Flood waters have receded and clean-up is well underway following a series of storms which pounded Bloomington-Normal last week. Thursday’s severe thunderstorm was followed up by persistent rains, soaking the Twin Cities and leaving downed branches, drooping powerlines and soggy basements.
Areas south and east of Bloomington's core were among the hardest hit.
Mary English, co-owner of Crestwicke Country Club about six miles south of Downtown Bloomington, was out picking up limbs in front of the club Monday morning. English said the golf course sustained wind damage, including at least five trees down and “a lot of debris.”
“We're going to have to dig out probably eight or so bunkers,” English said, “because they've got nothing but soot in them. Other than that, we're able to mow the greens today. So, getting there, slow but sure.”
English said insurance will cover damage caused by wind, such as a tree that fell onto a bridge. Water damage is not covered by their insurance. She said storms earlier in the year also caused some damage, but this one was “the kicker.”
While the repairs are going to be expensive, English said the hardest part has been that the storms have been hitting on weekends. When the golf course is flooded or has lost power, they can’t operate. These storms “cost us a whole weekend,” English said, “it just totally washes us out of our revenue. We couldn’t open the kitchen because of power outages.”
English said she’s taking the cleanup “one step at a time. Constant maintenance here on the golf course so this just makes it worse.”
Co-owner Mark English said it’s not the biggest clean up they’ve ever had, “but it’s close.” He said the storm debris covered 150 acres of the property.
In the nearby Crestwicke neighborhood, Maureen Sullivan said she was amazed by the way the neighborhood banded together and helped one another with the cleanup.
“That’s what I love about this area,” she said.
The Sullivans lost a treasured family swing set in their backyard when part of a tree crushed it. Sullivan said her kids and grandkids have swung there, and it was open to all of the neighborhood kids. Her adult son has special needs, and Sullivan said he was sad to realize he couldn’t swing on his swing set anymore – but he understood.
A crew from Josh’s Handyman Service was removing the tree and the ruined playset, sawing it into pieces and placing it on the curb. The Sullivans plan to replace the playset, but probably not right away.
A weird start to the semester
Illinois State University students like junior Katelyn Slobodian had just arrived in town Thursday when the storm dumped nearly two inches of rain on the Normal campus in one hour.
“It just came out of nowhere. It was the day I moved in, and my dad couldn't drive home because the roads were so flooded, and you can't see anything,” Slobodian said. “I saw a lot of pictures of cars that were completely submerged. And the house I was staying at, their Wi-Fi power line just completely got torn down and trees came down and broke car windows and everything.”
Students off campus battled the storm on their own, dealing with mass power outages affecting over 22,000 residents. This left live wires and downed trees strewn across student housing. On campus, freshman Makayla Johnson had to postpone her move into Watterson Towers and is experiencing her first week of college while ISU recovers from the storm.
“When I first got here, the power was out to the streetlights. There were trees in the middle of the streets. It was everywhere. It was bad,” Johnson said. “The floors were flooded when we first got in the dorms. It was coming from the ceilings, the windows, literally everywhere. It's very very crowded though because everybody's just now trying to come in because they had to push their move in date back.”
In other cases property damage has caused inconveniences to those bringing their students to school or simply visiting.
“A lot of my friends go to school here, and they offered me to come down and stay with them for a couple days, but since that storm came in, my car got hit by a tree, and I lost my back windshield. So I've been stranded for a few more days," said visitor Garrett Sanders.
Sanders said some of ISU’s natural beauty was lost when the storm came through after two large trees split in half, crushing the lawn and sidewalks in front of the State Farm Hall of Business and McCormick Hall.
Some students said they are worried about what might happen in the future, like sophomore Ellie Schaefer, who was moving in when her street flooded with water, submerging her father and grandmother's vehicles in several inches of water.
“I think the worry for me is I never thought something like that could happen. Just with wind, I mean, it wasn't even tornadoes. So my worry is just maybe it could potentially happen again. And with all the buildings that have been flooded as well, that's also a concern,” Schaefer said.
Now that classes have officially begun on ISU’s campus, students in some buildings, such as Fell Hall, are experiencing difficulties in their day-to-day work as basements are still drying out.
“They've got fans, and just, everything is being aired out right now. They're trying to dry out all the rooms, so it's very loud. It feels a little empty. Normally, there's people bustling and just lots of people in the station [WZND] and you see everybody, but it's kind of emptied out. As there's not a lot of space to chill, it's just kind of empty and a little bit lonely compared to usual,” said junior Jack Morris.
Meanwhile, at IWU
Classes at Illinois Wesleyan University [IWU] do not start until next week, but students are still affected by last week’s microburst thunderstorm in Bloomington-Normal.
Students like Eleanor Palmer and her friends on the IWU volleyball team moved in on Wednesday, just before the storms, to start practice.
“Our power went out. We also got flooding in our basement,” she said. “Wind swirling, trees crashing. You couldn’t really see anything, like, I was looking out the window.”
Palmer went three days without power in their off-campus apartment. Overall, though, it did not ruin her time bonding and getting used to the new semester with her roommates.
“We were just kind of offline; we played Bananagrams in the dark with candles and stuff like that, so it was nice,” Palmer said. “But I can imagine that it was kind of the opposite for others.”
She got to see that firsthand Monday morning as members of the volleyball team took to the Twin Cities to volunteer their time cleaning up brush.
“We like to give back as much as we can and with everything; we thought it was kind of the perfect moment, the perfect thing to do especially on a nice day like this to help others out,” Palmer said.
Palmer went to Fell Park and made sure the basketball court was open and available.
Other student-athletes like Yuri Malone, on the track and field team, had bigger problems trying to practice.
“Well, I’m on the cross-country team, so honestly nothing on campus has really changed, because we aren’t really sitting on the quad or anything,” she said. “But we run on the Constitution Trail, which is just down the road…it’s basically un-runnable, like all the trees are on it. It’s kind of like a jungle there.”
Malone said she did not move until Sunday. Moving was largely not affected, but some of it was still interrupted by recovery efforts.
“I’d say [it was with], maybe because of the street closures and just kind of what was around. I know there was confusion on if any streets on campus or to get to buildings on campus would be closed, but I don’t think it impeded it that much,” she said.
With her on campus Monday was Cody Westerman, also a returning student and an orientation leader. As the two were navigating through orientation on Monday, he said some activities were disrupted.
“[IWU] are having to modify everything that we’re doing for the new students,” he said. “A lot of our stuff goes on in the main quad and they’re saying that we’re not going to be able to do some of the stuff on the main quad.”
“So, we’re going to have to modify and a lot of things are just getting decided right now.”
Westerman was another student who was on campus for the storms, recalling what sounded like small explosions outside his apartment.
“Power went out; it sounded like there was bombs going off everywhere and it probably was the trees breaking,” he said. “It was a crazy 20 minutes.”
As incoming students prepare to come to IWU starting Wednesday, Westerman said campus is excited to welcome them.
City officials roll up their sleeves
Bloomington City Council member Sheila Montney said she spent several hours Monday in the Washington East neighborhood on the city’s eastern edge.
“In the time I was there, I estimate I saw 30-plus city vehicles coming in and out removing downed tree limbs,” she said. “Numerous people expressed their appreciation for how responsive the City of Bloomington’s staff has been.”
Montney said she received calls about water in basements from areas that did not have as much visible damage.
“In Golden Eagle and Windham Hills Saturday morning, City Manager Jeff Jurgens and Acting Assistant Public Works Director Dave Lamb personally came out to check on the detention basins and to make sure there were no obstructions to water flow,” she said.
“We talked with many neighbors who were coming to see the ‘river’ flowing across the intersection of Broad Creek and Monterey. The residents I spoke with were incredibly positive, despite many of them being personally impacted with water in their basements.”
Abby Scott’s northeast Bloomington ward had lots of downed tree and power outages, she said. Flooding came later as rain continued to fall over the weekend.
“Our ward was hit with a one-two punch this year,” Scott said. “Tipton got hit hard with the April tornado, and there was a lot of flooding around the pond this time around. My neighborhood just north of Central Catholic saw a bunch of downed trees and shingles off of roofs. The area east of Airport really got hit twice with damage from the April storm and again now.”
Scott and Montney said they saw in real time a willingness of people to help their neighbors.
“People met for the first time who had been neighbors for many years — and in one case for decades,” Montney said. “We have great people in this community — neighbors who look after each other. While there are significant financial losses, in many cases new relationships are being formed and our community will benefit from the strength of those relationships in the future.”
