Extreme rainfall in Chicago underscores rising climate disaster costs
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios
This week's sudden outburst of rain in Chicago has some sounding the alarm on climate-related weather disasters and the resources needed to mitigate them.
The latest: More severe storms hit the Chicago area last night, with reported flooding in parts of the city and suburbs.
The big picture: Tuesday's fast-moving storm dropped about 5 inches of rain in just 90 minutes on the near West Side, flooding viaducts and basements.
- That's more rain than what is usually the average for the entire month of July.
Why it matters: This sudden burst was similar to storms that caused flooding in Texas and New Mexico, offering a sobering reality: Climate disasters are now a regular occurrence in Chicago.
Reality check: It was just two years ago that a similar storm system whalloped the same West Side community, flooding basements and prompting the Biden administration to offer resources for cleanup assistance.
- Both Illinois U.S. Senators secured over $800 million in federal funds to help unmet needs for past state climate disasters in 2023 and 2024.
Yes, but: That was before President Trump took office, and his administration wants to shrink the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is used to help states with disaster recovery.
Between the lines: Trump was quick to swoop in to help with the floods in Texas, but the backlog of other states' federal disaster requests is staggering.
- In May alone, the national average for outstanding requests was 13, while the normal average is just under four.
- For example, it took almost two months for the federal government to provide aid for cleanup after the massive tornado outbreak in St. Louis.
The intrigue: Some Democratic governors are accusing the Trump administration of playing politics, responding faster to Republican-led states.
What they're saying: "If you want to make a major change in the way that we as a nation do disaster recovery, that should be a process where people can anticipate what is going to change and what they can rely on right now," Carnegie Endowment for International Peace senior fellow Sarah Labowitz tells Axios.
- "With disaster relief, you need predictability," Labowitz, who publishes the Disaster Dollar Database, says.
By the numbers: Extreme weather events cost the U.S. economy an estimated $180 to $496 billion per year in 2023 dollars, according to a 2024 report from the Senate Joint Economic Committee.
- The analysis found that the U.S. needed to invest between $69 billion and $345 billion to upgrade infrastructure to protect against just flooding.
- In Illinois, the average cost of federal assistance for climate disasters in 2024 totaled just under $55 million per disaster. If the state had to shoulder the cleanup burden alone, it would take just over 30 days to deplete the funds available, according to Labowitz.
Zoom in: Mayor Brandon Johnson's administration has announced climate plans to improve stormwater infrastructure, but these recent storms may force the city and the state to think bigger about investing in mitigation efforts.
Zoom out: It's not just more intense rain. Last year, tornadoes touched down in Chicago's West Loop neighborhood, and earlier this month, a heatwave throttled the entire Midwest.
The bottom line: As the federal government wants to fundamentally change its disaster preparedness system, these intense storms may force local leaders to rethink theirs.