I was one of the lucky ones to have sewage back up into my basement. First time dealing with such joy. No insurance coverage, but I called my agent, Nick Zanoni, to see if the clean-up quote was at all in line with reality. He talked the guy down twice (along the lines of 'you do a lot of work for State Farm...'), and saved me $1700. Went over to check on the work, and tried to talk him down again. This post is not so much to plug my agent (but hey, nice work!), but to encourage others in the same position to not hesitate to contact their agent even if not covered by their insurance.
Riverside Info » About Riverside
Flood restoration
(11 posts)-
Posted Friday Jun 25, 2010 13:07 #
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Speaking of basements flooding. I heard talk from a few people that the reason so many people had flooded basements for the first time is that the Village of Stickney shut off the Deep Tunnel at the peak of the storm. Can anyone confirm? I thought that if the Deep Tunnel system was overloaded that the first option was to discharge into bodies of water rather than to shut down the system all together. If this is true, I think this issue is worthy of some inquiry on the part of the Village Board and the Village Manager. We all saw how the Village and a significant amount of individual homeowners are reliant on this system to work properly. If this talk is accurate, the decision to shut off the tunnel caused millions worth of damage throughout the area. Given exorbitantly high rates we pay for our water and sewer system, I would expect that we are entitiled to some answers about what happened.
Posted Tuesday Jun 29, 2010 07:04 # -
It is heartbreaking to me to see so much stuff out on the the parkway---which does not even include what went out with the special collection last week. I've never seen it so bad. What corbi296 says makes sense--something went terribly wrong. It appears to me that there are pockets of basement flooding. Why? Why didn't ALL of the basements flood--sump pump power or not? Does a sump pump prevent this? Why one area and not another?
Posted Tuesday Jun 29, 2010 09:02 # -
From the Village Newsflash yesterday:
Allied Waste was in the Village all day Friday picking up water logged refuse and storm damaged tree limbs. Drivers picked up more than 80 tons of refuse and storm damaged trees on Friday alone.
Please help Allied and the department of public works get the Village cleaned up for the Independence Day celebration. Allied will make every effort to pick up branches from your private property that you bring to the curb; however, branches must be cut into four foot lengths and must be placed in an approved yard waste container or bundled. Bundles must not exceed 2 feet in diameter or 50 pounds in weight.
The department of public works continues to canvas the village with the chipper and will attempt to chip whatever branches Allied is unable to remove. Please be patient. Staff and resources are limited.
No citations will be issued for refuse or yard waste left at the curb before or after the scheduled pick-up date.
Posted Tuesday Jun 29, 2010 11:55 # -
Sump pumps were not the problem in this particular situation. Sump pumps and drain tiles help collect and discard ground water that seeps in through basement walls and floors. Last week's basement flooding was the result of water backup into homes through sewer lines. The amount of rain that came down and the rapidity with which it came down overwhelemed the sewer system. Normally this excess flow would be accomodated by the Deep Tunnel system but if this system was shut down for whatever reason, then it is easy to understand why all of our streets flooded and why the excess water backed up into homes. Riverside is particularly susceptible to this problem because, unlike most other communities, we only have one sewer system for both waste and storm waters rather than the seperate systems you find in most towns. The minority of homes that didn't flood in Riverside were spared because they either have overhead sewer lines coming into their homes or because their homes sit fairly high relative to street level.
As an aside, the inadequacy of our sewer system relative to our peer communities is another example of the shortsighted underinvestment in capital infrastructure that has taken place in Riverside historically. Recent boards were judiciously trying to reverse these deficiencies but the current RCA led board seems hell bent on exacerbating the problem by their penny wise and pound foolish fiscal decisions. Deferring capital investments in a town like Riverside is a suicidal policy that will cause big problems down the road. It may help you balance your cash flows in the short term and may appease constituents who foolishly view these deferrals as expense reductions but in the long run it is a shortsighted approach whose significant long term costs are not revealed until you have an event like the one that hit Riverside last week.
Posted Tuesday Jun 29, 2010 17:11 # -
Interesting, if we still had the original roads of macadam permeable aggregate all of the rainwater from the streets would have drained naturally into the soil and not off into sewer systems.
Understandable those roads would not hold up to the rigorous use of the auto and snow plow...but, even Olmsted understood Riverside is a wetland/marshy area and drainage would always be an issue if you build here.
For all the pavement we now have around us that affects not only drainage but the rise and fall of the Des Plaines, it would be a tragedy to find that the deep tunnel was closed...as that was the whole justification to build the thing in the first place.
Posted Tuesday Jun 29, 2010 19:04 # -
I was told that our particular street has only eight-inch storm sewers, which will apparently fail with any significant rainfall... no wonder my house has flooded twice this month.
Posted Tuesday Jun 29, 2010 19:15 # -
Village eFlash today (thanks to whoever called for clarification):
The Village has received a number of calls from residents inquiring why the village did not "open the valve" to prevent flooding of their homes. The purpose of this e-flash is to inform residents that there is no such valve that the village controls. Unfortunately, a number of factors played a role in the basement and street flooding many residents experienced following last Wednesday's storm. They include:
- The amount of rainfall Riverside and the entire Chicago metropolitan area has received recently: According to meteorologist Tom Skilling, June 2010 is the fourth wettest June since 1928. Unpaved surfaces, which serve as a natural absorbent, are saturated with moisture, causing water to run off onto village streets and into the sanitary and storm sewer system;
- The rate at which the rain fell: The village had over 3" of rainfall in a one hour period which placed an tremendous burden on the sewer system;
- The age and size of the sewer system: Due to the amount of rain and the rate at which it fell, the sewer system was unable to accommodate the volume of water entering the system. When the current system was put in place it was done so with the intent that it would service homes located on larger parcels of property, rather than the more densely populated tracts in Riverside;
- The MWRD deep tunnel reached full capacity: Water in the sewer system found the path of least resistance, unfortunately that path let to the basements of many homes in Riverside and most of the surrounding communities.
The Village understands the inconvenience and frustration the storm has caused and will continue to work to remove debris and evaluate what steps the can be taken to reduce and/or eliminate a similar occurrence from taking place in the future.
Posted Wednesday Jun 30, 2010 17:10 # -
Flooded basement? Better get used to it
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-oped-0806-mccarron-20100806,0,410253.storyArticle about the Deep Tunnel and Reservoir Project
Posted Friday Aug 6, 2010 15:16 # -
IDOT had heavy equipment on the Forest Ave. bridge today cleaning out trees and debris caught under the bridge. That helps keep the water going downstream.
Posted Friday Aug 6, 2010 15:51 #
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