Some north suburban residents must travel by boat amid Fox River flooding
PORT BARRINGTON, Ill. (WLS) -- The road near the village of Port Barrington's community boat launch was impassable because of flooding Tuesday.
Residents' only way in and out was by boat.
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"Right now, it's dry in there. You can walk in there. Take your shoes off, no big deal," Keith Becker said.
Becker moved into his home in 2017, the last time the Fox River flooded his neighborhood in Port Barrington.
"Just more about maintaining, you know, trying not to make a flood claim," Becker said.
There was at least a foot of water flooded over the road in front of his home Tuesday. His house was completely surrounded by water. At least a thousand sandbags, a French drain system and a pump are keeping the Fox River from running straight through his living room.
"Some of my friends think I'm nuts. I tried to explain it to my neighbor that just moved next-door, and he doesn't think I'm nuts anymore," Becker said.
Becker and others who choose to live on the Fox River know what can happen.
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"We knew coming into that there's a risk. And you just, you know, prepare and just kind of deal with it," Craig Laurishke said.
Living on the river is a way of life most people who live there wouldn't trade.
"You know, 99.9% of the time, this is a beautiful place to live," Port Barrington President Keith Vogeler said.
The long-timers, like Vogeler, have their process down. Outside Village Hall, they took a delivery of 156 tons of sand to prepare late last week and over the weekend.
"The flooding affects about 15 homes, but the amount of people that come out and help us is just incredible. We just can't thank them enough," Vogeler said.
For now, the work is done. Vogeler and the people who live on the river are hopeful the water won't get any higher. But, after it recedes, there's more work to be done.
"This water will be this high for at least a week before we start seeing significant droppage in the water. And then we got to get rid of all these bags," Vogeler said.
That's no easy feat. Vogeler says the bags are considered hazardous waste after a flood. So people can't just dump the sand. They have to haul the roughly 12,000 sandbags away.
