Storms And Flooding Are Only Getting Worse. Here’s What You Can Do

**Sasha Ann Simons** (0:12)
Hey Chicago, I'm Sasha Ann Simons, and this is In the Loop.
Be sure to stick around to the end of the podcast for a rundown of the day's top local stories. But first, as smoke from northern wildfires continues to threaten Chicago's air quality and heavy rains become more common, the impact is getting harder to ignore. We're seeing more flooded streets, soaked basements and overwhelmed sewer systems after major storms. Now Chicago's first community-led Climate Week is underway, and people across town are sharing ideas and taking action to prepare for what's ahead. And as experts say, the job requires more than one fix. So in this episode, we'll hear from the people finding big and small ways to prevent flooding in our homes and neighborhoods.
At the table, Zach Wirtz, the Director of the Chicago Region Trees Initiative at the Morton Arboretum, Nina Idemudia, who's the CEO of the Center for Neighborhood Technology, and Bre'Shaun Reddick, who's a Local Partnership Manager for the Alliance for the Great Lakes. Now when we talk about flooding, we're talking about more than just water in your basement. So I started by having each panelist discuss why this widespread flooding affecting thousands of folks across Chicago is so important to their work. Zach went first.

**Zach Wirtz** (1:26)
So flooding is something that affects so many people around Chicago and the region. And there's so many ways that we can collaboratively work together to find solutions, as you had mentioned. And so it's something that's a really important thing to have lots of conversations about, find those intersections and be able to implement them together.

**Sasha Ann Simons** (1:43)
What comes to mind for you, Nina?

**Nina Idemudia** (1:45)
Yeah, we think about flooding as something that affects everybody's life, even if you're not directly impacted by flooding in your basement, like you said. So if you get four inches of flooding, you can't walk through your intersection. If you get six inches of flooding, your car can't get through. If there's over eight inches of flooding, an ambulance can't get through. And so these are things that are tampering the quality of life for Chicagoans everywhere, specifically vulnerable communities. And so this is why flooding is such an important issue.

**Sasha Ann Simons** (2:12)
Sure. Bre'Shaun?

**Bre'Shaun Reddick** (2:14)
I would piggyback off of what Nina and the other member also said.
It's an issue that everyone is experiencing, whether you are having water in your basement or not. You know, and we talk a lot about cumulative impacts and how, you know, water might be in your basement, but that also leads to you not having the ability to go to work. Or because you can't go to work, you now don't have the money to fix your basement or the mold in your basement, or the health issues. And it's really a full human issue that folks are experiencing and not just, you know, water in the basement or water on the street.

**Sasha Ann Simons** (2:54)
So keeping you in the hot seat, Bre'Shaun, you're part of a coalition that just started, what, two years ago. And the goal is tackling that flooding problem at the community level. So talk about what you are seeing that compelled you to take action, to actually do something.

**Bre'Shaun Reddick** (3:09)
Absolutely. I mean, I'm seeing folks suffering. We are having these heavy conversations with people.
And not only is this, you know, conversations around what's happening now, but these are things that have been happening for years. We have conversations with folks who are like, Hey, my mom was having this experience. My grandmother was having this experience. And in many ways, it's culminating right now. It's, we're at a situation where we are no longer able to not look at it. And we're seeing conversations happen all around the city of Chicago. And it's specifically with people who are already experiencing hardships. And I think that's really the hard thing that people are experiencing.

**Sasha Ann Simons** (3:52)
Literally, when it rains, it pours.

**Bre'Shaun Reddick** (3:56)
Yeah, 100%. And then you feel, and I'm experiencing this myself. And so you feel this sense of dread that really starts in your stomach. And it reverberates throughout your entire body when you see the clouds forming. And so it's really a situation where other people may not think about that. When you are experiencing this, it really is a traumatic situation. You know, it really is traumatic to sit and watch water pour into your safe haven, pour into your house. And in many ways, it's not something that you can really do about it in that moment.

**Sasha Ann Simons** (4:32)
Where do you live? And what are the communities that you primarily operate in?