Rain

So it appears that they're now saying Ike was bad, but not as bad as it could've been. That's some good news, anyway. Residents of Galveston who evacuated aren't being let back in yet, so there's a lot of anxiety about in what state they'll find their homes and communities. The storm continued to move further into Texas and ultimately dropped to tropical storm status, where it can still drop a lot of rain.

I was somewhat prepared for that. What I wasn't ready for (and Chicago readers are already way ahead of me on this) is that Chicago had record rainfall causing flooding, as well. Saturday was the rainiest day in recorded Chicago history (which goes back more than 135 years). The flooding closed access to O'Hare airport for a while, and put part of a local interstate underwater. The city says it received 1,900 calls reporting flooded basements. That rain had nothing whatsoever to do with Ike, but the remains of the hurricane are on their way north and are expected to affect the Chicago area tomorrow afternoon. Flood warnings remain in place. I'm now mildly worried that we'll have problems coming back to the city. If that happens, though, I suppose I'll just sit in the bar at the Minneapolis airport and blog about it on the Blackberry.