When Michael Fitch and Heather Benton arrived back to their Near West Side Airbnb after a rain-shortened White Sox game Tuesday night, they immediately smelled sewage as nearly an inch of water flooded the basement unit they were staying in.
“[There was] water and sewage all over the floor, and then just as we checked room by room it was in every single room. Every single rug was soaked,” Benton, 46, said.
Heavier than expected rainfall hit most of Chicago Tuesday night. The heaviest rain pummeled a five-block radius near the United Center on the Near West Side when 5 inches fell from 8:55 p.m. to 10:25 p.m., according to the National Weather Service.
More than a dozen drivers were stranded by the rain.
“We literally carried some folks out on our backs as firemen waded into the water and got close to cars,” Chicago Fire Department spokesperson Larry Langford said. “Sometimes people had gotten out, other times they just didn’t want to get in the water, so they climbed out of the car, and we got them.”
The downpour caused roads to flood, including a viaduct at Ogden and Western avenues that prompted multiple fire department responses to the area.
“The Near West Side was particularly bad,” Langford added. “[The storm] just kept pouring water in inch after inch.”
The storm prompted the evacuation of the Teddy Swims Concert at Huntington Bank Pavilion on Northerly Island. Some people shared their experience on social media. TikTok user Messy Jessy shared videos of concertgoers braving the rain, and one video of her emptying water from her boots.
“We swam home from Teddy swims,” she captioned one of the videos.
Becky Keeler, 48, was doing laundry when she noticed her basement begin to flood around 10 p.m. Tuesday night.
“Here we go again,” Keeler, who has lived in her Near West Side home for about 20 years, said she thought to herself as about 80% of her basement filled with 2 to 4 inches of rain.
Keeler said her basement has flooded about 10 times since she moved into the house.
“I think we’ve figured out how to deal with it over the years, and that helps,” Keeler said. “We have fans, we have dehumidifiers.”
Initially, forecasters projected rainfall totals to be about 1 to 2 inches, with more falling in local areas. Once meteorologists saw that rain totals were surpassing projections, a flash flood warning was issued around 9:45 p.m. Tuesday.
“All the storms last night were just slow-moving, and one just kind of anchored in around the city,” David King, a meteorologist with the weather service said. “It’s really the rain rate with this thing that was just so incredible, [and] that caused flash flooding in the city.”
King urged drivers to turn around when faced with flooded roadways.
“It’s always worth the longer commute as opposed to getting stuck in the water,” King said.
Parts of the West Side are still recovering from a July 2023 rainstorm that flooded more than 12,000 basements across the city. The Sun-Times reported in April that many residents are still living with damaged and moldy basements, awaiting federal and city emergency recovery funds.
Fitch and Benton were visiting from Little Rock, Arkansas, and planned to stay at their Airbnb in the 1600 block of West Warren Boulevard for four days before the storm forced them to change course and stay at a different Airbnb a few blocks away for the remainder of their trip.
“It’s a tough unit to take care of. There’s not much you can do when you get 5 inches of flash flooding,” Fitch, 43, said. “That’s the nature of a 200-year-old city.”
Fitch left his shoes in a bedroom of the basement unit and came back to find one shoe floating in a hallway, and a second shoe floating in the living room.
“I was really surprised,” Fitch said. “I was like, ‘How did they get moved?'”
Fitch’s suitcase, the clothes he packed for the trip and his charging port were all ruined. Empty trash bins were knocked over by the flow of water, and tiles sustained significant water damage, Fitch and Benton said.
Though the flash flooding forced Fitch and Benton to adapt, they were optimistic about the remainder of their trip.
“I still feel really excited about my Chicago trip,” Fitch said. “A tough experience like this is just not going to deter veteran travelers like we are into thinking that this is not a great city.”
Contributing: Janani Jana, Selena Kuznikov