In April 1992, the city of Chicago flooded when engineers
accidentally punctured a retention wall that separated the Chicago River
from a complex network of tunnels under the city's Loop area.
The following are stories I wrote for the Houston Chronicle as
their stringer here in Chicago, beginning April 14 through April 19,
1992.
The Houston Chronicle
April 19, 1992, Sunday, 2 STAR Edition
SECTION: A; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1068 words
HEADLINE: Flooding fiasco in downtown Chicago erodes image of "the city
that works'
BYLINE: RAY HANANIA; Special to the Chronicle
DATELINE: CHICAGO
CHICAGO -- A leak in a retaining wall that unleashed an underground
torrent from the Chicago River, drowning the Loop business district in
more than 300 million gallons of muddy, fish-filled waters, has
challenged Chicago's image as ""the city that works. ''
The city's skyline was carefully erected during the 20-year political
reign of the late Mayor Richard J. Daley, revered as the paternal leader
of the drive to advance Chicago's industrial and political images.
Every mayor since -- there have been six -- has been dedicated to
enhancing the city's national standing.
But nearly one week after the river water flooded an underground
freight tunnel system linked to most of the city's Loop buildings,
Daley's eldest son, Mayor Richard M. Daley, is struggling to control a
situation that is certain to rank as the worst disaster since the
Chicago fire in the 19th century.
Floodwaters still fill the sub-basements of many of the city's 11
skyscrapers, while electrical service is being restored to about 200
other downtown office structures shut down by the disaster.
Most of the more than 200,000 Loop employees sent home on Monday
returned to their jobs by week's end, but many were working only half
days.
The city's subway transit system is crippled by $ 20 million of
floodwater damage, and the overall estimated disaster toll could exceed
$ 2 billion in lost business revenue, property tax assessments losses
and erosion of the city's infrastructure.
There are signs that there may be a political price to pay as well. A
poll taken on Thursday by a local radio station showed that 47 percent
of Chicagoans believe Mayor Daley has done a poor job in handling the
crisis.
The results arrived on the heels of disclosures that the Daley
administration was aware in January of the leak in a retaining wall
separating the river from the underground tunnel system.
City officials estimated it would cost $ 10,000 to repair the crack,
but an apparent dispute between the contractor, who wanted $ 30,000,
delayed action on the work.
""This is the kind of thing that's typical of a bureaucracy,'' said
Patricia Hodgetts of suburban Aurora as she snapped pictures of the
flood-repair efforts at City Hall.
""There's a real shock here through all of this as to how this could
happen and who's responsible,'' said Mike Banks, an attorney who works
in a Loop office building.
On Tuesday, Daley fired the man he said was responsible, Acting
Transportation Commissioner John LaPlante, a 30-year veteran public
works administrator.
LaPlante, who Daley had planned to replace anyway, would neither
assume responsibility nor blame Daley. But he said he is the victim of
insufficient information that never accurately assessed the crack's
potential threat.
Reports that one of Daley's closest advisers also knew about the leak
were quickly dismissed by the mayor, who continued to point fingers at
administrative underlings.
""It's too early to tell how this will affect the mayor
politically,'' said Alderman Edward Burke, Daley's City Council floor
leader.
But the mayor's critics were far less charitable, saying that
responsibility for the care and administration of the city falls
squarely on Daley's desk.
The political fallout may increase because of the severe economic
ramifications of the flood.
""The economic damage to the business community alone is $ 500
million. More than 200,000 workers were sent home on the first day,''
said Samuel R. Mitchell, president of the Chicagoland Chamber of
Commerce.
""We hope that by Monday the number of employees left on the street
will be down to only 10,000 people and that would reduce our daily
business loss to about $ 10 million a day. We are projecting that the
city can be back on line by April 27. ''
Mitchell said he expects many businesses will be forced to shut down
completely because of the flood damage.
""This is a disaster on the same magnitude as an earthquake, a
hurricane or a tornado. ''
Burke said it could take years for the city to recover financially.
""In amount of dollars lost, it could certainly approach the comparison
to the Chicago Fire. This is a major disaster for the city,'' Burke
said. ""We can't even begin to assess the extent of the damage. And I
wouldn't be surprised if some of these buildin s will never reopen. ''
A 12-block area of downtown looks like the aftermath of a fire scene,
with water hoses laying across curbs and streets, all attached to
thousands of sump pumps that siphon river water out of sub-basements
into a separate city sewer system.
The Metropolitan Reclamation District and the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers have abandoned efforts to drill drop shafts that might let
water from the flooded freight tunnel system drain into a massive deep
tunnel located 250 feet below. At least three shafts were dug through
major Chicago streets but each failed to find spots where the two
tunnels crossed.
And eight times after the city declared the hole plugged, river
whirlpools and rising waters at the Board of Trade, Marshall Field's,
the Palmer House and other major downtown buildings proved them wrong.
Even after flow into the tunnel system is stopped, it could take
another 12 days to empty the water from building basements, said Gen.
Russell Fuhrman of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Officials fear that if they bring down the water level too rapidly,
they could drag with it crucial parts of the substructures of some of
the city's downtown office buildings.
""It has to be done very, very slowly,'' Fuhrman said.
To help restore Chicago's business district, Daley will turn to the
federal government, where the city will recover millions of dollars
spent to seal the leak.
President Bush has declared the Loop a federal disaster area,
qualifying the city for temporary housing subsidies, grants, low-cost
loans to cover uninsured property losses. The funds are available not
only to businesses and individuals but also to the city of Chicago.
Bob Blair, a spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency,
said the federal assistance will be awarded regardless of
responsibility.
""That's for the courts to settle, not us,'' Blair said.
""The priority concern will be to reimburse the city for public works
activity that has been taking place,'' he said.
GRAPHIC: Mug: Mayor Richard Daley (p. 18)
Copyright 1992 The Houston Chronicle Publishing Company
The Houston Chronicle
April 15, 1992, Wednesday, 2 STAR Edition
SECTION: A; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 810 words
HEADLINE: Chicago official who ignored tunnel cracks is fired
BYLINE: RAY HANANIA; Special to the Houston Chronicle
DATELINE: CHICAGO
CHICAGO -- Mayor Richard M.Daley fired his transportation chief
Tuesday, conceding that the city was warned weeks ago of a crack in a
retaining wall separating the Chicago River from a network of
underground tunnels.
Instead, the city official who received the repair estimate and
inspected the site in March failed to act, and the crack erupted into a
6-foot-wide split that poured 250 million gallons of water into a
turn-of-the-century freight tunnel system. The sub-basements of dozens
of downtown buildings connected to the tunnels were flooded early Monday
morning, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.
The initial crack could have been repaired for as little as $ 10,000,
according to city estimates.
Daley fired Acting Transportation Commissioner John LaPlante and said
others might be held accountable.
""This was brought to his attention, and he did not act,'' Daley
said. ""We are still sorting out who else was responsible. ''This was
not a minor oversight. The cost to the city, to business ... will be
enormous. ''
Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar declared Chicago's downtown a ""disaster
area'' as repair crews continued to try to seal the hole. The tunnel
system, dug 90 years ago to move coal and ash to and from downtown
buildings, is about 50 feet below the city's surface. It now is used to
house electrical and fiber-optic wires.
Within hours of the break, the sub-basements of 14 downtown
buildings, including the Sears Tower, Palmer House Hotel and Board of
Trade, filled with more than 40 feet of muddied river water and dead
fish, submerging critical electrical generators and building controls.
Commonwealth Edison was forced to shut down service to the entire
area, knocking out power to 150 more buildings. Electricity was restored
to 80 of the buildings by late Tuesday afternoon.
Daley said a cable television company that uses the tunnel system
discovered a cave-in during an inspection in January. The company made a
videotape showing inspectors in knee-deep muck and water.
The cable company notified the city in February, and in March a city
official recommended sealing both sides of the cave-in at a cost of $
10,000. Daley said contractors were asked for estimates and placed the
cost at up to $ 30,000.
There were meetings within the city bureaucracy as recently as last
week, Daley said, but no one seemed to realize the immediacy of the
problem.
A construction company hammered wooden pilings into the river near
the leak last summer. Daley said Tuesday that the pilings may have
caused the tunnel roof to cave in.
Daley said the city's two priorities now were to seal the hole
permanently and to siphon the water from the basements and the tunnels.
A special quick-drying mix of concrete that works best under water
was poured into the hole from the embankment of the river at Kinzie
Street, several blocks north of the Loop, and crews began constructing a
circular dike to stop water from reaching the 20-foot-deep hole.
The Water Reclamation District that oversees sewer flow in Cook
County began drilling holes around the downtown area to attempt to
connect the freight tunnel to the county's Deep Tunnel system. That
system, running more than 250 feet below the city's surface, was dug a
decade ago to channel floodwaters.
Reclamation District officials, after digging three holes, believe
they have located a spot south of the Loop where the two tunnels cross.
""We think that we have finally found a spot where we can dig a drop
shaft that will allow us to send several workers about 100 feet down,
where they will then begin drilling small holes of about four to six
inches in diameter that will allow the water to slowly seep out of the
tunnel,'' said Reclamation District President Nick Melas.
Melas said the tunnels would not be connected until the city confirms
the hole in the river has been sealed. That might mean some buildings
would remain closed and submerged in water for at least two more days.
Health Department officials said they expected no immediate problem
with contamination, emphasizing that the city's drinking water system
was not breached. Water service was stopped late Monday as a precaution.
On a bright note, federal and state governments said they will give
taxpayers affected by the flood an additional week to file their tax
returns, which are due today.
Few of the thousands of downtown employees sent home early Monday
returned to work. But troubles continued to mount. Telephone service in
some areas of the city was erratic. Beepers run by one of the city's
largest communications companies, MetroMedia Paging, were disabled when
their power station was submerged.
Bank ATM machines in the Loop were disabled, and the Loop subway
transit system remained closed.
GRAPHIC: Graph: Draining the floodwater (p. 13); Knight-Ridder,
Source: Chicago
The Houston Chronicle
April 14, 1992, Tuesday, 2 STAR Edition
SECTION: A; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 955 words
HEADLINE: Chicago flooding knocks city for Loop
BYLINE: RAY HANANIA; Special to the Chronicle
Chicago's famed downtown Loop came to a standstill and business was
paralyzed Monday when the retaining wall separating the Chicago River
and an antiquated tunnel system burst, pouring millions of gallons of
water into the basements of nearby skyscrapers.
Water up to 40 feet deep filled sub basements of the Sears Tower, the
Art Institute, Marshall Fields, the State of Illinois building and City
Hall, forcing the evacuation of a 12-square-block area in the city's
heart.
The flooding forced Commonwealth Edison to turn off electrical
service to the entire downtown area, but only after most workers were
evacuated. No injuries were reported.
A dozen buildings reportedly had serious flood damage but the
problems affected hundreds of buildings inside and outside the Loop.
Thousands of workers were sent home, more than 10,000 alone from the
Sears Tower, the world's tallest building.
The immediate danger came from the location of utility equipment in
the lowest sub basements of most buildings. Employees had to be
evacuated from the towering skyscrapers before electrical service
failures shut down lights, ventilation and elevators.
Four giant pumps were set up to remove floodwaters from the basement
of the Chicago Board of Trade, where trading was closed at mid-morning.
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange, which along with the Board of Trade,
constitutes the primary market in futures contracts, also closed.
Trials were stopped at the Cook County Circuit Court. Two lines of
the city's subway transit system, where minor leakage was found, also
closed. Commuters, turned away from their jobs, jammed CTA bus stops and
train stations to get home.
City officials said most of the buildings would remain closed Tuesday
until the water could be removed. Commonwealth Edison officials said
they would make a special effort to restore power to the Board of Trade,
although it could be Wednesday before other buildings are on line.
The problem began at 6 a.m. when engineers at several buildings
reported flooding in basements located several floors below street
level.
Water and sewer crews immediately suspected a water line had burst
and began turning off the 10-foot mains. But fire inspectors at Marshall
Fields then discovered fish swimming in murky waters filling the lower
level. Within an hour, separate crews searching the Chicago River just
north and west of the Loop discovered a bubbling whirlpool near Kinzie
Street, several blocks from the flooded area.
There inspectors found a gaping hole as large as an automobile in the
concrete roof of a tunnel under the river, connected to a 50-mile
network of tunnels used at the turn of the century to carry coal to the
furnaces of downtown buildings.
Dug 90 years ago, the tunnels were an engineering marvel that
connected a series of rooms and tunnels 50 feet below the streets.
The tunnels initially were to hold telephone lines but were
eventually used to haul coal. The freight system shut down in 1959.
Today, sealed off to the public and used by Commonwealth Edison for
its electrical lines, the tunnels are inhabited by rats that officials
fear might now surface as the water rises.
Initially, bridge crews driving pilings into the river bed nearby
were blamed for the leak, but city officials later said that work had
been completed weeks ago.
Repair crews immediately began dumping sandbags, three-inch gravel
and chunks of concrete brought by barges into the hole. At one point,
the city considered dumping bed mattresses in to slow the flood waters,
rising at 4 feet per hour in the buildings.
By early afternoon, contractors using large pumps attached to
concrete haulers piped tons of quick-drying, non-shrinking, hydraulic
concrete into the hole.
""We're doing the best we can. We think we have it under control,''
said John Kenney of Kenney Construction, who directed the concrete
operation. But as the leak appeared to stop late in the day, officials
could not say with certainty that the hole had been sealed. Meanwhile,
state, county and city crews began digging a new hole at the south end
of the Loop in an attempt to connect the old flooded tunnel system with
the Deep Tunnel, a separate, larger sewer system dug 200 feet below
ground to accommodate up to 1 billion gallons of flood water.
City officials said opening a hole to the Deep Tunnel might be the
only immediate solution to the flooding, which threatened the
possibility of structural damage to some of the buildings.
At one point, the Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees the Deep
Tunnel Project, considered using dynamite to join the tunnel system
quickly with the Deep Tunnel through an existing vertical shaft.
""It will take a couple of days to really get down there, break
through and make a connection,'' Nicholas Melas, president of the board
of commissioners of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, told
reporters.
Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar said they
will decide later today whether to ask President Bush to declare the
city's downtown a disaster area to qualify for federal assistance.
Police patrols were beefed up against the threat of looting and were
stationed at downtown corners in an area bounded by the Chicago River on
the north, Adams Street on the south, Dearborn Street on the west, and
Michigan Avenue on the east. An extra 250 officers were assigned to
overnight foot patrols.
Monday was to have been a day of celebration in Chicago. Mayor Daley
announced the appointment of the city's first Hispanic police
superintendent, Deputy Supt. Matthew Rodriguez. It also was opening day
at Comiskey Park.
GRAPHIC: Map: 1. Location of evacuated area of downtown Chicago (p.
8); Photo: 2. Building engineer Jerry Pietras watches water rise in the
basement of a Chicago building after water from the Chicago River began
leaking into an underground tunnel system, flooding basements in many
downtown buildings (p. 8);
All by Associated Press
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
The Houston Chronicle
April 14, 1992, Tuesday, 4 STAR Edition
SECTION: A; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 936 words
HEADLINE: Chicago tries to plug break, halt flooding
BYLINE: RAY HANANIA; Houston Chronicle News Services
DATELINE: CHICAGO
CHICAGO -- City workers struggled anew today to plug a hole in the
Chicago River's retaining wall, hoping to stop floodwaters that kept the
downtown Loop virtually shut down for a second day.
Mayor Richard M. Daley said city employees knew days and possibly
weeks ago about a leak that may have cause the breach in the wall. The
break caused river water to flood old rail tunnels and bring downtown to
a halt.
""These people will be held accountable,'' Daley warned. Workers were
pouring cement into the hole in the retaining wall this morning. The
break sent millions of gallons of water into the sub-basements of the
Sears Tower, the Art Institute, Marshall Field and Co., the State of
Illinois building and City Hall.
At one point, water up to 40 feet deep was reported in some of the
basements. A 12-square foot block area in the city's heart was
evacuated.
Despite reports late Monday that the hole had been sealed, Dave
Mosena, Daley's chief of staff, said at a morning news briefing that
some water continued to flow into the tunnels.
""We are not out of the water by any means,'' Mosena said. ""We have
no indication that the leak is completely secured. ''
Thousands of people today shuffled into a darkened, rainy Loop, where
many businesses remained closed. Policemen directed traffic at some of
the city's busiest intersections, where stop signs had been hastily
erected to replace knocked-out traffic lights.
Many people may have just decided to stay home. ""Traffic's not as
heavy as usual,'' said Watkiel Edwards, a supervisor for the Chicago
Transit Authority.
""We have no business really -- nobody's driving in. It's less than
half of normal,'' said Jundi Jamil, manager of an outdoor parking lot in
the Loop that functioned today without electricity.
Thousands of workers were sent home Monday, more than 10,000 alone
from the Sears Tower, the world's tallest building.
The water coursed through the turn-of-the-century passages once used
to deliver mail, coal and merchandise.
""We arrived in Chicago for some urban excitement. Well, we're
getting it,'' said Anne DeCarlis of Gainesville, Fla., who was
honeymooning with her husband, Nick. They had to move to another hotel
from the darkened Palmer House Hilton, where guests wandered in the
lobby, their way lighted by fluorescent batons.
In the basement of the Cook County Building, workers scrambled to
save thousands of birth, death and marriage certificates, some dating to
the 1870s. Office workers had to walk down flight after flight of stairs
to leave skyscrapers. Fish were seen in the rising water in the
restaurant area of the State of Illinois Building.
The flooding closed the Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago
Mercantile Exchange, the world's main futures and options exchanges. The
Mercantile Exchange was to reopen today; the Board of Trade was expected
to remain closed.
No injuries were reported.
At a news conference late Monday, Daley said city employees knew
about a leak for ""a number of days or a number of weeks. ''
""These people are going to be held accountable. Each and every of
those persons who had information will be accountable to me and to the
people of the city of Chicago,'' he said.
""Individuals did drop the ball. '' Daley wouldn't say who knew about
the leak. He said he assumed that the leak was responsible for the
flood. Daley said he and Gov. Jim Edgar would seek federal relief.
There was no immediate damage estimate.
Authorities planned to drain the old freight tunnels by drilling a
hole where the system crosses a recently built, an even-deeper
flood-drainage tunnel system. The drilling could take a week, officials
said.
The Army Corps of Engineers lowered the level of the river, which is
connected by a series of locks to Lake Michigan, to lessen the push of
water.
The evacuation threw downtown into disarray. Traffic was snarled, and
commuters jammed trains and buses in an early rush hour. There was no
ground-level flooding, but some buildings pumped water from their
basements into the streets.
""It's a feeling of a sinking ship,'' said Manuel DePara, a lawyer
who walked down 21 flights. ""First the secretaries left. Then the
associates left. And finally the principals. ''
""I knew there were big problems when we got reports of fish in
basements. That's when the full brunt hit,'' said Matt Rodriguez, whose
appointment Monday as city police superintendent was overshadowed by the
flood.
The tunnels, which run for more than 50 miles beneath downtown, were
used by electric rail cars from 1906 to the late 1950s. They now house
optic cables for communications and electrical wires and transformers.
Commonwealth Edison shut power off in a 12-block area for fear the
water would cause transformers to explode. The tunnel breach was first
reported at 6 a.m. Monday when engineers at several buildings reported
flooding in basements located several floors below street level.
Water and sewer crews began turning off the 10-foot mains. But fire
inspectors at Marshall Field's then discovered fish swimming in murky
waters filling the lower level. Within an hour, separate crews searching
the Chicago River just north and west of the Loop discovered a bubbling
whirlpool near Kinzie Street, several blocks from the flooded area.
There inspectors found a gaping hole as large as an automobile in the
concrete roof of a tunnel under the river, connected to the utility
tunnels. It was visible on the surface only as a debris-filled whirlpool
in the river.
GRAPHIC: Map: 1. Area in downtown Chicago where flooding caused
evacuation (p. 8); Photo: 2. Building engineer Jerry Pietras watches
water rise in the basement of a Chicago building after water from the
Chicago River began leaking into an underground tunnel system, flooding
basements in many downtown buildings (p. 8);
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
NOTES: Ray Hanania, a writer based in Chicago, contributed to this
report.