The sound of gushing water filled the basement of Benjamin Moore Paints around noon Monday. Manager Louis Kussman had rushed to move boxes of drapes and paper products to high shelves when water started leaking into the downtown Naperville store Sunday morning. Even after the rain stopped early Monday morning, the water continued to creep up. "Until the river goes down, this ain't going down," said Kussman, standing on the fourth step of the basement stairs and looking at the two feet of water covering the floor. While water was just below the first step around 9 a.m., it had nearly reached the third step 3 ½ hours later, he said.
Stories like this one told by staff reporter Paige Winfield paint a vivid picture. We'd like to share your story about the weekend flooding. Was your wedding or birthday party put on hold? What's the situation at your house, and in your neighborhood? Do you have water in your basement? Are you affected by closed roads, or flooding in your neighborhood? (If you have pictures, send them to photooftheday@scn1.com.) What do you think of the response by city and other emergency officials?
Isn't the Fawell Dam to be destroyed? If so, would all of downtown Naperville been under several feet of water?
On the other hand, how much additional flooding did Fawell Dam cause in Warrenville?
The forest preserve was purchased for flood control. Did it work?
The Fawell dam (which opens and closes for flood control) is not being removed - it is the McDowell Dam, about 1 mile north, just south of the McDowell preserve entrance. It is a 3 foot high limestone dam that looks like it was made by the CCC in the '30's. Removing this dam will not hurt flood control efforts and will instead help by removing silt.
here is a picture of the McDowell Dam:
http://pages.ripco.net/~jwn/mcdowell.jpg
you can see that the Fawell Dam is not affected:
http://www.dupageforest.com/news/McDowwelClosureMap.pdf
The west branch gage at washington bridge near naper
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv/?site_no=05540130&agency_cd=USGS
hit 12 feet and 4210 cfs -
it hit 12.74 ft and 4,960 cfs back in the 1996 flood.
so the water stayed about 9 inches lower than in 1996 - which apparently made a ton of difference. Was this because the rain was less, or because of the Fawell Dam? Or Both? Reports say the flow at Fawell was increased when Warrenville got soaked.
Yeah, the Fawell Dam did a great job. They backed up water so much on the North side by McDowell and Raymond it blew a transformer and put 800 homes without power for 2 hours Sunday night.
Gee CJ, sorry you were inconvenienced by a 2 hour power outage. Maybe you can go to the County with your elitist entitled attitude and demand the dam be removed, that way next time everyone down stream can have flooded basements for days instead and you won't be inconvenienced. Hey CJ, I know this may come as a shock, but it isn't all about you! Get over yourself and take one for the team dude.
To RJ if you didnt have a elitist entitled attitude you would demand the Fawell Dam be removed do to the fact the crest elevations of the dam and flood pool and backwater curve extend thoughout Warrenville, West Chicago, Winfield and Wheaton. FLOODING HUNDREDS OF REAL PROPERTY OWNERS and changing the natural flood plain to artfical flood plain and destroying the value of thousands of acres of real estate upstream of the Fawell Dam. Hey RJ i know this may come as a shock, but it isn't all about you and naperville, stand up for what is rigth and remove the Fawell Dam. As the first study on the Fawell Dam Modifications Project said to do. I have three houses directly in the flood pool of the dam and others effected by the backwater curve.