Has it really been a quarter century since the Great Chicago Flood of ’92?

Twice in my life I have seen the streets of downtown Chicago completely deserted. Keep in mind I used to work an overnight shift for the now-defunct City News Bureau, and the Loop doesn’t die out completely even at 4 a.m.

Chicago River wasn't so orderly a quarter century ago Thursday. Photograph by Gregory Tejeda

But there was Sept. 11, 2001 when officials had the downtown area evacuated just in case someone was planning something similar for Chicago to what happened that day in Manhattan and at the Pentagon in the Virginia suburbs of D.C.

THEN, THERE WAS the date that occurred 25 years ago Thursday. The date of the Great Chicago Flood. When the basements of downtown Chicago buildings overflowed with water, engineers supposedly contemplated using mattresses to try to plug the hole and a certain generation will not forget the screwiness of that date.

Which in my mind is odd because the “flood” wasn’t really a flood. It was a leak.

As in the Chicago River sprung a leak and water flowed out and into the century-old tunnels that exist beneath the streets of downtown Chicago. When the water filled up those tunnels, the level had to rise to the various sub-basements that exist beneath downtown buildings.

Including the then-Marshal Field’s department store, where we got to hear the famed radio reports about the fish swimming in the basement at Fields.

WE LATER LEARNED that the leak was caused when workers with the Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. that was replacing rotting wooden poles in the river installed a new poll just a little bit off – and wound up puncturing a hole into the tunnel.

This occurred in September of 1991. But it wasn’t until 25 years ago today that the water level became so ridiculously high that we at street level could no longer ignore it.

Personally, I remember working that day from my post at the pressroom of the then-State of Illinois Center. Working the telephones, I was accumulating information that went into the various stories the City News Bureau reported that day. I was vaguely aware that some people were leaving the Loop.

But the level of the evacuation didn’t become apparent until my shift that day was complete and a fresh crew of reporter-types were taking over for the night.

DOWNTOWN CHICAGO CAN be an eerie place when it is deserted and the only activity taking place is the changing of traffic signals from red to green and back again – only it doesn’t matter because there’s no traffic.

No people either.

It was reminiscent of a cheesy film I once saw called “Night of the Comet” in which the passing of a comet somehow unleashes a force that reduces much of humanity to piles of dust – and the few survivors tried to make sense of their lives in the remains of Los Angeles.

It almost felt like a similar force had been unleashed in Chicago – and the city was somehow all mine to do with as I pleased!

THERE LITERALLY WAS no one else around even though there still was daylight in the sky. Not even a newsboy crying out about the “Extra” edition newspapers he had, but couldn’t find anybody to buy (which I did see on Sept. 11, 2001).

Much of downtown Chicago’s life returned the next day, although there were the inconveniences as some places had their plumbing or water service turned off while officials tried to figure out the long-term solution to the problem. I also recall my own place of employment being closed for the day a couple of days later – and we were relocated to the Sun-Times Building. Which since has been obliterated by that giant tacky tower paying homage to His Excellency, Donald the First!

But the Great Chicago Flood where the river didn’t overflow. In fact, where else but in the Second City could a river spring a leak?

It’s all a part of what gives our fair city its unique character. That, and the hot dogs (Only Mustard Ever!!!)

  -30-

I'm homeless! (Eh not really)

I realize my predicament due to the heavy storms that struck the Chicago area and much of the Midwestern U.S. is far from the most severe being experienced.

I had a miserable drive home Tuesday night due to the storms

The storms caused two known fatalities, including one in Ottawa when high winds blew down a tree that landed on top of them, causing a fatality.

THERE ALSO WAS the convalescent center in Ottawa where people suffered injuries, and Gov. Bruce Rauner included a visit to the center during his Wednesday rounds across the state. He also met with officials in Naplate, in addition to receiving a briefing from law enforcement officials in Ottawa.

By comparison, my predicament experienced in the portion of Cook County just south of Chicago was minor. But still a major harassment that I'm still coping with as I write this commentary. Once I finish up, I return to duty with a mop, cleaning up the sloppy floodwater tainted by sewage that managed to creep its way into the basement of the house where I'm currently living.

Which hits me directly because that basement is what passes for my humble abode. The couch that usually passes for my bed is currently cluttered with my belongings, which I managed to elevate to a high-enough space just in time to avoid having my possessions -- which consist mostly of my clothes and a few books -- become completely water-soaked.

But there was a point when the streets outside of the house were flooded over, and the use of a shop vacuum to suck up all the flood water wasn't able to keep up with the fact that the sewers were overflowed to the point where it seems our efforts weren't sufficient.

JUST AS SOON as we'd manage to get a few buckets of water out of the house, there would be a few more inches of water back inside. It was the "mess" that wouldn't leave! Was I doomed to live in floodwater forever?!?

The sum of my life's possessions ...

Now I was fortunate. I had a pair of nephews, both of whom are sufficiently younger and in better physical shape than I am, on hand to help with bucket detail.

I also had my father on hand to operate the "shop vac" to try to suck up the dirty water. Although I have to confess that at his age, I did feel guilty getting him dragged into the clean up efforts.

Which in reality were mostly handled by Mother Nature, who at times can truly be a wacky broad! Or perhaps I should apologize for that remark before she decides to whack me up again with another type of natural disaster.

AFTER REALIZING AROUND 1 a.m. that we were getting nowhere with water removal and that we could easily wind up staying awake all night (on a night when I actually had been hoping to go to sleep early because I was feeling a little bit sluggish), I finally tried to get a few hours of sleep.

... are now idle piles on the couch

Not that I was able to, since I wound up having to sleep on a different couch that was really meant to look cute in a living room with a "proper" decor. But when I woke up a few hours later, I found that most of the water had naturally flowed out of the basement.

The four or so inches of water that had my ankles completely covered was gone! The carpeting was damp and there are some traces of dirt that was turned to mud. But now it's a manageable cleanup effort that I'm hoping will be complete by the time you read this (my taking the time to write this was actually during a lull in clean-up activity that also allowed me to consume a cup of coffee before getting back to work).

Although as annoying as this was, I have to confess that the drive "home" I endured earlier Tuesday night was more horrendous.

FOR I HAD some work-related activity that evening in Gary, Ind. Getting into the northwest Indiana city was no problem.

Some of the slop I now clean up!

But leaving? I had to cope with heavy rainfall exacerbated by the fact that strong winds were blowing water around in every direction. I actually saw rain go from right to left, rather than come straight down from the skies.

My visibility traveling along Interstate 80/94 (a.k.a., the Borman Expressway, named for the astronaut, in case you care) was so minimal I'm amazed I made it all the way back into Illinois without crashing into one of the big-rig trucks that were transporting goods along the highway. It must have been on pure instinct that I made it back in one piece.

All I know is that Tuesday night may not have been terribly "newsworthy" (I don't see a gubernatorial appearance anywhere nearby to check on my condition), but it is a night I doubt I (or any of my neighbors who also got flooded out) will forget anytime soon, Which is why I wasn't paying any attention last night to the presidential address -- any chance we can figure out a way to blame Donald Trump for the mess?

  -30-

Will we react in time to save Cairo?

Will a modern-day image of this old postcard depicting Cairo, Ill. and its position along the rivers be nothing but a sea of light blue?

I have never set foot in Cairo, Ill. That town at the far southern tip of the state where the Mississippi and Ohio rivers converge and where one literally is seven miles closer to Jackson, Miss., than they are to Chicago.

And now, I’m wondering if I’m never going to get the chance.

WILL IT TURN out that the time I was in Tamms, Ill., (about 12 miles to the north of Cairo), I will be able to claim I was in what will become the far southern tip of Illinois?

The aging southern city that resembles a ghost town in many parts is getting hit with heavy rains that are causing the two rivers that are the sole justification for its location to rise higher and higher.

The Ohio River at Cairo reached record-high levels on Sunday, and officials say it will continue to rise. Which has people thinking it is just a matter of time before the levees will give way and the rivers will wash away the city of some 2,800 people.

That has the Army Corps of Engineers thinking that the solution to the problem is to blow a hole in the levees that protect the Missouri side of the river from flooding. By letting farmland along the river overflow with water, they think it would ease pressure enough on the Cairo levees so that they will hold – and Cairo will continue to exist.

THE PROBLEM IS Missouri political people, who are determined to drag this issue out in the courts – even though the federal district and appeals courts have both upheld the desires of the Army Corps of Engineers as being justified and, quite possibly, the best way to cope with an ugly situation.

Missouri officials on Sunday tried unsuccessfully to get the Supreme Court of the United States to take the case under advisement, which meant that the Illinois attorney general’s office was busy this weekend trying to fight off the legal stalling tactics so that preventative action can occur.

There are those who are trying to portray this as selfishness by Missouri, trying to protect farmland instead of a city with actual people – even though Cairo officials this weekend gave the evacuation order and are trying to get everybody out of the area so as to reduce the potential for casualties should the river overflow.

I’m not quite sure I see it that simple.

BUT THIS COULD be a case where Cairo’s history, particularly from the late 1960s when racial tensions related to the demise of segregation as an acceptable policy for life in this society, is continuing to linger in its own weird way.

The historic fact is that when it became apparent that the old ways were gone and that the white and black populations of Cairo were going to mix (actually, Cairo proper was white, while black people were expected to stay in the unincorporated community of Future City located just up U.S. Route 51), many of the white people fled the area.

That is what gives us a modern-day Cairo that is overwhelmingly African-American, and ONLY 2,831 people in size. I’m sure there are many people who are fighting the Army Corps of Engineers’ desires who simply think that the people who remain in Cairo just don’t matter.

Or that we’re doing them a major favor by encouraging them to leave and letting the river overflow into Illinois – thereby forevermore eliminating the city that once was supposed to be a major shipping port in the United States because of its location on the two major rivers.

THE NATION'S HIGH court wound up deciding not to hear the case, letting the lower court rulings remain in place and allowing this to become an issue to be considered by the Army Corps of Engineers. Let's only hope the legal nonsense ended in time – because we really don’t know how much time there is left.

Various reports coming out of Cairo indicate signs that water is somehow seeping underneath the levee, which could weaken the structure and cause it to collapse. It is totally possible that the courts could make the proper rulings to give the Army Corps of Engineers the authority to decide for themselves how to fix this mess (which is one of their reasons for existence), only to have the levee collapse just before the court ruling is made public.

Will our political people get their act together in time to fix the disaster-in-the-making at Cairo? If they don’t, I’d think it is the kind of mess that is worthy of bringing down someone’s political career – and not just Missouri House Speaker Steve Tilley, R-Perryville, for bluntly saying that Missouri farmland was worth more than Cairo people.

Because someday I’d like to be able to go down to that part of Illinois (about the only part of the state I haven’t been to) and see where the rivers come together. I’d rather be surrounded by people when I do so, and NOT the ghost town-like remains of the city that so many of us became confused about when pronouncing.

  -30-

Nature more powerful than Communism?

Former Illinois Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka recently came up with a commentary that everybody ought to give a read.

She used her column published in the Riverside/Brookfield Landmark newspaper to recall the story of a doll that had been in her family for decades – one that was dressed in a Czech ethnic costume and had actually been slipped out of the country when Communists gained control of the government.

TO TOPINKA, THE doll represented the ideals of a people struggling to survive under a repressive regime, and she wanted to try to preserve that concept by donating the doll earlier this year to the Czech and Slovak Museum.

That museum is in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and is now under water from the severe flooding that has struck the Midwestern U.S. The doll that survived Communism likely was lost due to Mother Nature and the overflow of the Mississippi River.

I don’t even come close to telling the story as well as Topinka does. Her commentary (http://www.rblandmark.com/main.asp?SectionID=3&SubSectionID=46&ArticleID=3925&TM=72027) can be found in the west suburban newspaper where she is a regular columnist.

-30-