Hundreds of River Forest homes were without power into the weekend after last Thursday’s storm, and 180 residences in River Forest didn’t have power restored until Monday afternoon.
Police were kept busy Thursday night re-directing traffic around blocked streets and standing guard by live power wires lying across streets and alleys.
Some River Forest residents also had to contend with a serious flood threat. Firefighters and public works personnel spent several hours Saturday stacking sandbags across Chicago Avenue, west of Thatcher, which was closed to traffic from there to First Avenue. Bags were also stacked at a low spot on a Forest Preserve levy, protecting homes in the Edgebrook subdivision off Lake Street west of Thatcher.
The Des Plaines River crested at 7.71 feet late Friday, almost a foot above flood stage but far below earlier predictions that called for near record flooding in the village. By 7 a.m. Saturday, the waters had receded slightly. The street was reopened to vehicle traffic early Monday morning.
Humans weren’t the only beings threatened. A couple hundred feet south of the sandbags on Thatcher, staff at Trailside Museum were still without power Saturday afternoon. That meant no phones, no air-conditioning, and no refrigeration. Jim Chelsvig, a naturalist and director of Trailside, said bags of ice had been brought in to help keep food for the museum’s carnivores cold, as well as preserving frozen specimens stored there. Two ice bags, contents melted, floated in a large fish tank inhabited by native bass and carp in the museum’s foyer.
“We tossed them in to help keep the water cool,” said Chelsvig.
They weren’t the only operations making alternate plans Friday. With Dominican University without power Thursday night through Friday, public relations spokesperson Jessica Mackinnon spent Friday working at the Oak Park Public Library, which had Internet access.
River Forest Village Hall didn’t go off generator power until around midnight Saturday.