There were no heroic rescues or rising waters visible, but the flooding that occurred in April 1992 did serious damage. NBC Chicago’s Lexi Sutter reports.
There were no heroic rescues or rising waters visible, but the flooding that occurred in April 1992 in Chicago's downtown did serious damage.
"I got out of the car and looked around and I saw some water swirling," former NBC Chicago reporter Larry Langford explained. "And I thought, 'Oh yeah, I've got it. I got the story."
Larry Langford was the first reporter to recognize the source of the flood. It was a hole the size of a car near the Kinzie Street Bridge, and it was sucking in river water so powerfully it created a whirlpool.
"The whole thing just came together when I started listening to the security channels in some of the buildings, and crews were being called saying they had some water in the basement, and fish!"
Fish were reportedly swimming in the basement of the Merchandise Mart. Crews tried to plug the hole with large stones, even using mattresses to soak up the water.
For awhile, the cause was a mystery.
Then Mayor Richard M. Daley addressed the press and the problem.
"We don't know yet. We don't know yet," Daley said at the time. "We're going to put sandbags and ask everyone to move everyone back."
Eventually it was determined that an employee doing some work on the pilings accidentally punctured a hole in the tunnel system that runs beneath the Chicago River.
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That's how water got into so many buildings, gushing through the 40 miles of tunnels that run beneath the Loop.
"Are foundations compromised? Will electricity be out, for how long? Then it started coming into the subway system," Langford said, speaking of the severity of the issue.
People were leaving downtown on foot, unable to ride the trains. The damage to the buildings was extensive, totaling about $2 billion. But, here's the kicker: This flood could have been avoided.
Weeks prior, the city got a tip that damage had been done but didn't fix it in time.
"When somebody put the pilings in, they went too far and got too close to the roof of the tunnel system and it started leaking in," Langford explained. "And then we found out they had video that was turned into the city, and the city didn't do anything about it fast enough."
Langford now works for the city of Chicago and said something like this would never happen today.
Despite the financial impact, no one was hurt. It took the city months to recover.
