New flood modeling out this week suggests several hospitals in and around Chicago are sitting in trouble spots that could fill with water during a once‑in‑a‑century storm. In that kind of deluge, emergency departments from Hammond and Oak Lawn down to Kankakee and Morris might be high and dry inside, yet still functionally cut off as surrounding streets turn into waterways. Local planners warn that water in a basement is only half the crisis; if access roads flood, ambulances, staff and patients can be stranded on the wrong side of the rising water.
National analysis lifts up local risks
A months‑long investigation by KFF Health News compared the locations of more than 7,000 hospitals with high‑resolution flood maps and identified 171 facilities nationwide that face significant flooding in a 100‑year event. The reporting drew on proprietary, peer‑reviewed flood simulations from Fathom, which models coastal, river, and heavy‑rainfall flooding at a very fine scale. KFF Health News flagged any hospital where at least a foot of water could reach a substantial portion of the campus or where nearby roads might be cut off, a way to capture how flooding would actually hit patient care.
Which Chicago‑area hospitals are on the map
The Chicago‑area slice of that national dataset shows a mix of vulnerabilities: a micro‑hospital in Hammond, Indiana, larger systems in Kankakee and a major suburban medical center in Oak Lawn, among others, as reported by CBS Chicago. Fathom projections cited in the coverage show the NW Indiana ER & Hospital in Hammond could be ringed by three feet or more of water, with 5 to 10 feet pressing against parts of the building during a 100‑year event. Riverside Medical Center and nearby St. Mary’s in Kankakee were modeled to take between one and five feet of water along vulnerable sides of their campuses, while Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn could see several feet of water pooling in lower loading and service areas.
Experts say access and power matter as much as depth
Sam Dorevitch, who studies flood risk at healthcare facilities at the UIC School of Public Health, told CBS Chicago, "Places that didn't used to be in floodplains are now in floodplains." Paul Sambanis, director of UIC's Emergency Management and Resiliency Planning Program, added that hospitals far from major rivers still need site‑level fixes such as improved drainage and ejector pumps to keep basements and power rooms dry. Their message is that the feet of water shown on a map can quickly translate into blocked access, failed electrical systems, and disrupted care if those weak spots are not addressed in advance.
Why federal maps can miss local danger
Federal flood maps were originally designed around insurance rules and often capture only a "snapshot in time." The Federal Emergency Management Agency has been working on a modernization push known as the Future of Flood Risk Data to offer more comprehensive hazard information, according to FEMA. Private firms such as Fathom layer on higher‑resolution terrain and two‑dimensional hydraulic modeling to trace both rainfall and river flow paths that older maps may skip over. That gap means hospitals and emergency planners who lean only on legacy maps risk being surprised by flooding that building codes and zoning rules never flagged.
Cook County update could help
Cook County's emergency management office has completed a 2024 update of the county's Multi‑Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan, adding new volumes and municipal annexes intended to pinpoint and reduce flood risk across dozens of suburbs and Chicago neighborhoods, according to Cook County Emergency Management. The plan sets up ways to coordinate mitigation projects and rank funding priorities for drainage upgrades, levee work and other resilience efforts that can help keep roads leading to hospitals passable during major storms. County planners say the updated risk assessments are expected to guide future grant applications and capital projects.
What this means for patients and neighbors
KFF Health News reports that some hospitals have already added deployable flood barriers, raised critical systems or installed permanent pumping equipment, but the investigation argues that a broader, site‑by‑site reinvestment will be needed if risks keep rising. Past events offer a preview of what that can look like in real life: Morris Hospital evacuated dozens of patients in April 2013 after Nettle Creek and the Illinois River rose and water reached hospital basements, according to records from the National Weather Service. For now, experts and local officials say the region's ability to keep hospitals open in the next big storm will depend on updated maps, targeted mitigation dollars and regular drills that assume the parking lot might one day look like a shallow lake.
