Flash floods hit Chicago metro area, stranding cars
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[September 12, 2022]
(Reuters) - The National
Weather Service on Sunday issued a flash flood warning for part of
northeastern Illinois including Chicago's northern metro area, after
heavy rains flooded viaducts, stranded cars, and sent water surging into
basements.
Chicagoans shared photos and videos on social media of cars partially
submerged beneath underpasses and plumes of water shooting up from
sidewalks.
The Chicago Bears showed no signs of canceling a planned football game
with the San Francisco 49ers at noon local time (1700 GMT), posting
videos of the team warming up in pounding rain on a sodden field.
Even after the heaviest rain had ended by around 11 a.m. CT, the NWS
warned that roads would remain flooded until the water had time to
recede.
The city on Twitter urged residents to avoid driving through standing
water on streets, viaducts and low-lying areas.
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A man takes a picture against the Chicago skyline as the steam fog
rises off Lake Michigan in Chicago, Illinois, January 28, 2014.
REUTERS/Jeff Haynes/File Photo
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , or the IPCC,
predicts more extreme flooding for the Midwest.
Extreme rainfall events - "very local, very intense, and hard to
predict" - have increased in recent years, according to Chicago's
water management office.
Such rains can dump 2 inches (5 cm) per hour on a neighborhood,
overwhelming local sewers, filling mains and pushing water into
residents' basements via private drains. As a result, the city has
begun installing water blockers on catch basins that prevent sewers
from flooding but can worsen street floods.
(Reporting by Julia Harte in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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