Southwest Side residents demand answers after flooding

CHICAGO (WGN) – Friday’s heavy rain caused lots of flooding on the city’s Southwest Side and neighboring suburbs, and affected residents want answers.

Several West Lawn residents and surrounding neighbors are left cleaning up the mess left by flooding Friday afternoon. Some residents said they dealt with a few inches of water, while others dealt with more than a foot of water.

Frustrated residents near 65th Street and Kostner Avenue in the city’s 13th Ward want answers from the city as to how this happened to so many people.

“The drainage out here was ridiculous. There was no drainage at all. It shouldn’t happen. This shouldn’t happen. I posted on Facebook as well for our area. Everybody flooded. People who have been here 8-13 plus years, they haven’t seen this in a long time,” resident Roselyne Rodriguez said.

The WGN Weather Team reports over a month’s worth of rain fell west of Midway Airport.

In the meantime, the Mount Greenwood neighborhood experienced a temporary water outage and/or low water pressure.

According to Ald. Matt O’Shea (19th Ward), the issue was caused by an electrical issue in the Southwest Pumping Station believed to have been caused by recent storms.

“The water took about an hour before it started raining, and we started hearing it bubbling downstairs,” Rodriguez said.

Back in West Lawn, neighbors are assessing the damage to their homes and belongings.

Rodriguez told WGN-TV many of her belongings and her children’s belongings will need to be thrown out.

“All of their toys are gone. Everything is filled with sewer water and it’s nasty and black. I don’t know how I am going to recover from this,” she said.

WGN-TV reached out to city leaders for statements on the flooding and is waiting for their responses.