Commissioner John Spatz of the Department of Water Management kept mum when the questions were flying from Chicago’s Channel 2 news hit regarding the “Rainblocker Vortex” nightmare. Many Chicago basement are flooding because of a poorly implemented and under-engineered design. Mayor Daley should know many Sewer Workers have been helping Channel 2 News and are providing information on the weaknesses of the “Rainblockers”. Thanks guys, you get a gold star, keep exposing fraud, watch this video, http://cbs2chicago.com/local/home.floods.rainblockers.2.569235.html
Special thanks to “Deep Water” for his assistance. Special thanks to Amy Le a friend of mine. Patrick McDonough.
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City’s Mistakes May Be Causing More Home Floods
Engineers’ Advice Not Followed In City-Wide Installation Of Rainblockers
Reporting
Pam Zekman CHICAGO (CBS) ― If your basement has flooded you know what a miserable experience it is to clean up the mess. Eight years ago the city spent $75 million to try and fix the chronic problem.
But many Chicago residents called the 2 Investigators after, once again, the summer’s heavy rains swamped their homes. As CBS 2 Investigator Pam Zekman reports, the city apparently made some multi-million dollar mistakes that explain why homes are still getting flooded.
Year after year the pounding rain has wreaked havoc on thousands of property owners like the Tuel family in Chicago’s Avondale neighborhood.
“Within 10 minutes we had three and a half feet of water,” Trish Tuel said.
The family’s home videos chronicle the agony of four floods in seven years.
“I literally, I had a meltdown,” Tuel said. “And for the first 45 minutes I just cried. And I didn’t think I could survive it again.”
So, why does this keep happening to them and thousands of other Chicagoans?
The city installed more than 200,000 rain blockers in catch basins across Chicago. Pending lawsuits charge the sewer department did this without following recommendations made by a company it hired to help stop basement flooding.
“By failing to implement the plan according to the design that they selected they were negligent,” said attorney Mark Grotefeld.
During a heavy storm, sewage backup can flood basements. Rain blockers are supposed to prevent the backup by forcing water to collect temporarily in the street. But in order for them to work, Harza Engineering said the city had to do several things including disconnecting downspouts that feed heavy rains into overwhelmed sewer lines. Block-by-block studies were suggested to assess needed sewer improvements. Curbs had to be high enough to hold the rain, and rain blockers had to be sized to fit different sewers.
None of those things was done before former sewer Commissioner John Kosiba had the rain blockers installed citywide.
“They just basically got one size and they installed them all over the city without looking at the local topography, which is crucial,” Grotefeld said.
The results were inevitable. The rain water jumped the curbs where they were too low, deluged yards and then flooded basements.
Kosiba told CBS 2 he believed it was “cheaper to install the rain blockers and remove them from problem spots later.”
That could turn into an expensive decision.
The lawsuits are seeking $13 million from the city to reimburse insurance companies for flood damage claims. A separate class action lawsuit could lead to millions more in claims by homeowners like the Tuels who blame the city for the $300,000 in damages they’ve suffered from four floods.
“You took a neighborhood that did not have a problem with water and created a problem,” Tuel said.
The city has removed hundreds of rain blockers including three in front of the Tuel’s house, but many remain on her block. The Tuels’ basement flooded again this summer as did the basements of thousands of other Chicagoans.
Ironically, on the Tuels’ block, the city has now discovered the kinds of problems, such as the low level of their house, that Harza Engineering said should have been identified before the rain blockers were installed.
Street sewer lines also need to be doubled or tripled in size on that block. That work is scheduled for next year. But the Tuels aren’t holding their breath. This summer they built retaining walls around their property to keep the water out.
“We can’t wait for the city,” Tuel said. “The city has done this to us and we need to protect ourselves.”
The current head of the city’s Department of Water Management declined our request for an interview, but a spokesperson insists the rain blocker program works and has reduced basement flooding by 20 percent.
A spokesperson for the city’s law department says the city is denying the rain blockers were installed negligently or that they have caused flooding.
Depending on available funds the city has some major work to do in neighborhoods across the city. Among other things, the city is now more aggressively suggesting homeowners disconnect their downspouts that go directly into city sewer lines and the city is selling 50-gallon barrels you can put under them to catch the rain.
“Kosiba told CBS 2 he believed it was “cheaper to install the rain blockers and remove them from problem spots later.”
The entire administration if filled with imbeciles…