‘Where do I go from here?’: Over 12,000 basement flooding reports were filed with 311 after record rainfall in July

Trish Green stands in the basement of her Austin home that took on three feet of dark and murky water during the morning hours of Sunday, July 2, 2023, as a record storm dumped nine inches of rain on parts of Chicago. Green is among more than 12,000 Chicagoans who’ve reported basement flooding this month. (Jessica Alvarado Gamez / WBEZ News)

Rain was pouring outside of Trish Green’s home in Austin as she was getting ready to do laundry the morning of Sunday, July 2.

When she walked down to her basement where the washer was, the 59-year-old could not believe her eyes. The space was flooded with three feet of dark and murky water with dirt and debris floating around. The smell was unbearable.