Holiday weekend storms leave Village Hall in North Aurora, Illinois, flooded with wastewater

Nine inches of rain fell in just 48 hours over the July 4th weekend in North Aurora, Illinois, and days later, the village hall was still cleaning up.

Inside the North Aurora Village Hall, the carpet has been ripped up and the drywall removed. It was all because of flooding that left the carpet submerged underwater, and sent water cascading down the stairs leading to village board chambers.

The rainstorms over the July 4th weekend proved to be too much for the sewer system in North Aurora, leaving sewer water to make its way right into North Aurora Village Hall.

"We had wastewater coming through bathrooms," said North Aurora Village Administrator Steve Bosco. "It was entering this hallway into the office area of village hall and then it was also going down the front stairs into the basement."

A restoration company has been working to disinfect each area impacted by the flooding and dry out those spots.  Services provided by the village hall like water bill payment and building permits are still taking place.

"Right now, what we're doing is we've established some of our employees are working remotely. Others are working down the street at our public works facility," said Bosco. "We have a lot of automated services that people can do a lot of the payments for water services, and they can actually submit an entire building permit online. If they would like to talk to us face-to-face or drop paperwork off, they can come to our public works building right now."

The village administrator said there is spending authority to cover all the damage so far. Insurance claims will also be filed.

The next village board meeting is July 20. The hope is to have it at Village Hall, but if that won't work out, it will be held at the police department with at least 48 hours' notice given to residents.