LF_040518

4 | April 5, 2018 | The lake forest leader News
LakeForestLeader.com
Lake Forest to conduct flood study as rainy season approaches
Xavier Ward
Contributing Editor
Following a bout of
heavy rain in February,
the City of Lake Forest is
partnering with a number
of area communities and
organizations to conduct a
flood study.
The study is an update to
a 1983 study conducted by
the Army Corps of Engineers,
which the City will
partner with for this study,
too.
In July 2017, Lake Forest
and many other North
Shore communities experienced
roughly six
inches of rain in a short
period of time, flooding
homes and streets and
leaving many residents
with moderate to severe
damages, The Leader reported
in August 2017.
“Rainfall like this
doesn’t happen that often.
We often hear about
a 100-year storm, which
means that a storm doesn’t
wait for every 100 years
to come around, as there’s
just a one percent chance
of that storm occurring in
that location in any given
year,” The Leader reported
from a Lake County release.
To address these concerns,
the City partnered
with the City of Highland
Park, the City of Deerfield,
Lake County Storm
Water Management, East
Skokie Drainage District
and the Army Corps.
City officials did not respond
to The Leader’s request
for comment prior to
deadline.
MAKE THIS YEAR’S MASTERS
AN HISTORIC EVENT
The viaduct under Route 176 in Lake Bluff closed after the July 2017 storm due to
water that was almost as high as the 13-foot, 9-inch bridge.
“Lake Forest is 20 or
21 square miles and to get
six inches (in eight hours),
that is an enormous volume
of water that needs to
go somewhere in a short
period of time,” Lake Forest
Mayor Robert Lansing
said in July 2017. “We all
need to be careful. It was a
very unusual storm in this
part of the world. There is
going to be water everywhere.”
Lake Forest, and the
other communities involved,
hope to negate
the chance of widespread
flooding like before, closing
roads and inundating
homes with water.
The total cost of the
study is roughly $67,000,
half of which the Army
Corps will pay for, the rest
is divided between the participating
municipalities
and organizations.
According to the Army
Corps, it conducts these
studies at a 50 percent
federal cost. This allows
municipalities to explore
what the options are for
flood-impact reduction.
“For the [Army Corps]
to be involved in a
flood reduction project,
we usually have to have
a positive benefit cost ratio,”
said Imad Sammara,
a project manager with the
Army Corps.
The Army Corps will
update existing information
from the 1983 study
while simultaneously
conducting an economic
Please see FLOOD, 6
SWINGBY
OUR 2018
“MASTERS”
OPEN HOUSE
SUNDAY,APRIL 8
2-4PM
509 EAST
DEERP
TH
HISTORY HAS ANEW HOME
CHARLES BLAIR MACDONALD
Amateur Champion of America. 1896
GREEN JACKETS
WELCOMED!
LFLBHISTORY.ORG
Deerpath Road underneath Route 41 in Lake Bluff was also closed to traffic due to
the high water. 22nd Century Media File Photos