The Crystal Lake City Council spent a huge chunk of change to stop the flooding of North Shore Drive.
The total cost was $762,000 with State taxpayers kicking in $482,000 through the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.
North Shore Drive was not covered with water after the downpour June 25 and 26.
From driving on a dry road this morning about 10:30, I’d say that goal was accomplished.
The problem seems to have shifted westward, however.
The water level from damming Dog Lake north of North Shore Drive resulted in two-three feet of water in the basement of this home on North Shore Drive.
The first home on the right after the newly-widen channel between Dog Lake and Crystal Lake had three feet of black water in the basement. The couple’s daughter said it was sewage.
This is how the edge of Dog Lake looked on June 26, 2013, at about 10:30.
One of the neighbors said that the water being pumped out was being replaced by water flowing in the basement drain and would continue to do so until the level of Dog Lake dropped below the basement’s elevation.
The drainage ditch south of North Shore Drive was almost filed to capacity. Earlier in the day, it overflowed its banks.
A Woodland Drive neighbor said the water from Dog Lake was black with mud between eight and nine in the morning.
Woodland Drive did not have to be opened to North Shore traffic today, however, as it was in 2007.
This view of the part between the North Shore’s Oak Court and Woodland Drive shows the flow of water almost at capacity for the culverts.
A blue heron stood in the shallows near the end of the ditch near the storm water drain outlet.
Behind the blue heron is a storm drain outlet erupting into Crystal Lake.
Carp were swimming upstream as they had on Cress (Crystal) Creek a few weeks earlier. (At that time grade school kids were netting the carp and putting them across the wire barrier into Crystal Lake. One girl about eight was so excited that she had “saved that fish.”)
Large carp were fighting the strong current to swim upstream.
A man on Oak Court, located just north of the lake, whose home is between that street and North Shore Drive, said both of his craw spaces flooded for the first time.
The new drainage ditch constructed by the City of Crystal Lake had water rushing into the lake.
I told him that a homeowner on Nash Road across the street from Lundahl Junior High School though that the sluice gate at Crystal Lake’s outlet should be shut.
Crystal Lake was not full to its brim about 10 AM.
He replied that would be like putting a dam across Dog Lake.
Then, he said with a smile. “But they already did that.”
City Engineer Erik Morimoto offered a different take gained from a city engineer who was on the North Shore. He reported that homeowners were saying the water level went down faster than in previous flooding.
Look closely and you can see that the Crystal Lake outlet pipe is not filled to capacity. Comparing its flow to that of the North Shore drainage ditch, I would say that more water is entering the lake than leaving it.
Meanwhile, downstream, Crystal (or Cress, depending on your preference) Creek has a good flow.
Lakewood was pumping water at Broadway and Riverside.
Lakewood Village pumps were running.
Essex Lake flooding south of Broadway.
One street up on Essex there was water where I have never seen it before.
On Riverside Drive (next to the creek) a friend was standing next to his house and I asked if he had flooding.
“My basement looks like a pool,” he replied.
Crystal Lake water main installation flags on Riverside near Country Club Road.
I asked what the flags were for in front of his house.
He said that the city was replacing the water main.
Across from Crystal Lake’s Main Beach is a sign announcing the beginning of a water main project on Country Club Road on June 24th.
He added something pithy about the city’s not doing something about drainage instead.
Dry parking was not available at the Crystal Lake Country Club.
Downstream, the Crystal Lake Country Club’s parking lot was under water.
At South Elementary School the playground set was surrounded by water.
Farther downstream, part of South Elementary School’s play ground was submerged.
Water flowing out of Crystal Lake and the neighborhood overwhelmed the underground drainage system operated by the City of Crystal Lake.
So was much of the Lundahl Middle School property.
The drain pipe under the road from South School’s parking lot and Nash Road next to Lundahl Middle School was overwhelmed by the volume of water.
Residents on Nash Road across from Lundahl had water in their basements.
Pumps were running on Nash Road in Crystal Lake.
Earlier in the day, the following two photos were taken by a neighbor across the street from Lundahl:
Water was well out onto Nash Road across from Lundahl Middle School on Wednesday morning.
Drainage ditches and storm sewers were inadequate as water supposed to go through underground pipes from Crystal Lake to Cress Creek in front of Lundahl Junior High School.
And the City Public Works Department had the biggest pump of the day at Nash and St. Andrews.
A Crystal Lake Public Works Department pump was operating on St. Andrews at Nash Road.
And below you can see where the water will eventually end up after flowing through the undersized drainage pipes between the Country Club and St. Andrews Lane:
At this point, I guess the stream is called “Cress Creek,” because there’s a street nearby called Cress Creek Lane.
Think some folks from the North Shore will show up at the next Crystal Lake City Council meeting?
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