Flood victims face long and expensive repairs after historic rainstorms
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The water has subsided now, but the record-breaking rainfall from Sunday's storms left behind a nightmare for many homeowners: a flooded basement.
This situation was playing out across Chicago and the suburbs Monday night, waterlogged possessions stacked up, waiting for things to dry so people can assess the damage and cost.
CBS 2's Marybel Gonzalez spoke to people living on the city's Northwest Side about their flooding frustrations and what's next.
Portage Park resident Carlos Suarez sees no end in sight to his cleanup efforts. Precious belongings were destroyed after his garage and basement were flooded during Sunday's record-setting storm.
"The water just, like, tore up the drywall or something. It's nasty," he said.
Suarez said there's likely damage in the walls he can't even see.
"Yeah, it has to be, because we never had no problem," he said.
It was the first time Suarez's home has flooded, but just a few blocks over, flooding is a persistent problem for Jenny and Rick Wolf.
"When we moved in, this was all finished. There was carpeting, padding, the whole thing. Six weeks into that — that was eight years ago— huge storm," Rick said.
The Wolf family said this is the seventh time their basement has been underwater in the past eight years.
"Once that water starts coming in, there's nothing we can do," Rick said.
They've tried it all; installing sump pumps, and back up pumps.
"It smells damp down here. I worry about mold," Rick said.
Their basement now is only used for storage.
"We've got a house that's got three floors, and it feels like we're living in two thirds of the house," Rick said.
Like so many Portage Park residents, Rick and Jenny reached out to the city to try to get some sort of help, but they didn't get the answers they were hoping for.
"We've put in 3-1-1 requests before," Jenny said. "The last request that I put in was the big rain that we had last September, and literally a couple of hours after I put in the 3-1-1 request, it was closed, and it just says owner's responsibility."
They're now left with a hefty bill, and many questions.
"Right now, we're probably a good 15 to 20 thousand dollars in. We'll probably be another 15," Rick said. "We don't know what the engineering problem is, and they haven't offered anything to suggest that they know what the problem is. So all we can do is handle our own little space."