Residents in waterlogged Cicero beg for cleanup help; 'We lost everything'
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Some much-needed help is coming to people across Illinois.
Gov. JB Pritzker issued a disaster proclamation on Tuesday, freeing up funding and resources for damage from recent storms. CBS 2's Noel Brennan was in Cicero, hearing the calls from neighbors still cleaning up from flooding.
Her family is used to a full house.
"I live with my aunt and uncle and there's 14 of us in that home."
But Alejandra Yanes can hardly navigate the home after it was filled with water.
"It went up to my hips," she said. "We lost everything. There are boxes everywhere, furniture everywhere, clothes everywhere."
The house in Cicero is drying out nine days after heavy rainstorms.
"Back then, we had everything nice and put together, and now it just looks like a big mess," Yanes said.
People's water-logged living rooms are tossed out with the trash. Cicero said it collected 353 truckloads of trash last week.
"I don't know what to do. All I want is help from like the government or from the town," Yanes said.
The calls for help spread across Cicero and flooded a town hall. Residents filled every seat and begged the Board of Trustees to listen.
"My two sisters, my mom, and I are sleeping on the floor and we just need help, and I know most families also need help," said one resident.
Help, the town said, must come from the State of Illinois.
"We can make a difference by now urging the governor to pass and make Cicero, declare Cicero and all those other affected areas a disaster area because it was a natural disaster," said Town Clerk Maria Punzo-Arias.
News spread that Pritzker intends to sign a disaster declaration opening the door to federal aid.
"We're going to hold him accountable, and we want to thank him if he did from the bottom of our hearts because there's a lot of residents that are suffering that really, really need our help," said Punzo-Arias.
