McHenry County Blog

Cress Creek, which it seems to me used to be called Crystal  Creek, is flowing?

The creek that takes excess water from Crystal Lake had a healthy flow on the afternoon of April 17, 2013.

The water comes from Crystal Lake and its stream bed was dry yesterday.

Last Saturday when it was raining too hard for me to want to get out of the car, I stopped over the Broadway culvert of Cress Creek.

Looking toward an overflowing Crystal Lake, I took the photo above.

When I looked at it, it looked more like an impressionist painting than a photo.

A sharper photo from the same point also yielded the view below:

The photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

As we were about to leave for Knox Pool for McHenry Marlin Swim Team practice, our electricity went out.

No problem shortly before 1 AM when the tornado warning siren blared, but no lights at 7:30 AM with very little wind.

Go figure.

We saw lots of limbs down on South Shore Drive in Lakewood. Up to three inchers, I would estimate.

Two blocks away on Broadway Street, this tent had been blown down one door east of the creek.

As we drove down Dole Avenue, WBBM Radio reported that Route 176 was closed near Walkup. Of course, we were taking Walkup.

Fortunately, the Walkup part of the intersection was open, but the lanes east were not.

My trusty assistant photographer could not get the long lens to focus, so we can’t show you anything at 7:40 AM, but the view from the Williams intersection as we were returning to Crystal Lake about 9:30. I can’t tell whether both lanes were still closed or not.

As we drove back from McHenry on Route 31, Com Ed crews were fixing a downed power line at the bottom of the Terra Cotta valley, near the Fountains.

Trying to work our way over to Walkup to see what had happened (without parking and making through traffic more difficult) we saw downed tree limbs pretty much everywhere. The one you see is on the train track side of Gates Street.

Here’s a shot of 176 that I got down a side street.

Look at the size of the limbs that had been sawed up ready for pick up by the Crystal Lake Public Works Department. These are easily 6-inch limbs, maybe bigger.

How bad the situation on Route 176 was may be hinted at by this semi-truck load of new electric poles.

Caroline Street, whose northern end runs into the City Hall parking lot, was closed.

Center Street, the one just south of Woodstock Street, wasn’t. I got this photo of the other side of the northernly most block of Caroline Street from the Center Street intersection. Both sides of Caroline were closed.

I turned south on Elmhurst, a short street on which I twice lived. At the home where my sister Janet’s Crystal Lake Community High School Class of 1962 classmate Donna Larson lived in 1958, a crew was cleaning up storm damage.

At West Crystal Lake Avenue and Elmhurst, a city truck was filled with limbs.

We next headed to the neighborhood hit by the 1965 Palm Sunday tornado. As we approached Keith Avenue, one of the worst areas for damage 43 years ago, we saw this up rooted tree close to where Keith ends at Union Street.

My son said the picture showing the roots of the downed tree was the best of the three I took. I think this one shows the size of the tree better.

Let’s end this story with a more peaceful story.

Here’s a photo of Cress Creek. Or, is it Crystal Creek? Anyway, it’s the one that drains Crystal Lake. Note the height of the grass growing in the stream.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

As we were about to leave for Knox Pool for McHenry Marlin Swim Team practice, our electricity went out.

No problem shortly before 1 AM when the tornado warning siren blared, but no lights at 7:30 AM with very little wind.

Go figure.

We saw lots of limbs down on South Shore Drive in Lakewood. Up to three inchers, I would estimate.

Two blocks away on Broadway Street, this tent had been blown down one door east of the creek.

As we drove down Dole Avenue, WBBM Radio reported that Route 176 was closed near Walkup. Of course, we were taking Walkup.

Fortunately, the Walkup part of the intersection was open, but the lanes east were not.

My trusty assistant photographer could not get the long lens to focus, so we can’t show you anything at 7:40 AM, but the view from the Williams intersection as we were returning to Crystal Lake about 9:30. I can’t tell whether both lanes were still closed or not.

As we drove back from McHenry on Route 31, Com Ed crews were fixing a downed power line at the bottom of the Terra Cotta valley, near the Fountains.

Trying to work our way over to Walkup to see what had happened (without parking and making through traffic more difficult) we saw downed tree limbs pretty much everywhere. The one you see is on the train track side of Gates Street.

Here’s a shot of 176 that I got down a side street.

Look at the size of the limbs that had been sawed up ready for pick up by the Crystal Lake Public Works Department. These are easily 6-inch limbs, maybe bigger.

How bad the situation on Route 176 was may be hinted at by this semi-truck load of new electric poles.

Caroline Street, whose northern end runs into the City Hall parking lot, was closed.

Center Street, the one just south of Woodstock Street, wasn’t. I got this photo of the other side of the northernly most block of Caroline Street from the Center Street intersection. Both sides of Caroline were closed.

I turned south on Elmhurst, a short street on which I twice lived. At the home where my sister Janet’s Crystal Lake Community High School Class of 1962 classmate Donna Larson lived in 1958, a crew was cleaning up storm damage.

At West Crystal Lake Avenue and Elmhurst, a city truck was filled with limbs.

We next headed to the neighborhood hit by the 1965 Palm Sunday tornado. As we approached Keith Avenue, one of the worst areas for damage 43 years ago, we saw this up rooted tree close to where Keith ends at Union Street.

My son said the picture showing the roots of the downed tree was the best of the three I took. I think this one shows the size of the tree better.

Let’s end this story with a more peaceful story.

Here’s a photo of Cress Creek. Or, is it Crystal Creek? Anyway, it’s the one that drains Crystal Lake. Note the height of the grass growing in the stream.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

An April shower to be more specific.

This is how it looked last Tuesday on Cress Creek.

Cress Creek is the stream running out of Crystal Lake.

I drive past it pretty much every day.

It has so many moods.

This one is pretty placid.

Unless you get up close to the concrete culvert where the water courses from the lake’s outlet.

Of course, the flow of water is mild in comparison with last August’s flood.

An April shower to be more specific.

This is how it looked last Tuesday on Cress Creek.

Cress Creek is the stream running out of Crystal Lake.

I drive past it pretty much every day.

It has so many moods.

This one is pretty placid.

Unless you get up close to the concrete culvert where the water courses from the lake’s outlet.

Of course, the flow of water is mild in comparison with last August’s flood.

Most of the time the word “current” and Crystal Lake are not compatible.

In times of high water, however, the flow is from west to east.

Yesterday was one of those days, as I explained in my story entitled, “Crystal Lake Rising.”

Compare the water level with what it was the third week of last August, which you can see in the photo with green grass below.

I didn’t have time to go behind the Main Beach fence Thursday night to get a shot of the water flowing out of the lake into the outlet that feeds Cress Creek last night, so I did it Friday.

As you can see, there is quite a current.

Above is what the weir (little dam) looked like a year ago. The screen which park district employees just took down was up on April 5, 2007.

There were no carp spawning yet. These were swimming on June 8th of last year.

Most of the time the word “current” and Crystal Lake are not compatible.

In times of high water, however, the flow is from west to east.

Yesterday was one of those days, as I explained in my story entitled, “Crystal Lake Rising.”

Compare the water level with what it was the third week of last August, which you can see in the photo with green grass below.

I didn’t have time to go behind the Main Beach fence Thursday night to get a shot of the water flowing out of the lake into the outlet that feeds Cress Creek last night, so I did it Friday.

As you can see, there is quite a current.

Above is what the weir (little dam) looked like a year ago. The screen which park district employees just took down was up on April 5, 2007.

There were no carp spawning yet. These were swimming on June 8th of last year.

It’s open water on Crystal Lake.

Yesterday I noticed that most of the ice was gone.

This is the second year in a row in which a warm January has led to the ice melting.

After a low overflow during a dry fall, December’s snow and January’s rain has resulted in a lot of water pouring over the outlet.

Cress Creek is broad again.

I took some photos this morning on the way home from taking my son to South School.

Can you see why people love this neighborhood?

It’s open water on Crystal Lake.

Yesterday I noticed that most of the ice was gone.

This is the second year in a row in which a warm January has led to the ice melting.

After a low overflow during a dry fall, December’s snow and January’s rain has resulted in a lot of water pouring over the outlet.

Cress Creek is broad again.

I took some photos this morning on the way home from taking my son to South School.

Can you see why people love this neighborhood?