As night fell on this area, water continues to slowly recede. But residents are waiting for a fix to be made, to bring some real relief.
Walter and Linda Waszczuk, have lived together in this home for more than 13 years.
“I’ve never see it like this.” It’s a home that now looks like an island. Water in the front yard. Water in the backyard. Taking over their garage.
“Outdoor furniture.”
And yes, even in their basement, where their belongings are now floating.
“This time I saw we went about this high, so I say about 34 inches. “Never seen it this high? No, not this high.”
The Waszczuk’s have been through this before. Five times!
“We’re going to have to re-gutting it all, do it all over again. Probably cost about 12-thousand dollars.”
Their home overlooks the Melvina Reservior a detention basin for storm water. The couple sent scrambling during the wee hours of the morning, when water breached this basin, and started flowing into their home.
“It comes up the sewer first. Then it comes over the wall.”
Their Burbank neighbors and parts of Oak Lawn also feeling the pain.
“I had to put a pool pump in my basement to pump it out my backdoor and basically we were pumping it into even more water. There was nowhere to pump. We just kept pumping, and pumping, and pumping, and pumping, and pumping.”
This basin managed by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District.”
A spokesperson there tells me not only did more than 5 inches of rainfall flood this basin but lightening took-out power to one of the reservoir’s pumps.
ComEd and other crews, shutting down part of 87th street to fix that pump.
While families work to pump-out this unwanted intruder.
“I got two pumps in the back, trying to get the patio out first. This is just a happening thing. And you can’t do nothing about it. You have to live with it.”
As of right now, 87th street is still closed between Ridgeland and Oak Park, as they work on the basin’s pump.
Live from Burbank, Courtney Gousman, WGN News.