Chicago Launches Flood-Warning System as Rainstorms Intensify

Nedra Sims Fears still remembers the night years ago when her family home in Chicago flooded, sparking an electrical fire. Her father woke her up and rushed her outside into the pouring rain as smoke filled the rooms of their home in the city’s Chatham neighborhood. “We could see the smoke and smell the smoke, and we literally escaped with the clothes on our back,” Sims Fears said.

It was one of four floods that Sims Fears would survive throughout her adolescence. “It’s a lot for a family,” said the lifelong Chicagoan and executive director of the Greater Chatham Initiative, a community organization. “It is just devastating.”

Sims Fears isn’t alone: Flooding is a pervasive hazard in the US, affecting almost every county nationwide over the past 20 years. The risk is growing as a warmer atmosphere charges storms with more moisture, leading to heavier rainfall.

In urban areas, the many impervious concrete and asphalt surfaces increase runoff and make it hard to predict where flooding will appear. Floods last month swept through Chicago and Cook County, Illinois, destroying more than 100 residences and damaging about 2,000.

This week, Chicago rolled out a new flood detection warning system. The water tech startup Hyfi, in partnership with Verizon Communications Inc., began installing 50 sensors in flood-prone areas across the city.

Data from the sensors will let emergency preparedness officials know where flooding is occurring. The sensors are designed by Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Hyfi and operate on Verizon’s 5G network.

Wireless and solar-powered, the sensors use sonar to detect water levels. They will provide real-time information to first responders and officials, including the city’s Office of Emergency Management and the Department of Water Management.

“We are seeing more compressed, intense storms as our climate changes,” said Brendan Schreiber, deputy commissioner and chief sewer engineer for the City of Chicago. “Recent rain events have been massive in both scale and impact.” The city’s combined sewer system can overflow after heavy rain, backing up in basements and causing water to pond in the streets.

“One of the major issues is knowing where the flooding is happening,” said Brandon Wong, Hyfi’s chief executive officer.

Eventually, a Hyfi app will be available to local residents to watch for flooding in their own neighborhoods. Right now, officials encourage residents to sign up for alerts from NotifyChicago, the city’s notification system.

The rollout comes after a pilot program last year in New Orleans. Verizon funded the $2 million cost of both projects. The wireless network carrier says it will make further investments to set up the sensors in Detroit within the year.

It’s one piece of the Frontline Innovation Program that the company launched last year, said Donna Epps, Verizon’s chief responsible business officer. “We know that technology and innovation is critical to empowering a community to be more resilient to natural disasters,” Epps said.

Flooding is the costliest weather-related hazard across Illinois, according to Bria Scudder, the state’s deputy governor for infrastructure, public safety, environment, and energy. “We are experiencing the consequences of a warming planet with increasing frequency and intensity,” she said. “This initiative is just one of many that underscore the need for improved infrastructure and planning to cope with the new realities of our climate.”

Sims Fears said she was impressed by Hyfi and Verizon’s consultation with neighborhood residents. “They asked us where it floods, so that you aren’t guessing — you have people who live in the neighborhood, who have deep knowledge.”

She now has more confidence that signs of flooding in the community will be detected and acted on quickly. “We need as many tools in the toolbox that we can have, in order to help ordinary people avoid catastrophe,” she said.