"If you've sandbagged, don't take those out yet," said Mike Warner, executive director of the Lake County Stormwater Management Commission. "Let's get past the next rainfall and think about taking them out next week."
The National Weather Service told county officials they could get a range of 1 to 3 inches of rain through this weekend, with some areas hit with strong rains Wednesday night and into Thursday morning. The Des Plaines River could handle 1 inch without a problem, but 3 inches could spell more woes for nearby buildings and streets.
The Chain O' Lakes and Fox River are so swollen that it won't take much more rain to push them back up and out, Warner said.
He urged people dealing with flooded homes to take advantage of the Multi-Agency Resource Center, or MARC, that has opened at a former grocery store site at 965 E. Rollins Road in Round Lake Beach. Warner likened it to a "free shopping center for flood victims," with cleanup supplies, blankets and other resources.
Officials have started doing damage assessment to see if areas qualify for federal assistance, with hundreds of homes that were under 2 feet of water or more, Warner said, but some neighborhoods remained inaccessible.
Even before Wednesday night's rains, flood warnings were extended in some cases into next week at points along the Fox and Des Plaines rivers. Wednesday, flood warnings continued for the Des Plaines in Lake and Cook counties, and the Fox from Algonquin south to Montgomery.
The big question is how much more rain may fall heading into and through the weekend, with some rain forecast for each of the coming days.
The weather service forecast the Fox River to slowly fall at Algonquin, but only by about one-tenth of an inch from Wednesday to Thursday mornings, while the Des Plaines was forecast to continue to fall steadily barring any more rain.
Along the Fox River in Algonquin, Kris Lindahl was hoping there would be no more rain.
He and his wife were called back from out of state to their home Sunday to find that the river was flowing through their backyard and had crept to their front step.
Still, the water never reached the level of the 2013 flood that cleared their first porch step. It was about 8 inches below that before it started receding Tuesday, to Lindahl's relief.
"So we're doing better," he said, "until the next storm."
After living in the same house for 50 years, Lindahl, 76, has been through many floods. With 250 feet of riverfront property, it's too big for him to build a sandbag wall, but as usual he got only seepage into his basement.
Because he lives on a flood plain, he said he had to get permission from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to build a garage and had to put vents in the walls to let the river flow through. Most of his storage items were up on blocks or shelves or moved beyond the water's reach.
His daughter has urged him to move, but like many of their neighbors, Lindahl and his wife love their life on the river. They see egrets, herons, cormorants, deer and fox, and he said they can deal with occasional flooding.
Down the street, Curt Wittrock just moved in last year and was experiencing his first flood. His yard was under 3 feet of water flowing strong enough to carry away tree stumps from his fire pit, but he had sandbags keeping water out of his basement.
"It's a good learning experience," Wittrock laughed. He looked forward to again kayaking down the river when the waters recede, barring any more rain.
Downstream in unincorporated Algonquin Shores in Kane County, some homes were surrounded by water, and some residents had left to stay elsewhere. Those remaining helped one another stack sandbags and said one house was surrounded by 900 sandbags and four pumps.
Because the area is on well and septic systems, when the water covers the ground, the septic can't pump out any more water, so it backs up in sinks and tubs, and toilets won't flush.
Still, resident Jennifer Hyde said it wasn't as bad as in 2013, when the water partially submerged her neighbor's house.
"Everybody's OK," Hyde said — as long as they don't get much more rain.
rmccoppin@chicagotribune.com
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