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The great Chicago Flood of 1992
From: Patrick Townson ([email protected])
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: The Great Chicago Flood
Another "I hate Monday morning!" for Chicagoans today. Like the fire
in 1871 which began late Sunday night and devastated the downtown area
throughout the day on Monday, this latest crisis almost 122 years
later had its origin in a small leak in an ancient (1880), unused and
nearly forgotten (since the early years of this century) tunnel system
under the streets of the downtown area which late Sunday night began
eroding the walls of the tunnel, culminating in a major cave-in of the
tunnel walls at approximatly the point where the tunnel under Kinzie
Street crosses the Chicago River. The cave-in, at about 6:30 AM Monday
morning soon began allowing river water to flood into the various
branches of the tunnel. And like the fire, the economic loss here
today has been horrific. We now believe the damage caused by the flood
will exceed the economic damage from the fire, if the fire damage were
measured in 1991 dollars.
By shortly after 7 AM Monday, several highrise office buildings in the
downtown area began getting water into their second and third
sub-basements; the subterranean areas where the building engineering
facilities are maintained; the place where electrical service comes
into the buildings and the furnace, air conditioning and plumbing
begins. Most of the older highrise buildings downtown in fact have
entrances to the old tunnel system, dating back to the early years of
this century when coal was delivered to the building furnaces through
the underground labrynith which literally follows almost every street
in the area.
It soon became obvious that efforts by sump pumps in the various
buildings would not contain the onrush of water, which poured into the
tunnel through the gaping hole under the river at the rate of many
millions of gallons of water as of Monday noon. As of mid-afternoon,
the 'leak' had been slowed, but at this writing (7 PM Monday) the
water level continues to rise slowly. For the first several hours,
water poured into the tunnel system -- and consequently into the
basements of the buildings downtown -- at the rate of four feet per
hour. Most buildings downtown at this point have water ** 30 - 40 feet
** deep in them, with the electrical, heating and air conditioning/
circulation systems largely in ruins as a result. Most of the building
mechanicals are completely submerged. Elevator service is out on two
counts; one, the electricity is shut off to the entire downtown area
while Edison attempts to survey the damage; and two, because the
elevator pits are submerged in water sometimes to the first floor
level in the affected buildings.
The major department stores downtown are Marshall Field's and Carson
Pirie Scott. Both had their basement stores completely submerged under
several feet of water, and as of early afternoon the water had begun
to seep up onto the main floors of both stores. Also completely closed
down and evacuated are the Board of Trade Building, Sears Tower, The
Art Institute of Chicago (which suffered extensive damage to items on
display or stored in its basement), City Hall, The State of Illinois
Center, and many others. The Chicago Transit Authority subway system
is closed until further notice, with the 'north/south - Howard' subway
trains being rerouted over the elevated tracks on Wabash Avenue, and
the 'Ohare/Congress' subway shut down completely.
Although all electrical and gas service in the affected area (from the
Chicago River on the north to Adams Street on the south, and from
Michigan Avenue on the east to Dearborn Street on the west) is off to
prevent injury to workers, Illinois Bell service is operating, since
the phone company did not have any cables in the tunnel. Where the
affected buildings had their phone service enter in the basement of
the building, the phones are out ... but the telco itself is
operating. Businesses with switchboards and/or electronic phone
systems of course are without phone service. Water service is
operating, but citizens have been urged to boil their water before
drinking it since there is severe danger of contamination due to the
very nasty water in the Chicago River.
HOW THEY FOUND THE LOCATION OF THE 'LEAK': Although it was obvious by
early Monday morning that water was coming from somewhere, it took
about an hour by engineers for the City of Chicago to locate the
exact place, and the location was found when a whirlpool was seen in
the river by the Kinzie Street bridge. Imagine if you will, a large
tub of water -- a bathtub completely full, perhaps. Now, pull the plug
from the drain and observe the whirlpool; or flush your toilet and
observe the water swirl in a circle as it drains out. That same thing
is what they found where the bottom had fallen out of the river.
HOW THEY ARE STOPPING THE 'LEAK': As of late Monday, the leak had been
slowed down to a relative trickle ... the water continues to rise in
the buildings downtown, but it has slowed down a lot. They have
tugboats in the river loaded with concrete, gravel, sand and sandbags.
They are dumping all this stuff into the river, right over the hole.
Their hope is that like a bathroom drain which plugs up and allows
nothing to pass, the quick setting cement mix they are using will fill
the hole. It is impossible for them to tell for sure what is happening
down there since it would be suicide for any diver(s) to attempt to go
down in the river at that point or the tunnel system to investigate.
In addition, the Army Corps of Engineers opened locks on the river
which allow the river to drain out, with water flowing downstream into
the Des Plaines (and later) the Mississippi River. The locks opening
into Lake Michigan have been closed to prevent more water from
entering the river from the east. They hope to lower the river level
to the point it becomes safe for divers to go into the place where the
hole exists.
GETTING RID OF THE WATER: They have not yet decided what to do. Many
of the affected buildings have started using pumps to bring the water
up to street level and out into the street sewers. This sort of
amounts to emptying out the Atlantic Ocean using a garden hose, but
the idea is they may be able to save some of their mechanicals that
have not yet been submerged in water. The so-called 'deep tunnel'
system was constructed here a few years ago as a way to relieve
flooding from the rain during the spring and summer, and they have
found some places where the deep tunnel (which can hold a two billion
gallons of water until such time as the sewer system is able to
process it) comes within a mile the old tunnel system. They think it
may be possible to dig between the two and cause the tunnel water to
flow into the deep tunnel.
This is at best, very 'iffy' ... and at present there is no official
word from the city on precisely *how* they plan to evacuate the water.
On the subject of evacuation, all downtown buildings were evacuated
beginning at 9 AM; with some on the outer edges of the flood area
waiting until almost 11 AM when the city requested that a larger area
than previously anticipated be evacuated as well. Electrical service
was cut at 10:55 AM when it became obvious it had to be done
immediatly. In most of the buildings, including the Sears Tower,
people had to be evacuated by walking down many flights of stairs.
People were caught in elevators and they were eventually evacuated as
well.
PROGNOSIS: For the immediate future, very poor. It is now official
that all electricity in the downtown area will be off for at least the
next 24-48 hours. First all the water has to be drained, then the very
elaborate and sophisticated electrical systems in the various
buildings dried out. They are estimating that once they start draining
the water (see above, they have not yet figured out how to drain it
all out or how long it will take), at least a day or two will be
required before any electrical service can be restarted. Building
managers have reported that damage to elevators is extensive, and
although limited elevator service can be restarted once the electric
service is back, there will be at least a week or two of repairs
before the buildings are somewhat back to normal.
BUSINESS AND GOVERNMENT ACTIVITIES: The downtown area was in a state
of massive confusion Monday morning as police with loudspeakers urged
the evacuation of all buildings downtown. Mobs of people jammed aboard
the busses to go home or wherever. In all the buildings, one could see
the entire populace of the offices therein flowing down the stairways
and elevators. The suburban commuter trains at the Illinois Central
station were shut down from the flood (this is an underground station)
but they were able to restart the trains and get rid of the water
there by about 2 PM. By shortly after noon however, most people had
left the area, and the downtown seemed very eerie from the quietness
of the empty buildings.
City Hall was evacuated except for essential personnel about 10 AM, as
was the State of Illinois Center across the street and the Cook County
Government offices (Daley Center). Governor Edgar has appealed to
President Bush for emergency disaster assistance for Chicago. Mayor
Daley went to the scene of the 'leak' to confer with workmen for much
of the morning; and early Monday afternoon appeared in a press
conference carried on television and radio to assure Chicagoans that
the government was continuing to function and attempting to gain
control of the disaster going on. Although City Hall continues to
remain evacuated except for telephone operators, Fire Department
personnel and the Mayor's Office of Information and Inquiry, hourly
press conferences are being held in Daley Plaza with the Mayor, the
Chief of Police, and city department heads participating. The main
headquarters of the Police Department (and the 911 service) are
located elsewhere, and not affected. Fire calls from 911 are being
handled as usual by transfer to the fire dispatchers in City Hall, who
along with the phone operators and the Information Office are working
by flashlight, candles and without water or bathroom facilities.
FIXED AND BACK TO NORMAL IN A DAY OR TWO? I don't think so. I really
feel things will be screwed up for several days, perhaps a week as the
buildings get drained of water (remember, they have yet to figure out
*how* to drain them short of pumping it all out into the street sewer
system which would easily take a couple days), emergency electrical,
gas and elevator service get restarted, etc.
JUST ON THE RADIO: The Art Institute of Chicago has announced they
are 'closed indefinitly' due to the flood which apparently has caused
massive damage to much of their collection in the basement exhibition
area. Jeeze ....
The more optimistic merchants and business places downtown have put up
signs saying 'closed for the day' ... but the majority of businesses
have signs announcing 'closed until further notice'. The Board of
Trade and the Mercantile Exchange will attempt to re-open for business
on Tuesday in temporary quarters, at least for the purpose of calling
the session to order and permitting traders left in limbo on Monday to
finish their transactions; then they will close.
The radio and television stations are covering this full time, however
Channel 7 and Channel 26 are both located in the disaster area and
their transmissions are sporadic as they change their emergency
generators from time to time. Also radio station WLS is in the
affected area.
On the phone scene, the worst IBT seems to be experiencing is
extremely slow dial tone and 'all circuits busy' as everyone tries to
get through to their friends, employers, employees, etc.
More news tomorrow if anything of significance happens. Suffice to say
the downtown area remains closed, with several hundred police officers
on duty to prevent looting and keep people out of the area who have no
business downtown. Most offices will remain closed on Tuesday and
persons are urged to remain away from downtown until further notice.
The Palmer House Hotel has been evacuated along with a couple other
hotels in the affected area.
And how was your Monday? :)
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