Boat Rescues, Flooded Cars: Heavy Rain Hits Chicago Area Hard

Heavy rains and thunderstorms Wednesday lead to flooded roadways and several police and fire calls in the suburbs. In Barrington, police were called to a flooded Exmoor Avenue to rescue a person from a flooded vehicle while fire crews responded with their rescue boat to a building on Exmoor to save 10 people, the Daily Herald reports. In Elgin, a lightning strike lead to a fire at a business in town, fire officials said.

Some of the hardest hit communities were in DuPage County and northwest Cook County. The Addison area, and in particular, the western portion of Addison, was especially inundated with floodwaters, according to the National Weather Service. This lead to flash flooding. Authorities in those areas say the water has, for the most part, subsided as of early Thursday, but some low-lying or locations prone to flooding may still see water during the morning commute and drivers are reminded to not cross a flooded roadway.

The heavy rains dropped between two to four inches Wednesday on towns in the Chicago area, with five inches possibly locally in some areas, according to the National Weather Service. This brought the monthly total for rainfall at O'Hare to 7.65 inches as of Wednesday evening, breaking the previous wettest May on record in Chicago. That record was set back in 1945 when 7.59 inches of rain fell that May.

A flood warning for urban areas and streams remains in effect through 6:30 a.m. for Kane, eastern DuPage, southwestern Lake, southeastern McHenry, northwestern Cook, west central Will and northeastern Kendall, according to the National Weather Service.

The deluge of rainfall came during Wednesday's commute. This left some roadways underwater. In Schaumburg, Keith Weiner, who was driving at the time, told ABC 7 he noticed a half-dozen cars going east on Higgins that were "probably up to their waist in water."

In Elgin, fire officials were called to a business in the 700 block of Tollgate Road at 5:05 p.m. Wednesday after lightning reportedly struck the roof of a business. Employees inside the building quickly alerted authorities and pulled the fire alarm. The fire was upgraded to a “working fire” due to the size of the building and the potential fire spread and possible damage to businesses in the building, according to a news release from the Elgin Fire Department.

Firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze in about 20 minutes. No one was injured in the blaze, which caused about $10,000 in damage to the roof and the front door. The front door had to be forced open to get inside, according to the news release.

More via the Daily Herald, ABC 7, the National Weather Service

File photo of flooding on the Fox River in Algonquin/Photo credit: Amie Rowland