Rauner back in Lake County for flood assessment efforts, hopes to see federal funds come to area

Aug. 19--Gov. Bruce Rauner joined local officials Friday at Meyer's Bayview Terrace subdivision on Pistakee Lake to announce a push for more flood damage assessments, while federal and state emergency management agency officials were planning to spend the weekend going door-to-door checking with homeowners.

Rauner's visit Friday to Fox Lake marked the governor's third trip to Lake County since the July flooding, including previous stops in Gurnee and a Round Lake Park elementary school.

"We're here for a single reason, to start the recovery process and get people the resources they need," Rauner said, while announcing that federal and state officials would be in town over the weekend.

Representatives from the federal Small Business Administration also were there.

Rauner said 300 homes in Lake County sustained near catastrophic damages, while another 3,000 homes were significantly impacted by the flooding. Several officials said the state's overall financial damage from last month's flooding -- including Lake, McHenry, Kane and northern Cook County -- should tally enough to trigger federal help from the SBA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"I'm hopeful," Illinois Emergency Management Agency director James Joseph said.

The threshold for government and business flood damage is set at $18.2 million, Rauner said.

"We don't have that yet, but the preliminary survey says we may have enough," Rauner said.

Damages such as what occurred at three schools in the Round Lake area, which totaled more than over $3 million, and damages to Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital, which had to move people out of its new hospital after a power failure caused by flooding, can only be counted if the damage was not covered by insurance, officials said. Both the schools and the hospital have said they had insurance, so only deductibles can count toward the total damage, officials said.

"Please quantify your damage and get it documented," Rauner said. "We need your help."

Joseph said the state is still validating damages, and the process took longer because of the amount of time it took for flood waters to subside.

"We do believe we'll qualify, but we need accurate information to give to the federal government," Joseph said.

Lake County Board Chairman Aaron Lawlor said in that the 2013 flood the county had no problem meeting the government/business threshold, but not the individual threshold. This time it's the opposite, he said.

"We had a lot of homes that were damaged by the flash flooding," Lawlor said.

Fox Lake Mayor Donny Schmit said the village spent $400,000 in manpower and materials to help residents fight the flood.

"We get $3 million in sales tax and as you can see that takes a chunk out of it. We won't know the full impact on the businesses until we can compare the sales tax this year compared to last year," he said, adding that would indicate how much business was lost because of flooding.

After the governor left, officials started going door-to-door in the subdivision asking residents about flood damage.

"I'm going through stuff," said Steve Frech of Palatine who has a summer home in the subdivision. He told visiting officials that about half the people he knows are "weekenders."

Frech said he didn't get water in his house, but it filled up his crawlspace and he had about a foot in the garage.

"I was lucky," he said, recounting to officials how his one neighbor, who was not home, had to tear out cabinets and lots of drywall because water got into the house.

"I have flood insurance, but there's a $5,000 deductible. I'm not sure I'm going to make that call," he said.

"This was pretty much the equivalent of 2013," he said of the last record flood on the Fox River Chain O'Lakes.

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