood insurance, but to find ways to make it affordable for those who cannot afford it.”
While some private insurance companies offer flood or “sewer backup” policies, there are also government-backed policies available through the National Flood Insurance Program.
A FEMA spokesperson tells ABC7 that all communities in Cook County are eligible for this type of policy.
“Flood damage is typically not covered by homeowner’s insurance, so it’s important to consider purchasing flood insurance,” a FEMA spokesperson said via email, adding, “There is a 30-day waiting period before a flood insurance policy becomes effective, so it’s important to act now.”
