Despite the obvious extent of damage in many places, from residential basements flooded with water and sewage to the front doors breaking off Coldwell Banker’s now vacated downtown office due to overflowing sewers, the county says Flossmoor did not meet the target to qualify for a disaster declaration.
The Cook County Department of Homeland Security has declined to ask for a state declaration of disaster in Flossmoor in response to damage sustained during the Sept. 27 storm that brought down seven inches of rain in a 24-hour period.
Flossmoor was hit hard by flash flooding on Sept. 27, when torrential rains overwhelmed drainage systems. (Provided photo by Tracy Cairo)
A declaration of disaster would have meant business owners and residents could have sought aid in the form of low-interest loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration to offset the costs of property damage.
Flossmoor Village Manager Bridget Wachtel said 120 residents and business owners filled out the village’s damage assessment survey, and reports ranged from a few hundred dollars to $50,000 in damage, with 26 people reporting damage of $10,000 or more.
Despite the obvious extent of damage in many places, from residential basements flooded with water and sewage to the front doors breaking off Coldwell Banker’s now vacated downtown office due to overflowing sewers, the county says Flossmoor did not meet the target to qualify for a disaster declaration.
Damage in nearby towns including Chicago Heights, Peotone and Richton Park was also considered as part of the assessment, but it was still not enough to make the disaster threshold.
A disaster can only be declared if 25 or more homes or businesses sustain uninsured losses of at least 40 percent of their market or replacement values.
For example, a 40 percent loss on a $300,000 home would equate to $120,000 in damage.
Wachtel said Flossmoor worked diligently with the other affected communities to collect data on losses.
“If one of the communities had met that threshold, or we met it across multiple communities, it would have applied to the county (disaster assessment),” she said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t get there.”
Wachtel said that although the survey did not lead to recovery dollars, it is still valuable data for the village.
“The county commended us for the level of data that property owners were able to provide so they could complete their analysis,” she said.
Wachtel said that there are no other options currently on the table in terms of collecting short-term recovery dollars for residents and business owners; however, long-term improvements to prevent future storm damage are being pursued.
“We have started conversations with our state and federal representatives about a long-term, comprehensive solution and (we are) laying out what our issues are,” she said.
She added that it is important for the village to plan for infrastructure improvements that would include local, state and federal dollars.
“The next step is some additional analysis on our part based on previous engineering studies of both our sanitary and storm sewer systems, and also some studies that had been done on the viaduct, to bring those up to date to 2019 and to try to put some updated dollars to what those enhancements would cost,” Wachtel said.
Any and all possible funding sources will be explored, such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, she said.
