Community Corner

Barrington Flooding Causes Headaches Around Town

The torrential rainfall that dropped approximately 5 inches of rain in a four hour period on Barrington Wednesday caused road closures, flooded basements and headaches for Barrington residents and business owners.

Roads around town were flooded, including Northwest Highway, while commuters were stuck too. Homeowners were left trying to get water out of basements. Creeks and ponds were running onto streets in some areas as water bubbled out of sewers in other areas.

Dr. Russell Fitton was one of those owners who got to work to find 12 feet of water inside his office basement. He arrived at his office on Northwest Highway around 6:30 a.m. after his assistant called him. By mid-morning, he already had crews pumping out the water.

A nearby storm sewer caused the flooding, he said, adding he had a similar problem in 2007 and 1994 which he documented on a YouTube video.

Wednesday, he received a phone call from the Barrington Fire Department notifying him of a trouble alarm in the building but had not heard anything further from the village by mid-morning.

The basement held some of his equipment along with patient records, which he is required to hold for 10 years, Fitton said. He estimates the damage is between $75,000 to $100,000.

“I’m out of business right now,” he said.

Barrington officials issued a release stating the intense storm caused flash flooding throughout the community and the village’s public works, police and fire departments worked together to barricade flooded roadways, remove vehicles from flooded parking lots and provide sandbags when requested.

Wednesday’s flooding was the worse since 2010.


Find out what's happening in Barringtonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here