June 27, 2013 • The Day After

Just one picture of the reclamation trucks which showed up on the 2400 block of Oak Avenue after yesterday's rain.  You'd never know there was ever any flooding yesterday, judging from this photo, except for the telltale trucks. 

Here's a Service Master truck airing out somebody's flooded basement, in all likelihood. 

A few weeks ago a survey was sent out to the residents of the 2400 block of Oak Avenue about flooding on the block. There is a history of flooding going back to the 1950's. It has escalated by geometric leaps and bounds, since the teardowns began in the 1990's. 

Instead of just assuming that everyone knows there's flooding on Oak Avenue, the first question on the survey posed the obvious:

Do you think there is a flooding problem on the 2400 block of Oak Avenue?

If the respondent said NO, they were done with the survey. How hard could that be? If they said YES, they could skip the rest of the questions and be done with the survey, too. We weren't asking a lot. 

Each household along 2400 Oak Avenue received a copy of the survey. There were twelve questions, some with multiple parts. 

Unfortunately, the Oak Avenue Flood Survey Committee received a disappointing 38% response, despite promises to keep the surveys anonymous. Nationally, the average response to surveys like this is only 2%, but in such a small, concentrated sample, we had hoped for more. Perhaps if we had given away a car. Or free clean up after the next flood.

Ironically, today, after yesterday's water festival, we noticed any number of reclamation trucks in front of Oak Avenue houses on the 2400 block. All were were observed parked in front of homes that hadn't taken the time to respond to our survey. This makes us think that most people DO know there's a flooding problem on the block, but don't want to talk about it.

Ironic, also, that three of those houses were large homes built during the McMansion craze, which, arguably, has contributed to our storm water and sewer backup problems.

Two things: 1] apparently no house, no matter how new, enjoys immunity from the inadequate village infrastructure on the 2400 block of Oak Avenue and, 2] people are probably reluctant to admit they are victims. Resale value and all that.  

The lack of candor may also help to explain why Northbrook doesn't seem to feel there's any urgency to correct this village-wide flooding problem. Our street was slated for infrastructure improvements to start in May. But we've been told that the project is now on hold, based on a consultant's cost/benefit analysis. 

So that's why we started this blog, to help the village understand how adversely the flooding problem affects our day to day lives. This blog is a modern day update to deal with the latest flooding issue on Oak Avenue. The last big problem was in the 1990's, when eight backyards were flooded for weeks after the village allowed the grade to be raised on new construction, after the very first teardown on the block. 

At that time, the village expected the residents to rectify the problem themselves. With a huge financial outlay for each household. Despite the fact the village had caused the problem. After the neighborhood protested, the village found a way to solve it. Deja vu, all over again, as Yogi used to say. 

Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Or should we say, the more things change, the more they stay the same. 

Meanwhile, we will post results of Oak Avenue Flooding Survey here in a week or two, if not before.