Weekend rain continues Monday in DeKalb County with minimal flooding

DeKALB – Rain continued in DeKalb County on Monday after mild flooding occurred over the weekend, although Monday’s rainfall totals didn’t match Sunday’s torrential downpour, said a spokesperson for the National Weather Service.

“We did have reports of a lot of standing water in ditches and low-lying areas around all of the county yesterday [Sunday],” Brett Borchardt of the National Weather Service’s Chicago office said after talking with a hydrologist and the forecaster who worked Sunday. “And I believe the rainfall reports were at anywhere from one to three inches of rain, and much of that came within an hour. So it came down pretty hard.”

Monday’s rain event wasn’t nearly as inundating as Sunday’s, Borchardt said.

“From what I can tell, based on radar and some unofficial rain gauges out there, it looks like anywhere from a quarter to a third of an inch of rain is what fell,” Borchardt said.

After the city of DeKalb issued an alert Sunday asking residents to report flooded streets if necessary, DeKalb Police Chief David Byrd said Monday’s reported flooding remained minimal.

DeKalb County Sheriff Andy Sullivan said as of 2:42 p.m. Monday he had not heard of any reports of flooding in the county, however at least one local organization was affected.

The DeKalb Area Women’s Center suffered flooding in its basement for the second time in August.

“The pool that we have in the basement has refilled,” said Anna Marie Coveny, a leader at the women’s center.

Coveny said the flooding, which came up through cracks in the basement of the center after storm sewers reached their capacity, isn’t as bad as it was after the Aug. 7 rain event, but it’s flooded again.

“So from right now, through Saturday, we’ll try to have somebody there to let people in to help out,” Coveny said.

Last week, volunteers moved ruined furniture and other items out of the basement and onto the front steps of the women’s center. A tarp covered those items left to dry outside, but Coveny said the wind was so strong Sunday that the tarp blew off, further soiling those items. The center received help from volunteers last week, but not everything was cleared out before the latest flood.

“Mostly the helping this time is continuing to move sloppy, wet, drippy, whatever damp items out to the back alley,” said Coveny, who isn’t sure how long it’ll be before the water in the basement recedes.

“So we’d like to have people bring their shop vacs, the wet-dry vacs and mop – we don’t have enough mops – and also gallons of vinegar. All of those things would help,” Coveny said.

Daily Chronicle reporter Megann Horstead contributed to this story.