Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 59

With news from tho Fox Vclicy Section 2 (nucaoCTriiunc Thursday, August 30, 1990 4i I '(I 5 I pv "1 1 IS 1 V. 1, l. it? lb' llJ Threat seen in a storm runoff law i By Neil H. Mehler Du Page County is inching toward the adoption of a stiff ordinance to control the runoff from storms by requiring all municipalities and developers to follow the same set of rules. Though there appears to be little disagreement that a countywide ordinance is needed, some municipal officials see in the proposal a threat to local zoning powers while others consider the water-storage requirements unworkable or counterproductive.

Still others worry about whether the technical expertise needed to handle the review process for issuing permits will be available and affordable. Janice Gerzevske, a Carol Stream trustee, said that the proposal represents "an indirect way to control land use" and that it could lead the way for Du Page County to say that a municipality has too much office and commercial development and no more should be allowed. Carol Stream Village Manager Gregory J. Bielawski said, "Whether it is the county or village that implements the ordinance, it will have to employ staff or consultants with expertise and training in areas such as hydrology, hydraulics, biology and water quality. Such specialization-will be needed, he said, because "certain aspects of the reviews now done by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S.

Army Corps of Engineers, Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and Illinois Department of Transportation's Division of Water Resources will be done locally." Further, said Elmhurst City Manager Thomas P. Borchert, the proposal contains "some subjective criteria," such as that municipalities or developers must provide 1.S times the water storage of the area they take up with paving and structures. Borchert called that "an extremely limiting and perhaps cost-prohibitive standard. Donald L. Maxwell, a Wheaton city councilman and member of the Du Page Stormwater Management Committee, 't 0, Tribune photo by MIchMl Fryor In a Plainfield home ripped open by Tuesday's storm, a doubtlessly exhausted looters.

"This time was much worse I knew what was, and I was just father and son take turns sleeping and sitting watch to protect belongings from afraid to come up from the basement," said one homeowner. 'Mmy. rebuilding, many won't stay By Laurie Goering Alice Wieclaw never would have believed it could happen twice. But Tuesday afternoon, as the sky darkened and hail pounded Plainfield's Lily Cache subdivision, suddenly she knew the nightmare of 1984 was returning. "The wind started switching around and the hail came, and then I knew," she said.

"But it was just too Wieclaw was blown down the homes of a half-dozen neighbors. "This time was much worse," said Alice Wieclaw, 43, wandering around the roofless ruins of her home at 16422 S. McGrath Drive in the hot sun Wednesday. "I knew what it was, and I was just afraid to come up from the basement. "You find yourself screaming for help and for your neighbors, and you don't know if they're home no one answers," she said, pointing down the street' "I saw a woman over there hanging onto a toilet that was all that was left of her house.

"I was just getting over the last one. But I guess you just rebuild and go on." About ISO homes in the subdivision were damaged, many of them destroyed, and some of Wieclaw's neighbors said the second tornado had driven home a lesson the first did not "We'll rebuild, but I won't live here anymore," said Lee Daughters, whose home at 23402 Grinton Drive vanished stairs as the tornado blasted into her home, tearing off the. walls and roof and carrying away the garage. Her husband, who was working in the garage, was blown under a car, breaking his arm and shoulder. For them, the cleanup Wednesday and the search for the remains of their belongings were all too familiar.

Six years ago, in 1984, a less severe do hit them head-on, carrying Vaway the garage, siding and some windows, along with the in 1984 and again this week. "I don't know who I feel sorrier for myself, or the people who have to stay here." Daughters, who with his son was sorting golf clubs, grass seed and a few other belongings out of the rubble Wednesday, said he would move to Phoenix, where he owns a condominium. Tuesday's storm, which leveled all but one central section of his house, was more de-See Rebuild, pg. 2 hA J1 "I fv7 Schools try to return to normal Mil i vv BOrchert Maxwell A-- 1 -Jt'M iM1--" I i ft Hill i By David Eisner Barely a day after a devastating tornado left 1,500 Plainficld-area children without classrooms, school officials vowed to have everybody back in school by Sept 10. Moreover, board members at an emergency meeting Wednesday night unanimously voted to keep the students in Plainfield rather than send them to evening sessions in schools in neighboring communities.

"So many children have lost their homes," said Elizabeth Eichelberger, board president of Plainfield School District 202. "They need the security of being in the district with the teachers they already know." The board agreed to buy 12 mobile classroom units and to move Plainfield High School students to Indian Trail Junior High School in the afternoons, with junior high students attending in the mornings. Classes for high school students are to begin Sept 10. Students from the shattered See Schools, pg. 4 Help came before fear at hospital By Jerry Shnay June Brown's job at Joliet's St Joseph Medical Center was to ease the pain of others, but whose job was it to comfort her? Brown, the hospital's emergency room nursing manager, was aware a tornado had sledgeham-mered the Plainfield subdivision where she lived.

And for hours Tuesday night, she fought back her fears before being able to make "around 25 phone calls in Vh minutes" to discover some bittersweet news. Her family was safe. Her home, though standing, was damaged. But her friends were not as fortunate. "My dear friends lost everything, but my home stood," she said Wednesday.

"All my neighbors have left is their lives." But Brown was only one of many nurses, doctors and other hospital personnel who were forced to bury their fears to aid the injured and dying. By 7 a.m. Wednesday, St. Joseph had treated 221 people and had a casualty list of its own. Forty hospital employees have "suffered significant damage to their homes," hospital president John Bohrer said Wednesday.

St. Joseph, a 524-bed facility on the city's west side, quickly mobilized after the storm hit Tuesday. Forty doctors on disaster call were contacted. More than 200 staffers nurses, custodians, orderlies, managers had assignments. Bohrer said the twice-a-year disaster drills at St.

Joseph paid off. "Everyone did his part, he said. "It was the worst night I have ever seen in the emergency room," said Dr. Rau Kilaru di- See Hospital, Pg. 4 which is preparing the ordinance, said, "It is premature to judge too seriously what the ordinance says." More input will be accepted, he said, but he added that "we need to tighten and make more stringent" the regulations dealing with water detention in storms and runoff rates.

The unanswered question is whether the proposed changes "are attainable and enforceable," Maxwell added. Lynn Montei, executive director of the Du Page Mayors and Managers Conference, said the present draft of the proposal has been worked out with input from her organization and an attorney it hired. "There is no intent whatsoever to diminish the municipalities' land-use authority." The proposal being circulated to local officials for comment provides that they can keep control of the building-permit Jirocess if they adopt a local ordinance at east as strong as the one the county adopts. Otherwise, they can leave the processing to the county staff, which some officials fear will create a dynasty in the Wheaton county complex and erode local authority over zoning and development The ordinance is in response to the severe flooding of August 1987, which produced millions of dollars in damage along lower Salt Creek. Local and county officials and state legislators from Du Page pushed for legislation in Springfield to help prevent future flooding and out of that came Stormwater Management Committees in the collar counties and requirements for runoff-control ordinances.

Marvin J. Glink, an attorney for several Tribura photo by MnttMl Fiyar An painted on the door of this house in has been searched for survivors. The house Is Plainfield lets rescuers know that the building one block away from the high school. MercM at first, twister quickly grew malignant Hometowns municipalities, said if there is a "test of wills between two governments, a home Eric Zorn At first, the tornado danced in delicately from the northwest, touching down lightly, cutting its savage arabesques only into fields and trees. Just outside of Oswego, where the swath of real destruction began, it seemed to have a merciful quality, curling and hopping away from homes tucked into the woods along the south bank of the Fox River.

"All I could see was orange sparks from power lines flying at us," said Robin Sharp, whose one-story house sustained only open field toward U.S. Highway 34 and Scotty's Restaurant, but again it veered, turning quickly to the east, hardly even winging the restaurant as it came to earth again. It tore a 30-foot Amoco sign from its moorings in front of a mini-mart, but left the gas pumps standing. "It didn't have a shape," said Scotty's owner Sandra Koehler, who watched what she described as "a mass of gray half the See Path, pg. 2 rule community is superior to the county in a dispute on compliance." Many Du Page communities have home rule powers.

minor damage from debris as the twister ripped down several dozen large oak trees nearby. "It came right at us, then I guess it went straight up." The cloud then sailed across a small, Carol Stream Trustee Susan McNees said the proposed county ordinance is like a mandate from the legislature that a town has to do something without providing any source of funds for the costs involved. Complete coverage Wheaton City Manager Donald B. Rose said the proposal "is good in theory, but the process is awfully cumbersome at this point Insurance industry experts say many of Tuesday's tornado victims However. William R.

Bates, a County A family's long search and wait for a daughter and granddaughter ends at a temporary morgue. See Page 3 Board member from Elmhurst who lives A fax machine helps reunite two little girls separated for hours from their parents after the tornado. See Page 2 probably were underinsured. in an area that suffered greatly in the 1987 record rains, said, "A lot of municipalities have been very careless with runoff" caused bv development. "I can See Page 3 see benefits to much more control over local zoning by the county.".