Argonne National Laboratory team to study causes of flooding in Chicago's Chatham neighborhood
CHICAGO (CBS) -- When it rains in Chicago, it floods specifically in the South Side's Chatham neighborhood.
To find out why, a team of national researchers is kicking off a special project. CBS News Chicago spent the day with those researchers and the community leaders with whom they're partnering to learn more.
The Chatham neighborhood saw intense flooding the last time there was major rain in the city—and some homes had a few feet of water in their basements. The goal of the project happening now is to learn why areas like Chatham see the flooding they do so something can be done to fix it.
The problem has been documented in Chatham over the years by CBS News Chicago's own photographers. Cars end up submerged underwater, and people are seen walking through floodwaters up to their waists. It looks like video one would see after a hurricane.
"From understanding what is going on, we can stop the flooding that has devastated us for generations," said Nedra Sims Fears, executive director of the Greater Chatham Initiative.
A lifelong Chatham resident, Fears knows flooding firsthand.
"I'm a daughter of Chatham," she said. "In my childhood home, I remember four major flood events—two of which flooding caused electrical fires."
The Greater Chatham Initiative is a community group now working directly with
A team of scientists and researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory has launched a project to focus on flooding. They are homing in on Chatham as the Chicago neighborhood hardest hit.
The federally funded $25 million Argonne program behind the project is called Community Research on Climate and Urban Science, or CROCUS.
"Chatham tends to flood first and tends to flood worst," said Scott Collis of Argonne National Laboratory. "We are going to bring state-of-the-art research radar to the region."
Argonne's scientists and supercomputers will work to figure out why flooding is a problem in Chatham.
"If we actually knew why Chatham was particularly vulnerable to flooding, we'd already have the answers," Collis said. "We'd already be able to give engineers the ingredients they need to make things better."
Research from Argonne shows extreme weather events happening more frequently—bringing an increased risk of flooding.
The recent hurricanes, Helene and Milton, have renewed concerns about inland impact from storms. Argonne scientists said the same ingredients—warmer air holding more water—that made Hurricane Helene worse will also impact Chicago.
"Warmer air holds more water," Collis said. "Water is rocket fuel for thunderstorms."
This is something Chatham native Fears knows all too well. She said the project means everything to the people who have waded Chatham's floodwater for generations.
"It creates trauma. When I hear rain is going to come, I don't think, 'Oh, it will be nice to hear the raindrops,'" said Fears. "I run home to check and see if there's water in the basement."
Fears is well aware that climate events are making the situation even more dire.
"As climate events get worse, we need to move ahead just to stay at the same level," Fears said, "and we don't want to stay at the same level. We want it fixed."
She added that solutions cannot be one-size-fits-all when it comes to different Chicago communities.
"What works in Rogers Park is very different from what works in Chatham," Fears said.
Collis said community partners are providing the institutional knowledge of the impact of climate change on their communities to make the project possible.
"We have so much planning to do and so much awareness to do in the community," he said. "We are doing detailed atmospheric and climate science where people live, play and work. So we are heavily integrated with these communities."
A bulk of the work for the Chatham project will happen this coming spring, when researchers will track the rainy season and its impact on the area. The dates for the work are April 1 through May 15, 2025.