On April 18, 2013, a huge flood hit my small hometown of Lisle, Illinois. Located about 45 minutes or so from the city of Chicago, my suburb is surrounded by a string of other highly populated areas. Besides the occasional tornado warning, or small tornado close by, not many huge, geological hazardous events have occurred. It is crazy to think, but 10 years ago I was 10 years old. I do not remember much about how the flood affected the town, but I have some very vivid memories of the amount of flooding that actually occurred. Still to this day, I have never seen anything like it. I always thought flooding was just a really big rain storm, with an inch or so of downpour, maybe making it hard to see when you are driving, or forcing you to want to cozy up inside… but, this was not the case.Some buildings and roads were legitimately under water. In my neighborhood there is a community park, with a lake surrounding it. It wasn’t just overflowing, the entire basin of the park was underwater. I remember walking down towards the park, and the sidewalk into the pathways was filled with water. The signs in the park were halfway underwater, and if you wanted to, you could kayak 1-2 feet above from where you would usually stroll around the path. Right outside of my neighborhood, there is a local road that is usually pretty crowded, since it is right off of a major highway. I remember seeing small waves crashing off the side of the road as it sloped down into an area that wasn’t as high up. School was canceled, and no one could go to work either. That is all that I remember, but my neighbors and family members said that you could see fish swimming around, which just seems bizarre.
A local bowling alley, about 4 minutes from my house, is at least 1-1.5 feet underwater. It is hard to put that stuff in perspective, but imagine having your town feel like it is about to go underwater. For me, it doesn’t make sense how that can happen, but it showed me how serious flooding can be. That specific bowling alley spent over a million dollars fixing damage, and was not fully insured. According to an article looking back at the historic flood, 300 homes and businesses in Lisle were affected, and 40 businesses/houses (combined) were completely messed up (Shaw Local, 2013). According to www.villageoflisle.org, with the statistics above, normal water levels before the flood were 10.5 feet upstream, and 4 feet (different areas). From the flooding, the water levels jumped to 17.79 feet and 14.98 feet. That is a lot of change, and definitely a gnarly Geo-Hazard event.
References:
Flood Warning Systems | Lisle, IL - Official Website. Village of Lisle. https://www.villageoflisle.org/412/Flood-Warning-Systems
V, L. (2014, April 23). Village underwater: Lisle looks back 1 year after severe floods hit town. Shaw Local. https://www.shawlocal.com/2014/04/22/village-underwater-lisle-looks-back-1-year-after-severe-floods-hit-town/a23sjm2/
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