Flood — Grundy, Illinois

2007-08-24 to 2007-08-25 · near Morris, Grundy, Illinois

Event narrative

Following a week of heavy rainfall and a storm event rainfall of nearly five inches, significant flooding occurred in the northern two thirds of Grundy County on August 24th, as runoff worked it's way to ditches and streams that quickly overtopped their banks, followed by flooding along larger streams and the Illinois River. Hundreds of basements filled with water, one rehabiliation center was evacuated in Morris, while a berm was built around the Morris hospital to protect the structure and prevent an evacuation and shutdown of that facility. Local officials used more than 22,000 sandbags in an attempt to protect numerous structures from the rushing water. In other locations, piles of gravel were used to divert the flow of water. Many crops were damaged by flowing floodwaters or mud left on plants after the floodwaters receded. An apartment complex was evacuated in Tudor Park due to flooding.

Wider weather episode

Powerful and damaging thunderstorms moved across northern Illinois producing widespread wind damage. The most intense wind damage occurred along a path which began in far western Dupage County near the intersection of Roosevelt Road and Washington Street in West Chicago and continued east through the northern portions Lombard and Glen Ellyn, into Northlake, then across the north side of Chicago to the Lake Michigan Shore near Montrose Harbor. Wind damage along this path was consistent with winds 60 to 80 mph. Smaller pockets of more intense damage with winds of 80 to 100 mph were noted in the Wrigleyville area. The City of Chicago reported over 6,400 tree emergencies, over 200 damaged light poles, and over 350 downed power lines. A 40 inch diameter tree was blown down on West Waveland Street in Chicago. ComEd reported that a total of 615,000 customers lost power during the storms.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (41.3700, -88.4200)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 56620. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.