A record amount of rainfall again soaked all of us this past weekend. We hear things got a little dicey at places like Home Depot as residents were again making quick trips to purchase items such as shop-vacs. And residents are again dragging warped furniture and sodden rugs out to the curb for pick-up.
If this weren't such a regular occurrence, we'd be smacking our foreheads and downing V8 juice. Unfortunately, it's an all to frequent happening. It seems that if ComEd doesn't get us, the sewer system will.
Our Public Works, Police, and Fire personnel are to be given a hearty round of applause. We feel they did as good a job as they could, under the circumstances. Many volunteers and even our aldermen pitched in knocking on doors and sandbagging, while Mayor Howard kept Park Ridge safe from media crews by sacrificing himself to interviews.
All in all, it was a rough weekend. But as we've seen time and time again, the more demanding the task, the tougher the people of Park Ridge prove themselves to be. And many manage to stay in good humor too.
Remember folks, it could always be worse. Don't forget, ultimately it's just stuff. And to those with family down in Texas -- glad to hear everybody came through okay.
September 15, 2008
How Long Can You Tread Water? - Freewheeling!
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11 comments:
18 years of flooding, 18 years of power outages, 18 years of excuses from the city and Com Ed, 18 years of nothing getting done to solve the problem. And the beat goes on.
I second the appreciation for all the city employees and citizens that help those in need this weekend!
Community.
nothing can be done when there is that much rain--what would you like them to do--build a big umbrella to protect our "bubble we live in?
Carpeting the Storm Sewers:
Maybe the PRU Community can provide some insight regarding a strange incident that took place at Rose and Crescent Saturday morning.
As you may recall, the morning was surreal enough. At some point, after watching cars crash into the water wall at this consistently flooded intersection, my kids decided to clear the storm sewers. After about a half hour with rakes and shovels, we accomplished our goal and the water began to recede. I sent out a dove and it returned with an olive leaf.
As we admired our work, a gentleman pulled up in a red Honda. He seemed to be on patrol, although he wasn't driving any kind of official vehicle. Maybe he is one of those people that is just naturally official.
He proceeded to bitch out my daughter for clearing the storm sewer, admonishing her that if she wasn't careful, the water would pour into our basement through our sewer pipe. I wasn't quite sure I was hearing correctly, but I was, as he then saw me and began the same conversation.
"If you live around here, you know what I'm talking about." [no, we just drove in from Arizona to clear these here storm sewers.]
Telling us not to clear the storm sewers because our basements would flood didn't immediately make sense to me. It did make sense that the water would come in the front doors if we hadn't cleared, as it had just a few blocks East.
I had decided I wasn't going to talk this this guy, because he obviously knew so much more than I do. I limited my question to a lame: "I wonder why they installed these here storm sewers in the first place then?"
This question was so dumb that he shook his head, dismissed me as an idiot and drove away. This has happened enough in the past that I don't take it personally.
I was leaning on my rake in a non-plussed manner, wondering about this no info, when a neighbor drove up from the opposite direction and asked me if "they" had cleared the sewers. I said no, but my kids had, and gotten disciplined for their trouble. Neighbor friend pointed out that people put carpeting over the drains sometimes, so they need to be opened. Then she drove away.
For the same reasons that I sometimes watch Fox News, it always makes sense for me to consider the idea that things that seem to make no sense could possible make some sense if I had more information.
So now, I turn to the PRU cyber knowledge bank to ask the following question. Does anybody know what this guy was talking about. Can my kids be taken away for clearing the storm sewers. Are we responsible for the flooded basements? What's a cubit?
Thank you for your help in advance.
18 years?
Our town has had this stuff going on longer than that.
DesPlaines has probably has had more problems with flooding than us.
cubit = approx 45 centimeters
Here is the old school thinking.
If you keep the water on the street and out of the sewer, then the water cannot back up into your basement. When the sewers fill with water AND there is still water on the street trying to get into the sewer that you create enough pressure to back up into basements with drains in the floor (most older homes). Its why we have water towers. We pump water way up high to give pressure to the water that we want to drink.
Normally, the water level in the sewer is far below the level of the basements, and so the water flows out. As the sewers fill, the water level rises and when the water level in the sewer plus the drain plus the street is greater that the level of the basement floor, you get a "visit from the mayor" - a bunch of crap flying at you that you cannot control.
So is it better to have water lapping at your doorstep or backing up through the floor drain? I would go with the door step. That is rain water and is most likely "cleaner" than the turd water backing up in the basement. I believe that PR has "combined" sewers - the big concrete pipes carry both poop and rain. On Saturday, it was mostly rain, but somewhere in town, someone had to go. They flushed and it ended up in someone else's basement. New communities have separate storm water sewers and sanitary sewers. We are not a new community so we dont have those, except for the new alleys that go in. They have a sewer that holds the water from that alley for a while before sending to the combined sewer.
So should you go unclog the inlet? I would say generally yes. We do not get rain 6 inches at a time on a regular basis. The sewers can holder regular old rainstorms. How about when we get the 6 inch 100 year (2 year) storm? Depends. If you do not get water in YOUR basement but the water is starting to come up your yard to your front door/back door/window well, you may want to unplug the drain. That is what it is there for. Might it cause your neighbors basement to flood? It might. But it might not. I unclogged the drains by my house and did not see carpeting in the trash today. But maybe I got lucky.
Past performance cannot guarantee future results.
I believe that is why Chicago put stoppers in the street drains so that the water would stay in the street and not basements.
On another subject. I have heard from several people that the storm water in the Manor, on Prospect and Cedar an in a basement just all drained between 4:30 and 5 like somone opened a valve. Anyone else observe this?
AJ
is the mayor still in Florida?
AJ --
The phenomenon you are asking about has indeed been observed by others.
anony-mouse --
Mayor Howard has been in town.
Unfortunately the City of Park Ridge in recent years has been focused on its involvement in the PRC development as well as other developers. The City put money into PRC which we won't see coming back to us until the developer makes all his money back. This leaves the members of the current city council with no money to fix our failing infrastructure. Streets, sewers, etc. As our property taxes continually rise so will the water every year. Time to stop the R5 developments and limit the additional strain on our infrastructure until the city can afford to fix it.
Anon 7:45
You are correct, in 2000 Chicago did put sewer blockers to keep sewage from coming up and to keep the water in the streets. However if you remember in 2000 we had one of those freak rains and that plan backfired big time. Instead of putting the blockers in areas that actually had sewage back-up problems they put them in city wide and long behold neighborhoods who NEVER had any water problems suddenly flooded. I.E. Edison Park, Norwood park, Jefferson Park. I guess the good news was it was ground water not sewage, but tell that to the people whos basements fill with 3 feet of water after 30 years of never having a drop. The conclusion.... the blockers got taken out within 3 days. Sometimes in theory things look good, but in practice are often not as successful. By the way the Park Ridge neighborhoods which are directly adjacent to those Chicago neighborhoods were also effected by the flooding thanks to Mayor Daley.
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