A second batch of severe storms soaked Chicago’s Northwest Side causing the power to go out at El Centro and moderate flooding at the Main Campus.
El Centro was to open on Saturday, Aug 25, but due to the power-outage El Centro stayed closed Saturday. El Centro Director Daniel Lopez announced that El Centro would open Monday Aug. 27.
The storms on last Thursday Aug. 23 came in two major waves the first occurring at about 4:00 p.m. and the second occurring about 6:00 p.m. Both storms produced damaging wind gusts of 60 to 80 mph and sheets of rain that amounted to more than four inches according to the national weather service. The June 26 storm produced more than three inches in less than an hour. Governor Blagojevich declared five counties, including Cook County, disaster areas.
Many students after buying books were forced to stay on campus during the second wave of storms; causing some of them to stay as late as 8:30 p.m.
Facilities workers at the Main Campus arrived within minutes to reports of flooding on the first floor Classroom Building.
Water was gushing out of an unused bathroom on the eastside of the building; they worked fast to stop the water from reaching the stairs leading to the computer lab.
The university wasn’t affected by the flooding; unlike the storms on June 26 that shut down the Main Campus after 4:30 p.m. A Large area of knee-deep water was left in the quad area and ankle deep water left in front of the library in both storm events of the summer. The water drained around two hours later.
Accord to the National Weather Service the flooding on Aug. 23 was due to soils in the area being so saturated that the water had nowhere else to go. This August could be one of the wettest August’s on record in Chicago where 9.36 (O’Hare Airport rain gauge) inches of rain have been record ed so far and more rain is forecasted this week to the end of the month.