Flooding Concerns Mount As Heavy Rains Persist; Skokie Homeowner Swamped With 6 Inches Of Water In Garage
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Heavy rain continues to fall across the Chicago area, leading to flooding for many parts of the region, in large part because the ground was already saturated from storms a few days earlier.
Two to four inches already have fallen since Saturday, and some areas have had as much as 10 inches in the past five days, with more heavy rain expected before storms taper off late tonight.
One frustrated homeowner in north suburban Skokie is already dealing with big flooding problems.
The Gokenbach family has owned their home in Skokie for more than 80 years, but in recent years the flooding has gotten much worse, and the village has told Carol Gokenbach she's on her own.
Her garage had at least 6 inches of water in it on Sunday. She said she doesn't dare open the main garage door, out of fear that it will exacerbate an already bad situation.
Gokenbach has lived on this double lot for the past 25 years. During that time she has seen her side yard become something of a retention pond for the entire block.
She blames the village for repeatedly raising the grade of the alley, and for allowing surrounding homeowners to raise their property lines, essentially forcing the water into her garage and yard.
Now her fear is that it could get worse and make its into the basement of her colonial-style home. It all adds up to an awful lot of frustration.
"It's just out of control, and I'm really to the point, even though we have had the property in the family since 1938, I'm ready to move out of this town, because I'm tired of dealing with the village," she said.
Gokenbach said the alley is the main culprit; an alley that has repeatedly been built up by the village. She said every time the alley has been raised, the water level has risen almost proportionally in her garage and yard.
A village spokeswoman said Skokie engineers evaulated the property and provided a design for a backyard drainage system in February, 2017 at no charge. The village has no record of any mitigation work done by the homeowner since then. The village also says it has continued to maintain public areas surrounding the homeowner's property, including re-grading the alley and sewer maintenance.