Stranded by flood water: One truck is stranded in flood water and another hesitates to enter, while a much larger dump truck slowly makes it’s way in the other direction through deep flooding on Brummitt Rd. The stranded truck had to be towed out this morning by Joe’s Towing. (Photo provided by Carole Swan )

By KEVIN NEVERS

Water always finds a way. And water will have its way.

It had its way with us over the weekend, as more than 12 inches of rain—recorded at the Chesterton wastewater treatment plant between midnight Thursday and midnight Sunday—deluged Duneland and created havoc on an unprecedented scale.

The rising waters caused two deaths and forced the closing of Duneland Schools and state and local roads throughout Northwest Indiana. (See related stories.)

“I’ve never seen it so bad,” Chesterton Street Commissioner John Schnadenberg told the Chesterton Tribune today. “I had to charge my cell phone four times yesterday, I was getting so many calls from the police. There were so many problems, it was overwhelming.”

Begin with neighborhood flooding. “The infrastructure quickly filled up,” Schnadenberg said. “A lot of people thought the ditches and pipes were clogged by leaves. But once the detention ponds and storm sewers filed up, there was absolutely no place for the water to go.”

Except into yards and basements. And roadways.

Essentially, Schnadenberg said, “roadways became detention ponds.” A number of them remained closed this morning: 1100N between Dickinson Road and Pioneer Point; 1100N between 100E and Fifth Street; 11th Street between Chestnut Blvd. and Park Ave.; and Pearson Road north of the Brassie Golf Course.

In addition, Schnadenberg said, roadways in subdivisions like Old Towne, Tanglewood, and Golfview Estates remain impassable.

Even so, at least half a dozen motorists got the idea that barricades and “Road Closed” signs didn’t apply to them, Schnadenberg noted, would drive around the barricades, and promptly find themselves stranded in three feet of water. Schnadenberg himself happened to be traveling behind one such motorist who got it into her head to negotiate the raging Pope O’Conner Ditch as it overflowed 1100N west of 100E. She got stuck in rushing water as high as her door handles, Schnadenberg said, but he was fortunately able to push her vehicle through the flood with his own pickup before she was washed away.

“That’s the kind of dangerous thing people were doing,” Schnadenberg said.

It could take as long as 24 hours for the water to recede from some of the roadways, including those in the subdivisions, Schnadenberg estimated, where detention ponds will likely remain at high levels into the middle of the week.

The Utility

Meanwhile, at around 3:30 a.m. on Saturday, the Chesterton Utility began bypassing partially treated sewage into the Little Calumet River. It did so until sometime that evening, Town Engineer Mark O’Dell said, when the rising Little Cal began back-flowing into the plant itself. “You could say we were still bypassing but really it’s hard to tell where our gallonage ended and the river began.”

The flooding Little Cal was not the only threat to the plant, however. Overflowing wetlands began to encroach on the influent building late on Sunday, O’Dell said, forcing the construction of an emergency berm outside the building and the sandbagging of the vital pumps inside.

In only 72 hours, from early Friday through late Sunday, a total of 12.19 inches of rain was recorded at the plant, O’Dell noted: 0.37 inches on Friday, 6.35 inches on Saturday, and 5.43 inches on Sunday.

“At locations across town, from the Villages of Sand Creek to Crocker, we had multiple reports from residents of backups from the sewage and stormwater,” O’Dell added, and when the Utility ran short of manpower was forced to tap the Street Department for two employees and R.V. Sutton Inc. for eight to 10 more, just to man pumps, tend lift stations, and work the vacuum truck. “We had guys going around the clock,” he said.

Sandbagging

In Chesterton and Porter firefighters accustomed to thinking of water as their friend found it to be an implacable foe. CFD Engineer Nate Williams said that he and his crew spent most of their shift on sandbagging operations, as frantic residents watched the water rise from roadways and backyards and turn their homes into islands. Among other places, the CFD sandbagged in the Westchester South and Tanglewood subdivisions as well as at the wastewater treatment plant, while the PFD sandbagged on Lake Vista Drive and Woodlawn Ave.

“We were able to keep one house on Lake Vista pretty dry,” Porter Fire Chief Lewis Craig said. “By the time we got there two other houses were already under water.”

“We’ve never had such a large amount of rain that we’ve had to sandbag before,” Williams remarked. “But now we’re the go-to sandbag guys.”

Elsewhere in Porter County

Porter County Highway Superintendent Al Hoagland, speaking to the Tribune on the fly, was unable to give a really clear picture of the damage done by floodwaters—and of the damage they still might do—because his crews were still unable this morning to get close enough to affected areas to do any meaningful assessment. But Hoagland did express his concern about the integrity of some of the county’s bridges, where debris is beginning to pile up. “Bridges aren’t designed to take a lot of pressure from the side,” he said. “They’re designed to flex up and down. But it’s hard to inspect the bridges because the decks are under water.”

One of those bridges, Hoagland added, is located on Brummitt Road south of Indian Boundary Road.

Of course a lot of county roads remain flooded, and it may take 10 to 12 hours before conditions improve. “Take a look at the C.R. 1100N near C.R. 416E. There’s a big washout there. Just don’t stand too close to the hole. It’s hard to believe that water can move that amount of earth in such a short period of time.”

On the Home Front

Here’s one indication of the impact of the flooding on Dunelanders. Over the weekend Hopkins Ace Hardware sold out of pumps, shop vacs, dehumidifiers, fans, carpet shampooers, any number of plumbing fixtures, and a variety of cleaning supplies like mops, brooms, and squeegees, Manager Emerson DeLaney said. On Saturday, with a pretty good idea of what was coming down the pike, those items were re-ordered for delivery today.

The truck came in this morning, and many of those items were already sold out again by noon.

“Unfortunately we’re doing well at everybody’s expense,” DeLaney said. “Which we’re not happy about. We’re here to help. If we don’t have it, we’re trying to find it, calling other stores for people. That’s what we’re here to do.”

Posted 9/15/2008