Cathy Adduci had a rough weekend last week, to say the least. Like many others in the northeast corner of River Forest, her basement flooded disastrously after the village took eight inches of rain in less than 24 hours.
The resulting flooding ruined the bottom floor of the home she and her husband built on the 1200 block of William in the late 1990s.
After so much damage, most people’s response is to look for someone to blame, someone to take the heat. Often, residents lash out at local government.
But for Adduci, a trustee on the River Forest village board, it’s a bit more complicated.
“I know I’m conflicted because I have damage, but a lot of people do,” Adduci said, discussing waiving permit fees to repair flood damage. “Everyone struggles with tragedy and disaster.”
As a member of the board, she is The Man – so she’s directed her ire elsewhere.
At a board meeting last week, just days after the storm, Adduci insisted the village board look into the storm’s aftermath to take a look at what exactly happened – and what went wrong.
“Something changed for some people to get 5 feet of water,” Adduci said in a phone interview. “We want the village to look at the infrastructure around here in the northeast corner.”
The report will focus on sewers, particularly the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District’s Deep Tunnel system, as well as the construction of the drainage system around the athletic fields at Dominican University’s Priory campus.
The drainage ditches, or swales, between the Priory and abutting homes flooded extensively – in some cases, right up to the homes next to the park.
Steve Gutierrez, River Forest’s village administrator, said the village will see if there have been any changes in the fields since they were first built – particularly, any changes that could have caused the flooding.
“I’ve been told it worked as it was designed, but I can’t imagine they would design something to work like that,” Adduci said. “The water should be moving into the park more than peoples’ personal homes. What’s the damage if it goes to the park?”
Fenwick resurfaced its Priory athletic fields this summer, according to the fields’ manager, Dennis Marani. He also runs a long-time local landscaping firm.
Though the village board wondered aloud at its last meeting if there had been any significant – and un-permitted – changes in the fields’ construction that might have caused the water to drain differently, Marani said it simply wasn’t true.
“There were no grade changes or elevation changes whatsoever,” he said. “All we did was replace the sod in the center of the field that was worn out.”
Marani was unhappy that his fields were getting targeted in the storm’s wake.
“I find the fact that I’m getting this phone call very disturbing,” he told Wednesday Journal.
“I guess we’re all above nature,” he deadpanned.
