The National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm watch for Hinsdale and the broader Chicago area on Tuesday, Aug. 11, warning of 80 mph wind gusts, possible embedded tornadoes and flash flooding capable of swamping basements and roads.
Hinsdale has seen this before. The watch arrives just 15 days after the July 27 storm that knocked out power to roughly 1,200 ComEd customers in Hinsdale, downed utility wires at nine locations and left some residents near Third Street and Oak without electricity through at least July 31, four days after the storm. The National Weather Service described Tuesday's system as the same type of organized line capable of producing destructive winds that caused the July 27 damage.
The fast-moving storm cluster was expected to reach the Aurora and Joliet corridor, which includes DuPage County, between 10 and 10:30 a.m., according to Patch, citing the weather service. The NWS warned that torrential rain could cause flash flooding of roads, low-lying areas and basements, and that additional rounds of storms are possible through Friday. The watch expires at 2 p.m.
Tonight's Village Board meeting
The watch window closes five hours before the Village Board is scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. at Memorial Hall, 19 E. Chicago Ave. On the agenda: a vote on a resolution establishing who pays for an estimated $6 million in mandated lead water service line replacements across roughly 300 Hinsdale homes.
State legislation enacted in 2022 requires all lead service lines in Illinois to be replaced by 2036. [Village records](https://www.villageofhinsdale.org/3 VBOT 26.01.06 minutes FINAL.pdf?t=202601221033380) from a Jan. 6 board meeting show the estimated cost runs about $20,000 per home, with the village's initial plan calling for 30 replacements per year. The Illinois EPA offers 30-year, zero-interest loans, though competition for those funds is expected to be high.
The central question the board has not yet resolved: whether homeowners will share the cost of replacing the private-side portion of their lead lines, or whether the village absorbs the full tab. As of the board's May 19 meeting, no formal cost-sharing policy had been adopted.
A village still recovering
Village President Greg Hart has already put ComEd on notice after the July 27 storm. He sent a formal letter to ComEd CEO Gil Quiniones, committed to requesting an after-action review and said the village would explore infrastructure hardening, including targeted undergrounding of electrical lines.
"We cannot simply restore power and move on as though nothing happened," Hart said in an Aug. 6 statement published in The Hinsdalean.
Hart remained in direct contact with ComEd's executive leadership for five consecutive days after the July 27 storm and reached out to Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch and state Sens. Suzy Glowiak Hilton and John Curran. Speaker Welch personally contacted Quiniones to reinforce the urgency, Hart said in the Hinsdale Journal.
The village has not announced whether Tuesday's meeting will be postponed due to the storm watch. The Hinsdale Journal will update this story if the meeting status changes.
Hinsdale government week ahead
- Tuesday, Aug. 11, 7 p.m. — Village Board meeting, Memorial Hall, 19 E. Chicago Ave. Key item: lead service line replacement policy vote. Public comment is on the agenda.
- Storm updates — Additional rounds of storms possible Wednesday through Friday. Residents should monitor the NWS and village communications for any schedule changes.
