Got an Ark??

You can't get there from here was the theme of the day. It is officially one for the record books. The Chicagoland area got anywhere from 6 to 8 inches of rain in less than 24 hours, depending where you live. Retention ponds and rivers were over their banks. Kirk Rd, Butterfield Rd, Route 34 and many, many others were under water. Main street in Wheaton at Roosevelt road had several feet of water covering it and all of the Hubble middle school campus. O'Hare Airport's baggage area was flooded, the blue line was shut down, part of I-90 was closed as was part of I-94 and they opened the locks and reversed the river to flow into Lake Michigan to alleviate the flooding in the city. The Deep Tunnel was filled to capacity by 7:30 am. At times the rain looked like the back side of a waterfall. Parking lots all over were under several feet of water and you had to detour no matter where you went. And towns all over the area are dealing with 2-3 feet of water in their neighborhoods. In Des Plains they are evacuating neighborhoods. Needless to say basements were flooded all over too - including our neighbors because his sump pump failed. Our back yard literally had a river running through it, down hill and on through the neighbors yard - taking all vegetation in it's path with it. There's still have a lake back there.....
We are still expected to have another 3-5 inches, again depending on where you live as the remnants of Ike reach us tomorrow. You wonder when you leave the house if you will be able to get back home.......
What a crazy, weird day. In 137 years of recorded weather stats here in Illinois there has NEVER been a rainier day...... or worse flooding.

Chicago Suntimes News Article

Edit: Cook County has declared a State of Emergency. Roads are closed all around the area. Rivers are above their banks at record high - the last record for the DuPage river having been set just 12 years ago. Lot of detours. We can't get to Winfield from here unless we go North Ave. Sections of 290, 88, 56, 294 under water. Just a royal mess. Flooding everywhere you look, but we have been fortunate that our sump pump held out and the basement did not leak. :) The river, and the new Gerber Lake are still in the back yard.....
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Edit: After horrible messes on the expressways, including 94 being totally shut down and the only good way into IL from IN being the Skyway, and after lots of school closings - including Kim's, and after water not only in the basements, but several feet high in main floors, and after DesPlaines (including the ORIGINAL McDonalds) being totally flooded and only a handful of roads even being open, and after seeing motor boats and kayaks in the streets, and after 6 counties including DuPage being declared disaster areas......the sun FINALLY came out!!!!

Our backyard lake is mostly gone, our neighbors have cleaned up their flooded basement, schools are open again, and travel from town to town has become almost normal again. Unfortunately it's still not over for some towns like DesPlaines - rivers still are way above flood stage, but starting to level off. We officially got 9.something inches of rain in West Chicago in those 2 days.
It's supposed to be sunny all week. Hopefully they are right!