MAIA MCDONALD
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MAIA MCDONALD ✿
Cicero Residents Reeling From Summer Floods Blame City’s Poor Communication
By Maia McDonald ✦ Jan. 8, 2024 | Borderless Magazine
As Cicero recovers from historic summer floods, some residents believe the city fell short in communicating support and resources for the town’s majority immigrant population.
Inside Moris Sanchez’s home in suburban Cicero, a coat of paint conceals new drywall in some areas of the basement.
He has slowly been working to restore the space, repairing the water heater and dryer. He’s discarded some wooden furniture, storage boxes with winter clothes, blankets and Christmas decorations — all damaged months earlier by severe stormwaters that pooled inside the basement of the two-story apartment building he owns with his wife.
Over the summer, more than eight inches of rain fell in Cicero between June 29 and July 2, flooding the town and leaving scores of families grappling with expensive property damage and the loss of personal items.
But this is not the first time Sanchez’s basement flooded from heavy rainfall. Even so, it remains just as challenging to navigate with every storm. Previous attempts to flood-proof his property have failed, leaving the family with steep repair bills.
Sanchez received $3,500 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help with repairs, but he said it wasn’t enough. He used a credit card to cover the remaining costs for repairs.
“I’ve had to pay every time that my house has been flooded,” Sanchez said. “I’ve always had to repair the electric system, like a computer, the AC, the heater, and the water heater.”
City leaders promised robust communication to help the predominately Spanish-speaking immigrant residents navigate the aftermath of the storms. The Town of Cicero initially hosted public meetings and worked to be declared a disaster area, allowing for the city and some residents to be eligible for federal relief money.
But months later, Sanchez and other Cicero families said the city’s communication had disappeared, leaving them to find support from community groups as they grappled with thousands of dollars in repairs and an uncertain path navigating future storms.
“Please, tell me, how can I be helped?’
While the storm affected several Chicago-area communities, Cicero was among the hardest hit. The town recorded more than eight inches of rainfall in four days. About 7,000 residents reported damage to their homes and properties from the storms.In the following weeks, town leaders held public meetings and board hearings focused on its flood response. However, the discussions, hosted in English with some Spanish translations, highlighted widespread confusion about the city’s plan and where to find help. Cicero residents told Borderless they were confused about the city’s damage assessment form and federal assistance applications. Other residents felt city officials ignored their concerns during public meetings. While Cicero residents scrambled for answers, dozens more were unable to enter a July 11 meeting that reached capacity where the town’s president board of trustees passed a resolution to support Cicero Town President Larry Dominick’s call for a disaster proclamation. During public comments at other meetings, Spanish-speaking residents felt their concerns were ignored and brushed aside by city officials.The following week, a distraught Cicero resident tearfully pleaded with town officials for help during a July 18 meeting. She previously spent $3,500 to install water pumps in her basement to prevent flooding, only to have her basement fill with several inches of rain during last summer’s storm. She told city leaders she lost several meaningful keepsakes belonging to her son, a member of the military.Through town clerk Maria Punzo-Arias, who served as a translator for the meeting, the woman also talked about encountering unlicensed contractors trying to take advantage of Cicero residents during the fraught situation: “They are robbing us because they see our need.”‘What I want to know is who can help us, so these people are not taking advantage of the situation of the need that we find ourselves in, and I want to know how what agency can provide us with some sort of help,” she said.“If this happens again, and again, I won’t have a home,” the Cicero resident pleaded with town officials. “My home is going to be lost to these damages. So please, please, tell me, how can I be helped?”