Flood Clean-Up Continues After Friday Night's Storm

By Anna Deem in News on Jul 25, 2010 6:00PM

The rain may be over and the trains may be running again, but flood clean-up still continues throughout the city for the remainder of the weekend. According to the Chicago Tribune, the official rainfall amount for the Chicago area was measured at 6.43 inches, the third largest total for a two-day period in Chicago history. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that an estimated 60 billion gallons of water fell on the city and parts of Cook County, filling all 190 miles of the Deep Tunnel system.

The storms flooded at least 1,300 houses in the city and knocked out power to 158,000 customers, ComEd officials said to the Sun-Times. Around 13,600 customers were still without power as of Saturday night. 25 viaducts in the city were also flooded and blocked parts of nearly 150 streets, Water Commissioner Thomas Powers said to the Sun-Times. As a result, no swimming is allowed today and potentially longer at city beaches. ABC-7 reported that three major expressways were closed on Saturday, but Illinois State Police have said that all expressways are now open.

"Our goal is to get the city back to normal as quickly as possible," Mayor Daley said to the Sun-Times. "But we are asking everyone to be patient."