Albany Park mid-September

(Our personal flood story, complete with pictures, starts at Albany Park floods-- Record-breaking rains. )

I took a morning tour of the neighborhood on this beautiful perfect mid-September morning. I noticed that the little house by the river, a house abandoned last summer, the first house with the river rushing through it, was being demolished. Now that house should have been demolished a while back. It's been vacant for a year!

They had rose bushes growing in front of it.. The rose bushes had gone wild, but I would have loved to have dug them out and transplanted them. Those rose bushes, and every other part of the house are now in a city dumpster somewhere.

The waters have finally receded enough so that the bicycle path is again passable.

I can see the high water marks on buildings, on fences, and the river is still out of its banks!

The park is still a lake and the neighborhood ducks and geese are merrily swimming in it... the park benches in that park are still underwater.

Another little bridge over the river had been completely submerged. The high water debris is about two feet above the bridge.

I talked to several people and asked them where they lived and what kind of flooding they had experienced. "The river was up to the corner of the block, and we all had three to four feet of water in the basement." said one cheery man on the 5100 block of Hamlin. Yes, he was very cheery as he pulled garbage from his basement into the alley. He might as well be cheery! Does it do any good to mope?

The politicians have gone home, and the news reports that start with "Flooding in Albany Park" have ceased.

But we're all still here, pulling stuff out of basements, trying to create normalcy out of lives that have been ripped apart.

(Next part of the Albany Park Flood Story: Insurance adjusters and wet carpeting. )