Anyone Build an Ark?

Wasn't Deep Tunnel supposed to alleviate this crap?

• In Chicago’s Albany Park neighborhood, the North Branch of the Chicago River surged over its banks, flooding streets and basements in a four square-block area between Ridgeway and St. Louis Avenues, and from the river south to Argyle Street.
• On the South Side, Chatham and Greater Grand Crossing were among the hardest hit areas. The Water Department said it had 20 crews fanned out across the city to aid people with flooded basements.
• Anyone trying to get to O’Hare Saturday morning ran into an infrastructure nightmare. A flooded tunnel forced suspension of Blue Line rapid transit service between Rosemont and O’Hare for the entire day, and Interstate 190 — the only major artery leading into O’Hare — was closed for an hour.

The Edens was shut down, various police districts became quasi-islands as railroad viaducts flooded, and the mayor reinforced his "green" credentials by dumping a few billion gallons of sewage and rainwater directly into the lake.

• The steady downpour overwhelmed the vast underground water storage network known as Deep Tunnel, filling it to capacity by 7:30 a.m. Saturday. The heavy rain prompted the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District to open the North Shore Channel locks in Wilmette at 6:30 a.m. and Chicago River locks near Navy Pier at 10:15 a.m. A third gate at 130th and Torrence was opened at 5:15 p.m.

If the tunnels were full at 0730, why weren't the locks open at 0735? Why wait almost 3 hours? Daley in Michigan again and couldn't be reached to make a decision because no one could find him with GPS? Oh wait...

Tribune and Sun Times coverage.

And rain from Ike is on the way.

UPDATE: A reader asked if anyone knows what recourse they might have against the City for flooded basements. We recall something being mentioned years back about limited liability based on Acts of God, but they still have an obligation to make sure the streets drain properly.