Water poured down Newland Avenue near West Grace Street for hours overnight, swamping at least six homes on Chicago's Northwest Side and leaving one resident wading through nearly three feet of water in his basement before any help arrived. The flooding came from a burst water main that the city says dated back to 1913, and it has left the block under a boil water advisory with no end date yet in sight.
Home video showed water already covering Newland Avenue shortly before 11 p.m. Thursday, according to ABC7 Chicago. The ruptured pipe kept flowing into the early morning hours, and residents said the flooding continued for hours before city crews arrived. Crews with the Chicago Department of Water Management didn't reach the scene until Friday morning, where they found an active leak before repairing it around 9 a.m.
Among those hit hardest was Ruberto Barrera, who lives on Newland Avenue. Barrera said no one arrived before he found nearly three feet of water in his basement, and he's now seeking answers about who is responsible for the damage. He said the city directed him to a company, but that company told him it was not responsible, and he said he has since contacted his insurance company while trying to understand the situation.
Basement Day Care Caught in the Flood
The flooding didn't just hit basements used for storage. A basement child day care center was drenched, and homeowners turned away parents who arrived to drop off their kids. One homeowner on the block asked who residents should even contact about their flooded basements, underscoring the confusion that followed the overnight break.
Residents also said city contractors had been performing work on nearby sewer and water infrastructure, and a person at the scene said the main could not be shut down because Bridge Elementary was connected to it. The water main itself was part of a planned replacement project located on Newland Avenue between Irving Park Road and Grace Street, according to the Chicago Department of Water Management, which told the station that contractors were performing a planned replacement of the 1913-era main. Officials said they had not determined what caused the rupture.
Boil Water Advisory Covers Multiple Addresses
The Department of Water Management and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency issued a boil water advisory effective Friday as a precaution tied to the break. The advisory covers buildings on North Newland Avenue from West Grace Street to West Irving Park Road, as well as 6925 and 6935 W. Irving Park Road. Residents in the affected area are advised to boil water used for drinking, making ice, washing food, brushing teeth and other consumption-related activities, and the advisory remains in effect until further notice.
Water service was restored about 30 minutes after crews completed the repair. The water department said the overnight leak and resulting shutdown were unrelated to a separately scheduled water shutoff planned for 3:30 p.m. Friday, which was intended to make a source connection for the ongoing water main replacement project.
Not the First Northwest Side Flood This Year
Chicago's aging water infrastructure has caused similar flooding elsewhere in the city. A water main break flooded about a dozen homes in the Heart of Chicago neighborhood, forcing some families to evacuate, per the same station's earlier report. That break, in the 2500 block of South Claremont Avenue, involved an 8-inch main originally installed in 1978 — newer than the Newland Avenue pipe, but still enough to send water up to couch height in some homes. One resident there said at the time, “There's water up to the couch. There's nothing. Everything's floating on it, or everything's ruined.” Another asked the same question now facing Newland Avenue residents: “Who's gonna be responsible for this? The city, the homeowners' insurance, we don't know.”
The pace of replacing Chicago's oldest pipes has long lagged behind the rate at which they were originally installed. A 2011 report from The New York Times found the city had been replacing about 30 miles of water mains a year, compared with roughly 75 miles a year laid down between 1890 and 1920 — the same era that produced the Newland Avenue main. The city's Department of Water Management says its ongoing replacement projects are meant to swap out those outdated mains, which are prone to leaks and breaks that waste water and drive up repair costs.
What Flooded Homeowners Can Do Next
For residents like Barrera still trying to figure out who pays for the damage, the City of Chicago's own guidance offers a starting point. According to the city's 311 portal, if flooding is caused by city infrastructure or construction, a resident can file a claim through the City Clerk Claims process. The city's claims FAQ states that its Claims Unit handles property-damage and personal-injury claims involving the City of Chicago, though it does not process workers' compensation or excessive water-bill claims. Any claim submitted on the city's property-damage form must be printed, per the requirements laid out in Title 2, Chapter 2-12, Section 2-12-060 of the Chicago Municipal Code.
