{"id":747330,"date":"2026-07-06T22:55:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T22:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/747330\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T22:55:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T22:55:12","slug":"thornton-reservoir-nearly-full-after-heavy-storms-over-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/747330\/","title":{"rendered":"Thornton Reservoir nearly full after heavy storms over weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

The tree in front of Cassie Haan\u2019s Tinley Park home was at least 50 years old, she estimated. It was taken down by workers Monday, after being damaged in the weekend storms.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hollow anyway, so it needed to come down, but the storm kind of progressed that,\u201d Haan said. \u201cAs you drive around, you can see all the trees coming down, all the older trees.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haan said that besides the tree, her house on Kimberly Drive didn\u2019t suffer damage, but the multiple bouts<\/a> of severe weather recently had her worried.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the storms got us thinking about getting a generator,\u201d Haan said. \u201cJust to keep the sump pump going, just in case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tinley Park was particularly hard hit by the weekend storms, said Village Manager Pat Carr. The inaugural weekend Country Fest<\/a> saw tents knocked over when storms rolled in Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got battered pretty good,\u201d Carr said. \u201cFire Department was pretty busy. They had three water rescues, people caught in flood waters in their cars.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe deep tunnel reservoir north of the Thornton Quarry is filled with water following a rainy June and early July in Thornton, on July 6, 2026. (Stacey Wescott\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

Cleanup was still a work in progress in Tinley Park as of Monday, Carr said, with public works crews working around the clock.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot of flooding throughout the village,\u201d Carr said. \u201cThis was probably the most rainfall we\u2019ve gotten in years and we\u2019re still dealing with some of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District said Monday the Thornton Composite Reservoir is the fullest it has been since becoming operational in 2015, at 94% capacity.<\/p>\n

The reservoir is the largest combined sewer reservoir in the world, according to the water reclamation district. It takes in water from Chicago\u2019s Far South Side, Calumet Park, Dixmoor, Dolton, Harvey, Lansing, Markham, Phoenix, Posen, Riverdale and South Holland, an area with 556,000 people.<\/p>\n

After setting new records, the district will let the water flow back down through a tunnel to the Calumet Water Reclamation Plant, 5 miles north of the reservoir, said Allison Fore, public and intergovernmental affairs officer<\/p>\n

At the plant, 400 E. 130th St., Chicago, the district pumps water up about 300 feet to treat it, clean it and return it to the environment via the Little Calumet River, Fore said in an email.<\/p>\n

The reservoir, which contains 7.3 billion gallons of water, previously had a high-water mark of 54.5% full in 2019.<\/p>\n

Just before noon Monday, a steady stream of curious onlookers parked across State Street from the reservoir and ran over to see the spectacle of the full quarry for themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan you believe it?\u201d one man asked incredulously. \u201cI never thought I\u2019d see something like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

His companion answered rhetorically, \u201cDo you know how deep that is? This is crazy!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"StormwaterStormwater collects on Spruce Road in Homewood after heavy rains Saturday. It was the second torrential rain to hit the area in less than 24 hours after a storm Friday left roadways similarly flooded, closed viaducts and damaged trees. (Paul Eisenberg\/Daily Southtown)
\n\"WorkersWorkers clean up a damaged tree in front of Cassie Haan’s home Monday in Tinley Park following severe thunderstorms over the weekend. (Evy Lewis\/Daily Southtown)<\/p>\n

Several south suburban communities canceled or postponed planned Fourth of July festivities after severe thunderstorms swept in Friday and Saturday.<\/p>\n

Park Forest Village Board member Randall White said the forced rescheduling of the village\u2019s planned parade, concert and fireworks show for Labor Day weekend was \u201cdefinitely a sad situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live for our Fourth of July parade,\u201d White said. \u201cI\u2019ve talked to people, of course, the surrounding communities \u2014 no one does it like Park Forest in the south suburbs.\u201d<\/p>\n

But White said Park Forest, also having been built over swamp land, struggles to recover from severe storms.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ground has always been really, really soft, and it sinks over time,\u201d he said. \u201cEven the newer houses that were just built have foundational issues because of the ground shifting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The village understands residents\u2019 frustrations with poor flood infrastructure, White said, but lacks the \u201cmillions and millions of dollars\u201d needed to improve drain systems across the board. He said the Village Board is instead working to replace outdated infrastructure gradually.<\/p>\n

He said the village and church community is looking to help individuals in need, which he knows well as his own house and church\u2019s basement flooded over the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou move as fast as you can, as diligent as you can, but still, fast is not fast enough for people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Among those Park Forest houses that flooded Friday was Aleiya Jennings\u2019 home on Minocqua Street.<\/p>\n

\"CassandraCassandra Montgomery indicates Monday how high the floodwater reached in the kitchen of Aleiya Jennings’ home on Minocqua Street, Park Forest. (Evy Lewis\/Daily Southtown)
\n\"ShoesShoes and other belongings are piled on top of the washer and dryer Monday in Aleiya Jenning’s Park Forest home. (Evy Lewis\/Daily Southtown)<\/p>\n

Jennings said the drains outside her house were overwhelmed by the water and overflowed back into the street and into her house, which doesn\u2019t have a basement. The water infrastructure in the area is 75 years old, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was sewer water coming out of the drain, into the street,\u201d Jennings said. \u201cIt\u2019s a failure of the infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jennings\u2019 mother, Cassandra Montgomery, showed the Daily Southtown videos of water bubbling up out of the storm drains and filling the house.<\/p>\n

Jennings and her son had to vacate the house overnight and stay with her mother, she said. She\u2019d had to tear the soaked carpeting out of her son\u2019s bedroom, and her refrigerator was no longer functional because the compressor had submerged and burnt out.<\/p>\n

\"CassandraCassandra Montgomery shows videos Monday of floodwater washing through Aleiya Jennings’ home in Park Forest. (Evy Lewis\/Daily Southtown)<\/p>\n

Jennings has lived in her house for less than two years, she said, and in that time it has flooded four times, most recently during the last round of severe storms in mid-June.<\/p>\n

She still hadn\u2019t repaired everything damaged in that last flood when it happened again Friday, she said. She worries there\u2019s nothing she can do without better flood infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was literally working on getting quotes, because they said they\u2019d have to rip at least a foot of drywall around the entire house to dry it out,\u201d Jennings said, pointing out areas of water damage along her walls. \u201cGlad I didn\u2019t get that work done.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Monday, most of Jennings\u2019 belongings were still piled on top of the furniture, as she\u2019d scrambled to get everything off the floor when water started coming in.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it was first happening, I was just noticing it in front of the door and the closet, so I\u2019m trying to stop it,\u201d Jennings said. \u201cBut after awhile it was literally just wooshing in and I couldn\u2019t stop it, so I just saved what I could.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dolton\u2019s Independence Day festivities including bouncy houses and face painting, live music, food vendors and fireworks went as scheduled Thursday night, Mayor Jason House said.<\/p>\n

But following the celebrations, the village experienced flooding due to clogged drains and about 500 outages, with all power restored by 8 p.m. on Saturday, House said. The mayor has pushed for outside funding to help boost flood infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we are definitely in need, there\u2019s a lot of need in the community,\u201d House said. \u201cI think if it rains to the level of a public safety emergency, I\u2019m certain funding will come a lot faster, but at the moment, it has not risen to that level, thankfully.\u201d<\/p>\n

elewis@chicagotribune.com and ostevens@chicagotribune.com<\/p>\n

News editor Paul Eisenberg contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The tree in front of Cassie Haan\u2019s Tinley Park home was at least 50 years old, she estimated.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":747331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[123977,123978,123979,16488,123980,34343,123981,192,123982,123983,123984,5629,2558,983,123985,123986,123987,3,78171,123988,123989,123990,79,123991,2986,123992],"class_list":["post-747330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-blue-island","tag-calumet-city","tag-chicago-heights","tag-cook-county","tag-country-club-hills","tag-daily-southtown","tag-dolton","tag-environment","tag-frankfort","tag-harvey","tag-homer-glen","tag-illinois","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-lockport","tag-markham","tag-mokena","tag-news","tag-oak-lawn","tag-orland-park","tag-palos-heights","tag-palos-hills","tag-science","tag-tinley-park","tag-weather","tag-will-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=747330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/747331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}