Some Feedback from The Flooding Survey

Ironically, a couple of weeks before the flood of June 26th, a neighborhood flooding questionnaire was left in the mailboxes of the twenty-one or so homes on the 2400 block of Oak Avenue. Wow, here's a chance for residents to express their frustration about the water problems, anonymously, if they chose. And only eight families took the time to reply. 

Even more ironic was the number of homes with reclamation vehicles parked outside after the flood. The very homes that belonged to people who were too busy bailing water to fill out the survey, apparently. 

Meanwhile, we promised to provide the results from the surveys we received. So here's a tidbit or two to give you an idea of what it's like to live in Water Land. 

Straight from the survey, here are two comments about the history of flooding on the 2400 block of Oak:

ii. Over 45 years I have lived on both the North and South sides of the street and had flooding on both sides. We have altered landscaping, put in a raised basement floor, a surface pump, and done tiling from the backyard to the street with the Village’s permission. Everything has helped, nothing has made for a completely dry basement in a heavy flooding rain.

iii. We have lived here for 16 years and have never had as many problems as the last few years, which directly coincides with all of the new homes being built around us. We are very disappointed in the Village of Northbrook for allowing such large homes to be built on such small properties – eating away at all of the land – land that used to drain water, but now the sewers are inundated. They don’t care about all of the homeowners who have been here for years. All they care about is building, building, building. Northbrook was going to work on our sewers on our block, but are now re-evaluating because of cost. Well, we can’t afford an overhead sewer system – and $5000 barely covers 1/3 of what it will cost – not to mention the very intrusive way this system will be put in. Northbrook should get their priorities straight.

Here is another owner's description of just his losses for ONE flood. And we've had three floods already this year. Multiply this by the number of homes we know for sure that were flooded on June 26th -- ten. Then multiply by the number of floods this year. Then multiply by the number of floods since the three one-hundred year floods of the 1980s. 

7. List the possessions you have lost to flooding along with their value:

i. Furnace = $2000

Water Heater = $1200

Washer/Dryer = $1200

Carpeting = $1800

Drywall = $300

Furniture = $3000

Toys = $1000

Electric = $3000

Sump Pump with back up = $600

[This was only one flood out of several floods]

The Village's solution is to expect the victims of the flooding to fix the problem themselves --  a problem the Village has caused by allowing the grade to be raised and permitting footprints that are too large [a quote from a Village engineer in 2008, by the way]. And those are just two of the usual suspects. The biggest problem is that the storm sewers can't handle the water that has no where else to go.  

With every thunderstorm, Northbrook has demonstrated its clear and continuing failure to prepare ALL of its residential infrastructure for the future, which is HERE. This, despite decades of flooding throughout the Village. 

Contractors continue to get building permits which allow them to build mega-houses on inadequate lots, without regard to the environmental effects they will have on the existing homes. And despite pleas to the VIllage from the surrounding homeowners. 

Time will tell. What goes around comes around.