wfn.org | Blackhawk Presbytery Inundated by Flash Flooding; Eight Churches

[PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org]

Report Damage 1-Aug.-1996 
 
 
96281   Blackhawk Presbytery Inundated by Flash Flooding; 
                  Eight Churches Report Damage  
 
                          by Alexa Smith 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--Seven of the 11 Illinois counties named federal disaster 
areas after one day of flash flooding caused by severe rain are within the 
boundaries of the Presbytery of Blackhawk, according to the Rev. John E. 
Strausz Clement, general presbyter. 
 
     Eight Presbyterian churches to date have reported varying degrees of 
damage to property due to fast water and backed-up sewage in what is being 
called the second largest rainfall in 24 hours in U.S.  history. According 
to estimates available July 30, the flooding destroyed or damaged 33,500 
homes statewide. 
 
     The rains hit on July 17 -- the same day that TWA Flight 800 exploded. 
 
     Westminster Presbyterian Church in Aurora, a congregation of nearly 
600 people nestled in the Fox River Valley, is the hardest hit Presbyterian 
church. 
 
     "We lost our fellowship hall, our kitchen, our youth lounge, six or 
seven Sunday school classrooms, all our Sunday school supplies, our Bibles 
and our hymnals," said Peggy West, Westminster's clerk of session.  "We 
were able to recover six baby quilts and kitchen dishes. ... Everything 
else was destroyed.   
 
     "We're down to a concrete floor and cinder block walls," said West, 
who added that the church's sump pump failed after Aurora's electricity 
went out, allowing the basement to fill with water from floor to ceiling. 
 
     Professional crews were at work at press time, dehumidifying and 
disinfecting the basement in the now germ-infested building.  Worship will 
be held at nearby St. Paul's Lutheran Church for now. 
 
     "Approximately one million gallons [of water were] pumped out," said 
Clement of Westminster, where he visited July 21, just after 17 inches of 
rain fell in 24 hours.  "In the fellowship hall, a grand piano was upside 
down, lying in former ceiling tiles that were now a pasty mush on the 
floor.  Two new refrigerators had floated and were left lying on their side 
on counters in the kitchen. 
 
     "Debris was everywhere." 
 
     The problem now, however, is that the heavy water went everywhere too 
-- way beyond Illinois's floodplain.  Many of the flooded properties -- 
including the Presbyterian churches -- while insured, are not specifically 
covered for flood damage, according to Clement. 
 
     "The storm just stayed in the same place. ... It kept dumping, kept 
dumping, kept dumping," said Clement, describing the rains that hit 
northern Illinois.  "The amount of surface water could not be handled. ... 
There are people flooded who are not even in the floodplain." 
 
     First Presbyterian and Westminster Presbyterian, both in Joliet, and 
First United Presbyterian Church in Kings are reporting water in their 
basements.  First Presbyterian in Aurora is reporting a damp basement, 
while Fox Valley Presbyterian in Geneva is reporting water on the carpet in 
its Great Hall. The church in Oswego also took water into a storage room. 
 
     Damage to pastors' homes is reported to date in Joliet, Aurora and 
Plainfield-Wheatland, while numerous churches are reporting damage to 
members' homes, including those in the Sandwich Federated Church in 
Sandwich, Ill. 
 
     "My guess is there are others who don't have reports in," Clement told 
the Presbyterian News Service. 
 
     Stan Hankins of Presbyterian World Service said $10,000 from the One 
Great Hour of Sharing Offering has been sent to the presbytery for release 
to families and churches through local unmet needs committees set up by the 
Illinois Conference of Churches (ICC).  "We're staying in close contact to 
see if there are going to be additional needs," Hankins said, adding that 
it has not yet been determined whether to open a special account in 
Louisville for donations for Illinois flood relief. 
 
     The ICC's Nancy Tegtmeier told the Presbyterian News Service that 
local groups are working hard to get vouchers for clothing, mattresses and 
bedding to migrant workers who are afraid to identify themselves to relief 
agencies, including the Red Cross. 
 
     "We all know a lot of our migrant workers are illegal," she said. 
"And there's an outreach effort to get to them.  These folks don't have a 
lot to lose.  A lot of them have lost what they had." 
 
     Though damage estimates are still being tallied for property, crops 
and lost production, the Rev.  Ken Shedenhelm of First Presbyterian in 
Joliet said some parts of the city were hit hard. 
 
      With three feet of water in his own basement, Shedenhelm said, "We 
could've been a lot worse off."  He said members of Joliet First are 
reporting modest damage, such as carpeting, dry wall and a few televisions, 
whereas suburbs like Orland Park are bracing for "staggering losses ... 
thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars." 
 
     The Rev. Paul Peterson of Aurora's Westminster Church said his own 
family got off "easy" as well -- with two feet of sewage backed up into the 
basement.  "We lost some things ... but our neighbors two doors west had 
sewage and water up to the first floor," he said. 
 
     West, whose own home was not hit, said she's noticed that those whose 
homes took in three feet of water or less preface that damage with the word 
"only."  "We  only' had three-feet, they'll say. 
 
     "It's like you have to [have damage] above three feet to have the 
right to complain," she said. 

------------
For more information contact Presbyterian News Service
  phone 502-569-5504             fax 502-569-8073  
  E-mail PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org   Web page: http://www.pcusa.org 

--