A month after torrential rain flooded parts of Northwest Indiana, communities and residents are hammering their way to recovery.
Munster Town Manager Thomas DeGiulio, whose community has spent more than $2.2 million on cleanup alone, said he has gone door-to-door visiting homeowners.
He said officials visited 1,200 homes in areas of mandatory and suggested evacuation. Not everyone was home, he said, but among those who were, homeowners and contractors most often were on the scene working.
He said nine homes with foundation damage were in various states of repair. Thirteen homes still were red-tagged and another 30 had notes from the Police Department asking the residents to call.
"There are a lot of people back in to their homes and working on them even though a number of people are still unable to live in them yet," he said.
At the height of the storm Sept. 14 hundreds of people who lived near the Little Calumet River were evacuated. In some cases, river water mixed with sewage and small fish flooded basements and reached the first level of many homes.
That also was the case on Lake Station's west side where the floodwaters forced evacuations by boat of hundreds of residents, the majority of whom have not yet moved back to their ravaged trailers or homes, Lake Station Mayor Keith Soderquist said.
Utilities still have not been turned on for those residents and inspections of homes by city inspectors continues. A curfew, to prevent looting of abandoned homes, remains in place.
"We still have a checkpoint and security in place, for how long I'm not sure," Soderquist said.
Soderquist said he still does not have a total estimate of flood damage.
Although a few Hobart residents had to be evacuated from their homes, the primary issue from the flood for the city was water damage to the Third Street bridge and Brickie Bowl.
The bridge has since been reopened and Hobart High School played its final regular-season game at the Brickie Bowl on Friday.
For Northwest Indiana residents, the September floods came a month after a tornado touched down in the region, flooding homes and businesses.
Had the levee project been complete, Munster officials maintain they might not have been flooded.
Gatlin Construction Co. began repairing the levee to pre-flood condition Monday, but stopped mid-week because of rain. Work resumed as soon as the rain stopped.
"We intend to have some conversation with the Army Corp of Engineers about what else we can do between now and whenever the levee project is done in Munster to reduce flooding in town," DeGiulio said.
Further east in Portage, the cost of last month's storm topped $1.3 million.
Damage to and expenses incurred by public entities must top $7.5 million statewide for the state and any of its municipalities to seek monetary help. Each community that suffered flood damage to its infrastructure or incurred costs as a result of the September flood is compiling the numbers to turn in to federal officials.
Floodwaters closed Indiana University's Gary campus for two weeks. After the first week, the water had receded from the interior of the campus, but the parking lots remained flooded with an estimated 18 to 24 inches of water.
Tamarack Hall, which houses a 600-seat performance auditorium, was the hardest hit building on campus and will be closed permanently, IUN spokeswoman Michelle Searer said.
One wing of Tamarack, which houses the fine arts studio, is expected to remain functional but other areas of the building, constructed in 1959, are closed.
Staff writers Joyce Russell and Deborah Laverty contributed to this report.
