Record Rainfall Wreaks Havoc in Chicago Area

Wave after wave of powerful thunderstorms swamped metropolitan Chicago on Friday, dumping a record 9.35 inches of rain in less than 24 hours. Air travel nationwide was disrupted as O’Hare International Airport--one of the world’s busiest--was isolated all day by high water.

Gov. James R. Thompson declared disasters in Cook and suburban DuPage counties late Friday afternoon and deployed 200 National Guard troops to provide security in flooded communities where hundreds were being evacuated from their homes.

More Storms Expected

Friday’s storms shattered a 30-year-old record of 6.24 inches that fell during 24 hours on July 12 and 13, 1957. Flash flood warnings continued into the night as forecasters predicted more thunderstorms for both today and Sunday.

Power failures were widespread. Telephone service was so slow that Illinois Bell broadcast radio announcements asking customers to make only necessary calls. Tens of thousands lost phone service.

Public activities ranging from summer school and horse racing to outdoor festivals and athletic events were canceled. Only 15,000 of the 36,000 ticket holders for Friday’s Chicago Cubs-New York Mets game showed up. The Cubs won, 6-1.

A private psychiatric facility in suburban Des Plaines evacuated 160 patients to other hospitals and the Red Cross set up two temporary shelters.

The storms even forced the closing of the National Weather Service’s main forecasting center near O’Hare. It shut down late Friday afternoon when the power company turned off electricity to the building after three feet of water flooded its first floor and backup generators ran out of fuel.

“It seems ironic to me that we should be shut,” said Jim Purpura, a weather bureau meteorologist. “We’ve never been stranded in summer before. This sometimes happens in the winter though.”

O’Hare was an inaccessible island until early evening, shut off from all ground traffic by floodwaters that closed highways and rapid transit lines--the first time that a summer storm blocked access to the giant complex. Only three of the airport’s 12 runways were open much of the day. The others were closed by high water and short circuits that affected landing lights.

Airlines Cancel Flights

Hundreds of flights were canceled, causing disruption to air travel from coast to coast. United Airlines, the city’s biggest air carrier, canceled at least 25% of its nearly 400 daily flights at O’Hare. At mid-afternoon, 27 of the 55 American Airlines flights had been canceled. American is the city’s second major carrier.

“You can’t get into or out of the airport,” said a salesperson at the O’Hare Avis car rental office. “We’re cut off every which way. The main drag going up to the terminals has no traffic. It’s absolutely bizarre.”

Some luggage-laden travelers hiked along 2.5 miles of muddy expressway embankments to get into or out of the airport, which remained isolated into the evening.

Two deaths were attributed to the storms. One woman drowned when her car ran into a flooded ditch and a driver was killed when his truck hit a highway retaining wall during a blinding squall.

Hundreds of Cars Stranded

Car and bus travel throughout the metropolitan area was also disrupted as high water closed virtually every major freeway for much of the day and flooded viaducts on surface streets. Police agencies reported hundreds of abandoned cars. Many stranded drivers were rescued by public works dump trucks that patrolled the highways.

“We went to push a lady’s car out of the street. It was floating from light pole to light pole every time a big truck came by,” said Army Sgt. Steven TamCreti, 34, who was dressed in a military green T-shirt and a civilian bathing suit.

TamCreti and Spec. 4 Tim Burrow, 24, also in a military shirt and bathing suit, spent the afternoon rescuing stranded travelers. There was not much else to do. Their base, Ft. Dearborn, on the grounds of O’Hare, was under several feet of water.

Main Underpasses Flooded

“You can’t get into our town,” said Edward E. Bluthardt, mayor of Schiller Park, a suburb adjacent to O’Hare. “Underpasses at the two main drags are flooded. One has 11 feet of water and the other has nine feet. We’re almost isolated. Most of our businesses and restaurants are closed. And if they were open nobody could get to them anyway,” he said by phone.

Chicago’s criminal court complex was closed when water began to rise in the basement as it did in thousands of city and suburban houses and businesses.

More than 1,500 people called Chicago’s City Hall asking for assistance in pumping out their basements.

Rush-hour traffic jams developed early in the day as businesses sent workers home hours ahead of schedule, something that generally happens only during major winter snowstorms.

Cab Driver Won’t Budge

Meanwhile, taxi driver Blad Kamenem, 30, stood outside his cab at O’Hare, stubbornly refusing big bucks from would-be passengers who wanted him to drive them into the city.

“I picked up two women downtown at 7 this morning and I got them here at a quarter to one,” Kamenem said of the normal 30- to 40-minute drive to the airport. “I was swimming already and that’s enough.”

Weather forecasters say there is a silver lining to the storm. If this were February, the snow would measure over 100 inches deep.

Staff writer Bob Pool contributed to this story from O’Hare International Airport.