Years ago, Nedra Sims Fears and her family faced a terrifying flood in their Chicago home. The flood led to an electrical fire, forcing them to escape into the pouring rain with nothing but the clothes they wore. Living in the city’s Chatham neighborhood, Sims Fears has been through this kind of ordeal four times during her youth. Now, as executive director of the Greater Chatham Initiative, she sees how damaging repeated floods can be for families.
Flooding isn’t rare in the United States; nearly every county has experienced it in the past two decades. The problem is getting worse as warmer air holds more moisture, causing heavier rains. Cities like Chicago struggle because so many surfaces are paved, which makes rainwater run off instead of soaking into the ground. This can cause sudden flooding that’s hard to predict or track.
Last month, floodwaters hit Chicago and Cook County hard, destroying over 100 homes and damaging roughly 2,000 others. To better handle these events, the city recently started using a new flood detection system. A company called Hyfi, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, teamed up with Verizon to install 50 sensors in spots likely to flood around Chicago.
These sensors send real-time information on water levels to the city’s emergency teams through Verizon’s 5G network. They are wireless and solar-powered, using sonar technology to detect flooding as it happens. Officials hope this will help emergency crews respond faster and keep people safer.
Brendan Schreiber, Chicago’s deputy commissioner and chief sewer engineer, says storms are getting more intense and that the city’s combined sewer system sometimes can’t handle all the rain. When that happens, basements flood and streets fill with water. Knowing exactly where flooding occurs is a major challenge, explained Brandon Wong, Hyfi’s CEO, which makes these sensors especially useful.
In the future, residents will be able to use an app from Hyfi to watch for flooding near their homes. For now, the city advises signing up for NotifyChicago alerts. Verizon has funded these projects, spending $2 million across Chicago and New Orleans, where a similar program was launched last year. The company plans to bring the sensors to Detroit later this year.
Flooding is the most expensive weather problem in Illinois. State officials warn that this is only going to get worse as the climate changes. Bria Scudder, deputy governor for infrastructure and public safety, says better planning and infrastructure are needed to face these new challenges.
Sims Fears appreciates that Hyfi and Verizon involved local residents in deciding where to place the sensors. “They asked us where flooding happens, so it’s not a guess — it’s based on real neighborhood knowledge,” she said. With this system in place, she feels more confident that signs of flooding will be found quickly and handled well. “We need every tool we can get to help people avoid disaster,” she added.