Fierce Rains Flood Streets, Cause Outages in Midwest

Torrential rains Thursday flooded Chicago streets and highways, clogged subway lines and knocked out power to thousands of Midwesterners, authorities said.

Up to 7 inches of rain dumped by a parade of thunderstorms moving slowly through the region shut down major highways leading into Chicago and flooded the Blue Line subway, which runs under Dearborn Street downtown, and the Red Line, which runs under State Street.

The flooding snarled the morning commute for thousands, with shuttle buses pressed into service to ferry subway passengers around the flooded stations.

Interstate 190, leading into O’Hare International Airport, was closed for several hours by flooding.

Flights at O’Hare and Midway Airport were delayed for several hours by the storms.

Floodgates were opened into Lake Michigan to release untreated water from overwhelmed sewer systems in Chicago and the suburb of Wilmette, Ill.

Swimming in the lake was banned for two days, said Angelynne Amoress, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Park District.

The National Weather Service issued flood warnings for several area rivers and flash flooding was reported in parts of South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois.

Rainfall totals included 11.7 inches in Galena, Ill., and slightly more than 9 inches at Dubuque, Iowa, and nearly 5 inches in Lafayette and Grant counties in Wisconsin.

Several apartment complexes and a trailer park were evacuated in Eau Claire, Wis., due to flooding.

Lightning sparked fires in at least five homes near Milwaukee. An unmanned blimp about 100 feet long broke loose from its mooring at a stadium north of the city and damaged several roofs and chimneys before coming to rest on a house. No one was hurt.

Meanwhile, lightning strikes and wind gusts knocked out power to tens of thousands of customers in northern Illinois and southeast Wisconsin.

An estimated 16,000 customers of Commonwealth Edison, a unit of Exelon Corp., were without power at midmorning, and an additional 50,000 lost power in southeast Wisconsin.

“Our crews worked through the night,” Commonwealth Edison spokesman Trent Frager said, noting they had restored power to 60,000 customers who had suffered outages.

Minnesota received another dousing, and the summer rainfall total approached a record for the season.

“The [Upper] Midwest has been an oasis between the drought area of the Rockies, with all the forest fires, and the drought along the East Coast,” said Greg Spoden, a meteorologist for Minnesota.