In August, a single mom and her kids in Garfield Ridge were forced to flee their home because storm-related flooding caused the basement to fill with sewage.
The family of four living near Midway Airport experienced what tens of thousands of people across the city and Cook County endured during heavy rainfall in July and August, according to documents reviewed by the Chicago Sun-Times that included the unnamed family’s story, along with the trials of many others.
The state says they are among almost 438,000 residents across Illinois who could benefit from disaster relief funds. Nine counties were hit with flooding.
But President Donald Trump’s administration last month rejected the state’s requests for disaster aid, a seemingly unprecedented move by the federal government given the amount of damage claimed to be caused by the summer storms.
Disaster money is provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the state has historically received hundreds of millions of dollars after severe weather.
Gov. JB Pritzker has asked Trump to reconsider the decision to reject about $620 million in disaster-relief funding to help the affected residents, though it’s unclear what recourse the state may have to receive the money.
In two letters sent to Trump Friday, Pritzker said the intense rainfall overwhelmed Chicago’s sewer system on the Southwest Side as well as in Cicero and other suburbs, hurting many “economically vulnerable” residents.
Flood survivors are coping with health hazards, including mold and contamination from sewage backup, conditions that can lead to respiratory problems for children and older adults.
The flooding appeared to be the worst in those areas but also touched other parts of the city.
Pritzker provided other anecdotal examples of residents displaced or paying out of pocket for expensive repairs, removal of mold and other environmental hazards and incurring other financial losses, according to the letters obtained by the Sun-Times.
On the Southeast Side, a mother spent $12,000 on mold repairs, in addition to losing almost $2,000 in wages related to flooding.
“I have no support. Just me and the kids,” the woman said, according to one of Pritzker’s letters.
Community advocates who have worked in the past with residents hit by extreme flooding said they were shocked that FEMA is not providing disaster relief funds to Illinois, as it has in the past.
“This is what FEMA is for — to help people repair after disasters,” said Lori Burns, a Chatham resident who has previously received federal aid and who has helped others who experienced flooding. “To hold money from those people, I hope is illegal, but definitely unethical.”
U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat, accused the Republican president of punishing states that didn’t vote for him.
“I urge the president to stop playing political games with disaster assistance and start working for all Americans — not just the states that voted for him,” Duckworth said Monday.
The White House denies that it is playing politics.
Trump responds to federal aid requests “with great care and consideration, ensuring American tax dollars are used appropriately and efficiently by the states to supplement — not substitute, their obligation to respond to and recover from disasters,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement.
“The Trump administration remains committed to empowering and working with state and local governments to invest in their own resilience before disaster strikes,” she stated.
Contributing: Violet Miller