Politics & Government

Why More Niles Homes Didn't Flood

Acting Village Manager Steve Vinezeano says the first parts of NIles' $15 million plan to reduce flooding have already started to help. Plus--street sweeping Saturday.

 

Though many Niles and Morton Grove homes flooded in this week's storm, it could have been worse.

Electricity stayed on in the majority of homes, which provided power to keep sump pumps working for most people. A power outage would have casued many more flooded basements.

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Because previous floods have been so bad, the Niles village board last year approved spending $15 million on a stormwater plan designed to reduce flooding in homes and businesses. Though it's still in the planning and engineering phase, it helped this time.

Earlier: Niles OKs $15 Million For Plan To Prevent Flooding

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Acting Niles Village Manager Steve Vinezeano said the engineers have put together very good maps which identify the areas which flood when it rains a half-inch, an inch, two inches and so on.

They identified two Com Ed transformers that sat in areas which flood easily. In the past, they would get flooded and cause the west side of Niles to lose electricity. Because of the engineering mapping that has been done, however, Com Ed raised the transformers to a higher ground level so they no longer flood.

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"If we hadn't raised them, I'm 90 percent sure the west side of Niles would have lost power," Vinezeano said.

There was more good news, too. Niles' chief engineering associate, Jeff Wickencamp of Hey and Associates, came to the village Thursday and said the flooding occurred just the way the engineers' models said it would. 

"He said all the flooding was predictable and that what was being designed (to stop flooding) will address those problems," Vinezeano said.

Out on the streets

Scott Jochim, director of the village's public services department, said Public Works crews had all the village streets, even Harts Road, open by nightfall Thursday.

A gas line upder the Harts Road bridge over the Chicago River ruptured Thursday, he said, probably broken by a floating branch or other debris. The gas company came out to fix it. This morning, crews removed a large tree branch that was blocking the road. 

On Saturday, Public Works will deploy street sweeping machines to clean up the twigs, leaves, random garbage and other debris the storm deposited on the streets, he said.

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