Skokie residents are trying to recover from the huge water main break Feb. 14 that sent icy floodwater into nearby basements, blocked streets, prompted a boil water order for the population of 65,000 lasting nearly three days, shut down Westfield Old Orchard Shopping Center, forced Skokie Hospital to transfer trauma surgery patients and surgeons, closed most businesses, shut schools and barred restaurants’ doors on Valentine’s Day.
Some residents complained they didn’t receive enough information from the Village of Skokie after the water main burst at around 5 a.m. Friday near East Prairie Road and Emerson Street, shutting down a mile or more of thoroughfare McCormick Boulevard as well as other streets. The village held a Friday news conference, however, and emailed occasional updates until the boil water order was lifted late Sunday.
Though flooding problems were contained in a residential area of northeastern Skokie, locally known as Skevanston, and the northwestern portion of Evanston, a lack of clean water impacted businesses, homes, and institutions throughout Skokie. Village officials said they are preparing, at their Feb. 18 Village Board meeting, to declare a state of emergency, a necessary step before applying for federal and state disaster funds.
Paying for damages
After basements are cleaned up and cars damaged by flood water are repaired, residents and businesses are turning to the question of who will pay for the damages caused by the water main break.
At the press conference on Feb. 14, Max Slankard, the village’s Public Works director, said residents should contact their insurance providers. “The village will coordinate with the insurance provider afterward to address liability issues if necessary,” he said.
Skokie’s Communications and Community Engagement Director Patrick Deignan said in an email, “We also ask community members to notify the village so that we can track damage claims and notify them of any potential emergency financial relief that may become available in the future… Village staff have gone door-to-door in the most impacted area to distribute flyers to residents with this information.”
The village has set up a portal on its website where residents can document damages incurred by the broken water main.
Samuel Kim, an agent team member at Heeyoung Kim State Farm Insurance in downtown Skokie, spoke to Pioneer Press on what would likely happen next in the insurance process.
“Just like any other insurance claim, we have to figure out who’s liable,” Kim said. “An investigation does have to be completed to assess the different sources that the damages arose from… once we can figure out the different possibilities for the causes of damage, then we start pursuing the various parties that may be associated with those possibilities.”
“Anytime in these natural-disaster-type cases, in most cases, insurance companies are the first line of defense to pay for everything… but eventually, those insurance companies that cover the damages, they’re the ones that seek reimbursement from the liable parties.”
Kim said business owners who had to close their businesses due to the disaster can also file to their insurers for loss of income, if their commercial insurance policy provides it. In that process, insurance providers would also seek reimbursement from the liable parties.
According to a news release from the village, the water main break was caused by a failed fitting cap installed in 1963. The part has an expected lifespan of between 80 and 100 years.
Neighbors in the vicinity of Prairie and Emerson told Pioneer Press that the village conducted emergency repairs in the same area the night before the main burst, which made some skeptical of the cause of the break.
Per the village’s initial investigation, “There is no indication that the [water main] failure was caused by any action of Skokie Water & Sewer Division crews,” an update the village emailed Monday afternoon said.
Businesses close doors
The village’s Friday morning boil water order advised residents to boil water for at least five minutes before using it for drinking, ice making, brushing teeth, washing dishes and preparing food. Businesses, especially food businesses, were forced to close because they couldn’t access adequate quantities of clean water, some said.
At Westfield Old Orchard Shopping Center, which has 127 stores and restaurants, a spokesperson said the entire mall closed on Feb. 14 at 1 p.m. in order to preserve water to maintain the fire suppression systems.
Almost all of the mall’s retailers were open on Feb. 15 and all retailers were open by Feb. 16, she said, adding that stores were able to make their own decisions about opening, and that restaurants at the mall were able to open as long as they followed the boil order requirements imposed by the village.
At The Hampton Social, a restaurant east of Macy’s, Assistant General Manager Matthew Hoagland said the restaurant served its last customers on Feb. 14 around 12:30 p.m. The restaurant was able to open the next day on a late start, Hoagland said, because its high tech dishwashing machines heat water to high temperatures and sanitize.
Across Valentine’s Day weekend, Hoagland said the restaurant lost close to 1,000 reservations, losing close to 500 just on Friday.
“Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day are the two busiest holidays in the restaurant industry. I’ve been in the industry for over 20 years. It doesn’t matter what type of restaurant — whether if it’s a high end or sports bar— it’s always the busiest day,” Hoagland said.
The lack of clean drinking water also hit downtown Skokie’s downtown business district financially.
At Libertad restaurant, Leo Rivera, a co-owner with her husband, said they saw between $15,000 and $20,000 in lost income and sunk costs. Rivera said she hopes to be reimbursed with an insurance claim.
Rivera said the restaurant bought special ingredients for Valentine’s Day, which included filet mignon steaks, salmon, and oysters, which aren’t typically on the menu.
“We were expecting so many people, we purchased accordingly,” Rivera said. The restaurant ran the Valentine’s Day specials a day later but she said they still had many leftover ingredients.
Madeleine England, the owner of Kneads & Wants bakery in downtown Skokie and the leader of the Downtown Skokie Merchants Collaborative, estimated that her business saw income losses of $8,000 at a crucial time of the year when business is slower but Valentine’s Day keeps many businesses afloat.
England said her bakery was able to have all of its baked goods ready before the before the water main broke at 5:15 a.m., but that Feb. 14’s regular business was disrupted by the boil order.
“Unfortunately, I think it caused a lot of chaos for a lot of businesses and residents because they didn’t even know what to do… ‘What do we do for laundry? What are we doing to wash our hands?’” England said. “There was no advice and no communication.”
According to Deignan, “The (Skokie) Health and Human Services Department contacted Skokie food establishments by phone to notify them of health and safety requirements for operation during the Boil Water Order.”
England said she had wished that the village had been more ready and responsive to deal with the lack of clean water.
“I just felt like the village should have protocols if the water is turned off… I thought we had been through this specifically around terrorist attacks, and so I just lost a lot of trust in the village because of this.”
England said some restaurants and cafes in downtown Skokie were unaware and of the boil order and conducted business as usual.
Besides restaurants, England said an animal shelter needed water for their animals and sent an emergency plea for people to drop off water. A sports card store’s owner was receiving phone calls asking if they were open, with some people unsure of what was going on and what was safe to do.
“It felt a little bit like the pandemic, where people just thought, ‘let me stay inside’… and then a lot of people went out of town,” England added, saying that some residents chose to leave because of the lack of working toilets.
Schools, Skokie Hospital
At Endeavor Health Skokie Hospital, staff worked quickly Friday morning to reschedule many of the elective surgeries scheduled for the day, and to bring in bottled water and temporary sinks to maintain cleanliness and sanitation and a supply of non-potable water to ensure toilets would flush.
Gus Granchalek, president of Skokie Hospital, said hospital staff managed to transfer more than 20 trauma surgery cases to other Endeavor hospitals, including Evanston, Glenbrook and Highland Park. That meant coordinating the logistics of transferring the patients, the surgeons and any other necessary staff members and getting them set up in the other locations.
The hospital plans in advance for what Granchalek called “downtime procedures.”
“We think of as many contingencies as possible for when a piece of infrastructure goes down,” in this case the water supply, he said. “Patient safety is our first priority.”
Spencer Walrath, assistant director of corporate reputation for Endeavor Health, called Friday “a master class in incident response and a herculean effort not just for the Skokie Hospital team but also across Endeavor Health.”
Most schools in Skokie were closed or had no-attendance days on Feb. 14. Niles Township High School District 219 closed both Niles West High School and Niles North High School on Feb. 14. Evanston/Skokie School District 65 had a planned no-attendance day. Skokie-Morton Grove School District 69, Skokie School District 68, Fairview School District 72, Skokie School District 73.5 and East Prairie School District 72 did not hold classes.
In an email sent to Pioneer Press, District 65’s Executive Chief of Strategic Communications & Project Management Melissa Messinger said Dr. Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies was to remain closed Feb. 18 due to flooding caused by the broken water main.
The human toll
With the broken water main incident occurring over the Sabbath for many practicing Jews, Yael Keller, a rabbanit at Skokie Valley Agudath Jacob, said her congregation came together to support each other in a time of need.
“We reached out to several of our more vulnerable congregants to make sure that they had the water they needed… lots of people volunteered to bring water to people who needed it… It’s a beautiful community, and people really take care of each other here,” she said.
Keller said the synagogue was able to host a limited service on Feb. 16 where people were able to check in with each other and get away from the anxiety from not having running water in their homes.
Keller said just like during the pandemic, some members were skeptical of the government and could have inadvertently spread misinformation on when it would be safe to drink water from the tap.
Keller said in those situations, it was important to hear what people had to say and try to assuage their fears and accommodate them.
According to Deignan, the village’s health department is not aware of any reported illnesses from people drinking contaminated water. The village took 70 water samples from different locations in Skokie to test them before lifting the boil order.
Share your experience of the Skokie water main break with the Pioneer Press by emailing pdefiglio@chicagotribune.com.
