Storm Brings Heavy Rain, Closes Taste Of Chicago Saturday

(CBS) -- A storm moving through the Chicago area dropping heavy rain has flooded streets and closed the Taste of Chicago on Saturday.

The Taste of Chicago closed for the day because of flooding on the festival grounds, according to the OEMC. Ticket holders for the Jeff Tweedy and Lucinda Williams concerts will be refunded.

The Commissioner of Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events Michelle Boone says many of the vendors at the Taste of Chicago use electricity.

"Many of the tents on site rely on electricity and that presented very hazardous conditions," said Boone.

This marks the first time that the festival has closed for the day since it began in 1980. The Taste did close early in 1992 due to severe weather. The Taste did reopen on Sunday.

CBS 2's Roseanne Tellez reports in Burbank, several residential streets were completely flooded with water halfway up to the mailboxes.

One street was completely closed off with yellow crime tape while other streets remained open with cars slowly navigating through it all. But other cars, abandoned in the watery roadway, were stuck and had to be pulled out by truck.

Residents say it's happened before and are calling on the city to fix the problem by opening the flood gates of a nearby reservoir.

"I think they need to open the flood gates. They closed the flood gates to the reservoir. This is why this is happening. Why are they destroying our property? Why are they destroying our houses? Open the flood gates," said Burbank resident Denise Schillne.

The water has since subsided. A city official says nothing went wrong, it was simply too much rain too fast.

At Harvest Time Worship Center, hoses were pumping out water from inside the once-flooded basement.

Pastor Jeff Urban says their insurance company dropped them because they've had too many floods. Volunteers have been working through the night to help with clean-up efforts.

Urban says it was around-the-clock mopping just to get services on schedule Sunday.

And the weather likely caused more problems in the south suburbs where it looks like it tripped another explosion in the deep tunnel.

Crews were back in Calumet City for the second time in just two months. It was back on Mother's Day when water and mud spewed throughout basement level apartments there. On Saturday, too much water built up once again and caused a loud hydraulic explosion.

According to CBS 2 meteorologist Ed Curran, Midway received 3.6 inches of rain as of 12:15 p.m. and 2.91 inches of rain fell on Oak Lawn as of 10:25 a.m. In Oak Forest, a total of 4.52 inches of rain was reported. More than 2.5 inches of rain had fallen in the city as of 11 a.m. according to the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District.

At 4:21 p.m., the NWS issued a flash flood watch nor counties in northeastern Illinois and northwest Indiana until 7:00 p.m. because of slow-moving thunderstorms with heavy rainfall. The Chicago area was previously under a flood morning Saturday morning and early afternoon.