Rescue Crews Swarm Lisle to Evacuate Residents, Control Flooding

Rescue crews swarmed Lisle on Thursday as flood waters shut down roads, knocked out power and left many residents in danger, with the Village declaring a state of emergency and a county shelter opening at Benedictine University.

"It’s the worst [flooding] I’ve ever seen and I’ve been living here for 35 years,” Lisle mayor Joe Broda told WGN-TV. “It’s not a pretty sight."

According to the Daily Herald, residents were evacuated from the Towers of Four Lakes Village and houses along Burlington Avenue and Route 53. The Suburban Life reports that boats were being used to help residents escape some neighborhoods, including around the intersection of Lacey and Dumoulin avenues.

"We're talking dozens of houses underwater—or they're taking on water," Broda told the Herald.

WGN-TV reports that the Four Lakes condo community lost power after a substation became submerged in water, knocking out power for thousands of residents.

The Village has asked that residents avoid travel whenever possible. Lisle schools have been closed for Friday.

In a separate article, the Herald details the "dramatic" rescue of 51 residents from Snow Valley Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, with boats and arm strength being used to ferry elderly persons across chilly, calf-high water. All the residents are safe and doing well, the paper said.

"I haven't seen anything like this since the flood we had in Big Rock in 1996," Big Rock firefighter Steve Weissinger told the Herald. "Thankfully everyone was very patient and calm and allowed us to get them out safely."

Comments on Lisle Patch Facebook were dire.

"I never thought I would be one of those people being taken out in boat clutching my cat," Anne Chang Blaeske wrote from the Burlington Avenue area. "We don't know what we will go home to... if the water doesn't go over about 12 feet, then we won't lose everything; if it does, then it will be very bad."

"It's like a war zone here, complete with personnel carriers and helicopters," Matt Gilmartin wrote of the Four Lakes area; from the nearby RiverBend subdivision, one Cat Cole wrote: "Water is still rising. We cannot get out. Nobody can get in."

On a Patch article with emergency information, many comments ran hot, with some blaming Lisle government for failing to update the Village's levees.

Other comments were praiseful. "The rescue workers, police, fire department are doing a great job at controlling the disaster," wrote a "Mary." "There are rescue workers from Bolingbrook, Romeoville, and Naperville on this side of the new Tee Time River doing a wonderful job! I applaud them as well as our own."

See more pictures of the flooding in Lisle and throughout DuPage County here.

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