Chicago Flood
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The Chicago Flood began on April 13, 1992 when a hole was punched in the bottom of the Chicago River causing a leak which eventually flooded much of the Chicago Loop.
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Cause
Rehabilitation work on the Kinzie Street bridge crossing the Chicago River required new pilings. Unknown to work crews, beneath the river was a Chicago Freight Subway tunnel, used in the early twentieth century to transport coal and goods, and now abandoned. One of the pilings, driven by a barge operated by the Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company, punched through the bottom of the river into the tunnel, cracking the roof and opening a leak. To this day there remains contention as to whether the mistake was the fault of the workers on-site, their parent company, or the faulty maps provided by the city of Chicago which failed to accurately depict the old tunnel systems (see below).
A telecommunications worker inspecting a cable running through the tunnel discovered the leak and forwarded a videotape to the city, which did not see anything serious and began a bid process to repair the tunnels, which were never formally a public responsibility (most of them had been dug clandestinely, many violated private property, and the collapse of the operator had failed to resolve ownership and maintenance responsibilities). Meanwhile the leak enlarged the hole until a ceiling collapse created an unmistakable emergency.
Effects
The water flooded into the basements of several Loop office buildings and retail stores and an underground shopping district. The city quickly evacuated the Loop and financial district in fear that electrical wires could short out. Electrical power and natural gas went down or were shut off as a precaution in much of the area. Trading at both the Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange ended in mid-morning as water seeped into their basements. At its height, some buildings had 40 feet (12 m) of water in their lower levels.
Repair and cleanup
Workers attempted to plug the car-sized hole with 65 truckloads of rocks and cement as well as mattresses. The Army Corps of Engineers flew up mine divers from Kentucky to work on sealing the hole. In an attempt to slow the leak, the level of the Chicago River was lowered by closing the locks at Lake Michigan and opening them downstream of Chicago, and the freight tunnels were drained into the Chicago Deep Tunnel system.
Aftermath
It took three days before the flood was cleaned up enough to allow business to begin to resume and cost the city an estimated $1.95 billion. Some buildings remained closed for a few weeks. Parking was banned downtown during the cleanup and some subway routes were temporarily closed or rerouted. Since it occurred near tax day, the IRS granted natural disaster extensions to those affected.
Eventually the city assumed maintenance responsibility for the tunnels, and watertight hatches were installed at the river crossings.
External links
- The great Chicago Flood of 1992 (http://www.totse.com/en/politics/political_spew/chiflood.html)