Today, we go back down below the city of Chicago to talk about the Great Flood (Leak?) of 1992. Did you know that in the 1890s, construction started on a railway under the city that would transport telephone lines, coal, and eventually packages around its 60 miles of track? By the 1950s, the tunnels were shut down and largely forgotten due to better streets, less coal dependence, and some corruption. Until... an unexpected bad thing happened... Grab your galoshes and a flashlight. We're going in!
Today, we go back down below the city of Chicago to talk about the Great Flood (Leak?) of 1992. Did you know that in the 1890s, construction started on a railway under the city that would transport telephone lines, coal, and eventually packages around its 60 miles of track? By the 1950s, the tunnels were shut down and largely forgotten due to better streets, less coal dependence, and some corruption.
Until... an unexpected bad thing happened... Grab your galoshes and a flashlight. We're going in!
Sources:
1992 Loop Flood Brings Chaos, Billions In Losses - https://web.archive.org/web/20070927231222/http://cbs2chicago.com/vault/local_story_104140940.html
Corps responds to strange flood -
https://web.archive.org/web/20080607013746/http://www.hq.usace.army.mil/CEPA/PUBS/may02/story10.htm
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2017/04/12/great-flood-of-1992/
Hi Friends! Our transcripts aren't perfect, but I wanted to make sure you had something - if you'd like an edited transcript, I'd be happy to prioritize one for you - please email doomedtofailpod@gmail.com - Thanks! - Taylor
Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do
>> Taylor: In the matter of the people of state of California v. Orenthal James Simpson, case number ba zero nine six. And so, my fellow Americans, ask not.
>> Farz: What your country can do for you.
>> Taylor: Ask what you can do for your country.
>> Farz: Sweet.
Taylor's not feeling great, but we're going to muddle our way through it
We are up and recording. Taylor.
>> Taylor: Hi.
>> Farz: How are you?
>> Taylor: I don't, fine.
>> Farz: This is my radio voice.
>> Taylor: Should I pretend to be happy? I'm fine. I I have not been sick for weeks and weeks and feel, terrible. Just kidding. I have and I'm sorry. I'm going to sniffle a lot, probably during this as well.
>> Farz: It's okay, it's okay.
>> Taylor: It's going to be terrible.
>> Farz: There's a lot going on for folks. Taylor's not feeling great, but we're going to muddle our way through it and it's going to be awesome.
>> Taylor: Yeah. Super excited.
Taylor: I never got around to editing last week's episode
>> Farz: Taylor, would you like to introduce us?
>> Taylor: I would. Thank you. hi, everyone. Old friends and new friends, welcome to doomed to fail, where the podcast that brings you history's most notorious disasters and epic failures. Twice a week. Sometimes most weeks. And I'm Taylor, joined by farce.
>> Farz: It was a nice little call out, so I I definitely planned my week poorly and never got around to editing last week's episode or episode that I, I was covering the topic of. And so, yeah, I'm a little, little backed up at the moment. so we're going to go back to our regular scheduling. So this week we're just going to release Taylor's episode and then the episode I did from the week before. So that is how we're going to play catch up. And Taylor's been very patient with my, incompetence, I would say.
>> Taylor: Yeah, no, it's fine. Whatever. No big deal.
>> Farz: Thank you. everything's fine.
Now I'm doing something really, really silly that I can't wait to talk about
So you, What? What are you, Is this a hint thing or is this not a hint thing?
>> Taylor: I guess not really. Now I'm doing something really, really silly that I can't wait to talk about with you. Okay. no, I don't know if you're gonna guess it, honestly, all right, because I haven't really heard. I didn't hear about this until I was. It's another Chicago story. I actually have, like, a bigger one I'm gonna do next week, but I'm reading a book and I just, like, was not gonna get to finish it because, like, Tuesday I spent the day in bed with, like, I have one of those ice packs that goes over your eyes to, like, with puffy eyes. But I put it around my neck and, like, tied it to my head so it was on my throat. And then I just, like, laid in bed like that, literally, all day.
>> Farz: You have a sore throat?
>> Taylor: Terrible.
>> Farz: I don't think it's Covid. I never had a sore throat with.
>> Taylor: COVID I had a sore throat last time I had Covid, which was, like, not that long ago also, but I didn't take Covid tests. Cause I don't have any. And, like, now who cares, you know? I know, but I know, you know.
>> Farz: Somebody gets sick and it's like, Oh, I don't know where the COVID test is. I gotta do. It's like, who care? What are you gonna do? What's going to tell you have it or you don't like what is right?
>> Taylor: And I'm not going to like whatever. I have all my. I'm updated all my stuff. I don't think it's going to kill me, but, Yeah, I know I've had terrible sore throat, so I. Anyway, so I'm going to get to that one, and I'm excited to tell you that story next week.
The great Chicago flood happened on April 13, 1992
But this week, I wanted to do another, Chicago story that I heard about last two weeks ago when I was in Chicago for my friend Kirk mentioned this to me, and I was like, oh, I hadn't heard of that before. so we talked about a fire in 1871. So I'm gonna talk about a flood. And guess what year there was a flood in Chicago. Just for fun.
>> Farz: 1870, 219.
>> Taylor: 92.
>> Farz: yes, so I guess I was too young.
>> Taylor: I mean. Well, I'm not. I was not too young because my dad had to leave work early. I'll tell you about it.
>> Farz: Well, yeah, but. Yeah, you. Ah, two things. You had a direct connection to Chicago, which makes you remember it. And also, you're much older than I am, so.
>> Taylor: Well, I don't remember it. That's what I'm saying. I know. It's so funny how much younger, than you I look, even though I am so much younger than you.
>> Farz: It's a nice, nice little comeback.
>> Taylor: So the great Chicago flood happened on April 13, 1992. it was. It ended up costing the city of Chicago anywhere between two and $4 billion, depending on who you, who you read. But it is, We're going to start in the 1890s to get to that flood. To get you there. We'll start by 100 years before. So I think in the episode that didn't. That we didn't put out yet, were we talking about the subway and how scary it is to all those buildings. Yeah. So we'll talk. Well, you'll hear us talk about that in the last one. But I want to reiterate that, because, man, every city is, like, huge buildings on top of, like, wormholes of tunnels, you know?
>> Farz: Yeah. It's, like, super, super scary. Like, you know, like, if you, like, stick your finger in, like, an anthill, you just crush, like, 50,000 tunnels underneath them. That's what could happen to you in a subway.
>> Taylor: Yes. It's like that.
>> Farz: So terrifying.
>> Taylor: It's like that in every big city. It's crazy.
>> Farz: Did you not think about that before.
>> Taylor: I brought that up also? honestly, I didn't, and I'm so glad I didn't. Am I? Over a decade living in New York, like, maybe a couple times, but I didn't have that, like, in my psyche because that would have been really scary.
In new neighborhoods, they don't have, like, phone lines, obviously
>> Farz: Okay, well, I'm glad it's now embedded there.
>> Taylor: You know? Like, I thought about it. I knew it was underground, obviously, but I didn't think about, like, just the thousands and thousands and thousands of tons above me, you know?
>> Farz: Right, right. Better not to think about, it.
>> Taylor: Yeah, better not to think about it. But Chicago is, like, built, obviously. There's a river, and, like, parts of the river, they can, like, move up and down with, like, different, like, lock systems and stuff. And there's a lot of bridges. and then also there's a lot of tunnels. So, like, the train in Chicago, there's, like, the eld elevated train, but then also there's a subway that goes. That kind of goes underneath and around. So there's that I happening in there as well. So it's also wild to me that we used to count on, like, physical things for so long, like, cables, you know? Like, I don't know. In new neighborhoods, they don't have, like, phone lines, obviously, you know? And they don't have, like, the cables that, like, we had just come to rely on for only, like, 100 years, you know? Is that true?
>> Farz: They don't put phone lines up now?
>> Taylor: M. Well, I don't. Well, I don't think so. Or if they do, they're, like, different. I don't know. I feel like they probably don't keep.
>> Farz: Talking because there's a new subdivision that was just, like, completed, like, a block away from me, and I'm gonna. I'm gonna google Earth and see if there's cell phone cables up.
>> Taylor: Perfect. I don't think that they do, or they don't need to as much, because, like, I remember when we talked about the, volcanoes, like, the first volcano that everybody knew about as it was happening, because they had dropped, like, giant I cables in the ocean. You know, like, it needed to be, like, connected somehow and not through the air yet. but there's so much more that we can do.
>> Farz: But that's what happens now, isn't it? Like, don't. Are we all connected through, like, that transatlantic cable?
>> Taylor: Isn't it through satellites?
>> Farz: We're so scientific.
>> Taylor: I don't know. My point is, when these tunnels were dug in, and, oh, I also, like, I did see tons of cables in DC. I saw some guys moving cables, like, through tunnels. And the way they do it is with the manholes. So they have to, like, put the cables in the manhole and then, like, have a guy underground, scoot them over and then, like, move them that way, you know, like, up the manhole, whatever. I saw them doing that. So there's, there are still cables. They're all underground. There's so much stuff going on underground. and this is the kind of thing that I kind of wish was part of our job when we become famous is I want to, like, go into these tunnels and, like, learn and be inside of them, you know, and, like, see what's down there. Wouldn't that be cool?
>> Farz: No, that'd be horribly, horribly terrifying.
>> Taylor: Okay, I'll do the tunnel part.
>> Farz: You do the tunnel part. I'll just, like, I'll get brunch and I'll do my research that way. Hey, I don't think there are this subdivision. So for those of you in Austin, I'm looking at Mueller. there's like, no, I've gone many, many blocks at this point, and I haven't seen a single telephone line.
>> Taylor: There is or there isn't?
>> Farz: No, there isn't.
>> Taylor: Yeah, I didn't think so. we had a guy come get, like, flooded in our front yard, and we had to, like, move some dirt, and the guy came and he knocked a cop with a tractor. And then he was like, do you guys use your phone line? And we were like, no, we don't use it. Cause, like, the house was made in the eighties. And he goes, good. Cause I just cut it by accident. So he's Stefan, but not anymore.
In 1899, Chicago Tunnel company was hired to build tunnels for telegraph cables
so let's go back to 1899. You were in Chicago. and I know that. Did you read the devil in the white city? I feel like you might have, so.
>> Farz: I didn't read it, but I've listened to enough content around it where I feel like I've read it. It's my way of being literary without actually having to read. Cool.
>> Taylor: So I remember there was a part of it where like, in that during this time in Chicago, they're like building so fast that like in the devil in the white city, they were, they talked about that there were like neighborhoods that had streetlights and streets and sidewalks, but no houses. You know, like they, like, the neighborhood was ready for them, for people because like the city was growing so fast. So in 1899, the Chicago Tunnel company was hired to build tunnels under Chicago for cables for, the Illinois telephone and Telegraph Company, which was like relatively brand new. Like, all this was new. The tunnels were built initially to just run cables through them. But, Chicago said you can't build the manholes to move the cables. Cause remember I just said a second ago where like the guys have to like put the cables down the manhole and then like move them over and they sell to do that now. So like, they weren't. The Chicago city said, no, we don't want all these manholes around. So you're not allowed to do that. So they do it something different, differently. So they built a narrow gauge railway, which means that like the, the track itself was like 2ft. Like the tunnel was 7ft wide, but the track was 2ft. So it was like a little track. So imagine like little, little cars on this little track. They built this narrow, gauge railway transport cables. So it was all underground. So it was connected to, the street level with like elevators and shafts that were like around the city. So eventually they used it to transport coal and other things. And not just the cables. in London they used what they're gonna build in Chicago as an inspiration for their postal, underground post office. but there's some like shady things that were happening. Cause this is like 1899. So there were like, there was like a strike and they like strike busted and a lot of corruption for things, things to get built. it changed hands several times and there were several bankruptcies. And like the building of these tunnels for the telegraph, essentially, though, it worked for what they wanted it to do. They were 40ft below seat below street level. And the first 16 miles, which is a ton of tunnels that were built, were kind of built like on, the down low. They didn't get the right permits. So they would dig all day, like with hand tools. And like it was like kind of like a clay, like sediment, dirt thing. They would dig all day. And then they would take the, dirt out of saloon basements at night. So like connect to the basement of like bars and things that were open and they'd sneak the dirt out that way. the tunnels were egg shaped.
>> Farz: So like this, Taylor's making the profile of an egg.
>> Taylor: Got it. they were 7ft, six inches high and 6ft wide. the walls were ten inches thick and some, were a little bit larger. But that's basically it.
>> Farz: What does that mean? The walls were ten inches thick? Isn't it a million miles thicken and.
>> Taylor: No, no, like, no, because they're, because there's like some pictures that I'll post and I'll share with you, but they're like, you know, you can like go in either direction, you know, because you have to, like, so that some of them are next to each other. What does they like?
>> Farz: See what these tunnels look like? A Chicago tunnel. Do it.
>> Taylor: No. Google the Chicago tunnel company, but don't google it yet because I don't want you to know what's here, what's going to happen.
>> Farz: I'm going to hit enter and I'm going to open the tab.
>> Taylor: Okay. Okay. Okay. So, so they were, the tunneling was they would do it 24 hours a day, just like get it done, but they could complete, 2 miles a year or by hand. It was taking, but it got faster as they got better at it and they would obviously do it in different directions. the dirt would be taken out by mules on carts. and if a building had, and I'm going to say this a couple times, but if a building had a deep sub basement, they didn't need an elevator to access it. So that's like a basement under a basement. Under a basement. They wouldn't need an elevator. They could just like directly connect to the tunnels. the, there were electric pumps just in case it flooded. But for the most part they're like, there was a little bit of natural moisture, but they were like not really worried about it flooding. They did have some watertight doors in different sections just in case it flooded, but it didn't, it didn't flood while it was in use. the things that they were worried about were like, obviously, like, Chicago is next to a lake and there's rivers, you know, so like flooding that way. But also if a building that was above these tunnels caught on fire and the water used to like do that, that could have flooded the tunnels as well. So those are kind of what they were worried about, By 1914, 60 miles of tunnels had been dug underneath Chicago. it connected with the street level. There were 19 elevators, that went to different, like, department stores and like the post office and places where you could, where you would want to, like, deliver things without being like, on the street. There were also five elevators around Chicago where you could, like, pick up packages. The general public could, which is kind of cool. That's kind of cool, you know, so you just like, kind of like an Amazon locker.
>> Farz: Sorry. Luna's like, basically doing ray guns routine on the ground here. And it's like creating this, like, weird, creepy sound where it sounds like someone's like clawing at the doors, which is her just like moving her paws on the floor.
>> Taylor: Everything in here got like eerily quiet because there's a guy working on the shot outside and he stopped sawing. So I don't have like, the sawing in my head.
>> Farz: And I'm like, was I muted the whole time I just said that?
>> Taylor: No, I heard you.
>> Farz: So weird. Okay, go ahead.
>> Taylor: Okay, so basically that's the Amazon locker you could pick up on the street level, which is cool. there were 132 electric locomotives and, there were like hundreds of excavating cars and coal moving cars. Obviously you can move coal through these as well.
Chicago used tunnels for commerce, moving packages and coal back and forth
That was something that was like really popular because they use coal all the time during this time, by 1920. So after like 20 years of being in use, they removed all the telephone cables and they only used it for commerce, for like moving packages and coal and things back and forth. there's cute pictures of like the engineers. They're basically on like a little toy train, you know, park. Yeah.
>> Farz: That's how it is under the capitol where they have that underground thing, the railroad thing called the underground rail. You know what I mean?
>> Taylor: so it's also like, I mean, what a job. You look underground all day in this like little railroad. Wild. so they did try to use it for like the regular USP's, but it didn't work. They couldn't get packages places in time. So it's just kind of like a different way to send things. Mostly like, wholesale goods and things. So, this was really useful at the time because, you know, like, the street level people are like just getting cars. There's horses everywhere, presumably horse poop everywhere. You know, you need another way to get around. as they started to build those Chicago subway lines, they took over some of the tunnels or made them wider, but for the most part they, like, didn't run into each other. in the forties in the 1940s, trucks got better delivering coal. People didn't need them as much. And also, like I said, a lot of corruption and back and forth with who owns it. So, they tried to make some money selling the air in the tunnels for air conditioning and heating because it was cooler down there during the summer. So they would push the air up into like a theater or like a big building to make it a little bit cooler. And then same in the winter, the air under the air would be warmer in the tunnels, so they would shoot the warm air up into buildings. So they tried to make money that way. But by 1956, nothing was working and the tunnels were abandoned. So now we have 60 miles of abandoned tunnel under Chicago, and we're going to forget about it as a people.
>> Farz: Crazy cool.
>> Taylor: So now it's 1992. The bulls have two peated. They have one more to go. Ghostbusters two came out in 1989. So we know the dangers of tunnels.
>> Farz: Yes, that was a documentary. I recall that.
>> Taylor: Now we know. so the Kinsey street bridge in Chicago needs new pilings. So as we know Chicago, lots of rivers already. There's lots of rivers. And a, piling on a, on a bridge is like the sticks in the ground, you know, it's the foundation.
>> Farz: On which the bridge is built.
>> Taylor: Yes. So it needs new pilings. And, the old pilings are too close to the bridge tenders house. This is one of those bridges where traffic stops and it goes up.
>> Farz: Yeah.
>> Taylor: And then boats go through. So somebody has to work there. So they can't move the pilings because they're worried that the, that like, the engineer's house is going to fall into the river. So they, the city of Chicago says you can build them three and a half feet away. So just like a little bit away from the last ones are going to build the new ones. And these pilings went into the mud or whatever. And the rumor is that those pilings themselves punched a hole into the old tunnels. But it wasn't that, like, they moved the earth and then, like, that, eventually displaced earth caused a hole. So it happened, like, immediately, but it happened, like, with the pressure from the piling.
>> Farz: Sure.
>> Taylor: You know, so eventually it's going to punch a car size hole, like car size across in one of the old tunnels. But they didn't know that this was happen. They didn't know they had done that. I mean, didn't know that it happened. It was like a slow, a slow roll, like it didn't. And the tunnels had not been, let's see. The tunnels had not been taken, like, obviously maintained. So, like, a lot of the flood doors they'd built in the beginning were no longer there. It was just, like, empty tunnels, you know?
>> Farz: Yeah.
>> Taylor: So this happens about, like a year, I think. I can read a bunch of articles, and I think, like, almost a year before the flood is when it, like, starts happening, and then it's going to kind of start to get, like, worse and worse. So, a cable guy, telecommunications guy, found the leak. Like, he saw it. He was like, it's leaking down here. Like, there's water coming in.
>> Farz: I don't get it. So somebody went down into the ton, this abandoned tunnel. Who are these people?
>> Taylor: Well, it's a telecommunications worker, so I think this is, like, a guy who has to lay more cables because you're like, well, now we need cables for what it was called DirecTV. I don't know, whatever. Pay per view.
>> Farz: Such a scary job.
>> Taylor: Such a scary job. I'll be down there.
Chicago's downtown basements flooded on April 13, 1992
>> Farz: Glad. Like, I just chose, like, working in technology.
>> Taylor: Like, I know. Otherwise you'd be a tunnel digger.
>> Farz: It's like every time I see that show, like, Sam, bro, like, dirty jobs, like, thank God people exist, because if not for y'all, like, yeah, I would never have done this on my own.
>> Taylor: Totally. So this guy goes down there and he is like, it's a little too wet down here for my tastes. And he tells someone, everybody is like, that isn't my fucking problem. You know? Like, not my problem. They're like, because the tunnels now, it's been like 40 years since they were shut down. And they go underneath, like, private buildings and places that people who own a building didn't even know they were there, you know? So they're like, whose problem is it when these tunnels that, exist that don't really belong to anybody, that have been essentially foreclosed on, like, need help, you know? Whose problem is this? And they can't figure out whose problem it is. So nobody wants to have responsibility. And in the meantime, like, the pressure is just building and building, and it's just, like, slowly leaking and it's going to eventually flood, you know? So in the meantime, it's building and building. And so Chicago's downtown is called the loop. Do you know? You know this? Do you know this?
>> Farz: No.
>> Taylor: Chicago's downtown is called the loop. It's just like, an area you can drive around. That's what downtown's called. So in the loop, which is where, like, the big buildings are, you know, downtown. on the early morning of Monday, April 13, 1992, the basements in the loop start to flood. And people are like, this is weird. Like, every basement is flooding at the same time. Like, usually, like, if a water main breaks, it'll be like, one basement will flood, you know, or like two. But like, all basements are flooding. The army corps of engineers happens to be there. and they get a call and they're like, the guy who answers the phone is like, it's not raining. Like, what the hell? Like, what? Why could. How could it be flooding? You know, where is where they're coming from. and because there wasn't water in the streets at this point, it's just the basement starting to flood. So, like this, something weird is happening. All basements are flooding. But as it gets worse and more basements start to flood of, like, big department stores, of like, the hall of records, like, all these buildings are flooding. they cut the power in the loop. So they turned the power off in the downtown business district of Chicago, around like ten in the morning. And that's when my dad had to come home because the computer's not working. You couldn't do anything.
>> Farz: Why does that help the flooding?
>> Taylor: Well, it doesn't help the flooding, but it helps people from getting, like, electrocuted. Ah.
>> Farz: ah. You know, water and electricity.
>> Taylor: Yeah. So they cut the power and everybody has to go. So there's just some great, photos of, like, people in their nineties clothes, like, walking through puddles, but it's like, sunny and they're like, walking over, like, big hoses as people try to pump the water out of their buildings. Some of the buildings with the deep basements have, like, up to 40ft of water. inside the basement there's a lot of damage to things that are stored, like, really low. So in this I have a Chicago tribute article that I'll show you. And, there's a woman who works at Marshall Fields, which is like the bay department store there, and she's like, sitting on the stairs looking at, like, a flooded basement. And the basement that's flooded is the third basement, which is such a scary word, don't you think?
>> Farz: Three basements down.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: I hate how dark it is in here right now.
>> Taylor: So I wrote, I feel like that's one of the scariest things that can exist. but nobody knows where the water's coming from, right? So it's like, starting to be like noon and it's been flooding for several hours. But they don't know where this water is coming from. They don't know why all these basements all around Chicago are flooded. So finally, someone at this big building called the merchandise Mart is, like, one of the biggest buildings in Chicago. when it was built in. This is, incidentally, when it was built in 1930, it had its own. It was the largest building in the world, and it had its own zip code until 2008. it is a wholesale, showroom building where you can buy furniture and buy things. It was owned by the Kennedy family, and one of Bobby Kennedy's, presumably not idiot children ran it very successfully for a while. in 1983, the sultan of Brunei spent $1.6 million at the merchandise mart to furnish his entire palace. He said it was the only place where that task could be completed in one week, which is hilarious. I'm like, have you been to Ikea? That was my thought. And then I looked up. I know you have not. This is such a non sequitur, but for our readers, in the girl with a dragon tattoo, there's a part where she furnishes her whole apartment at Ikea in, like, one go. And it's so fun because you just, like, she just, like, buys, like, you know, ten chairs and a bunch of beds and, like, stuff, and it's just like, imagine just being able to go get whatever you want.
>> Farz: Like, how you started saying, have you read? I know you haven't. You just skip right past it.
>> Taylor: I skipped it because when we first started, I was looking at the stuff that she bought in her apartment, because people have obviously, like, figured it out and, like, put it all on blogs, and it's just really fun. but so anyway, that's.
All the basements in Chicago flooded, costing between $4 billion
Doesn't matter, but this big building happens to be next to the bridge that had been repiled recently. And so there's a radio reporter named Larry Langford who is listening to the police scanners to try to figure out what the hell is going on. And he, hears a call that someone from the merchandise smart building calls in and says, you know, we know that all the basements in town are flooding. I've heard that in the news. But in our basement, there's fish. So, like, I feel like we're probably. Probably coming directly from the river, you know, because there's fish in here, right? And. And also there's a vortex outside in the river. Should that. Should that be there basically, like, a drain in the river right next to the bridge. so Larry from the radio reporter drove there and got there before the police, because, he was like, I think this is it. I think this is where it's coming from. So the vortex is essentially this hole, and it's bringing the water in and then going through the tunnels and then pushing out the top of the tunnels through the, like, elevator shafts and the, like all the things they'd built in the past that people had just forgotten about, you know, that's, that's, that is what's happening. They finally figure out that's what's happening.
>> Farz: More scientific reason. Like, water doesn't naturally go up, right?
>> Taylor: Water.
>> Farz: Water tries to hit, sea level. Oh, so the basements were below wherever I. The river is. Yeah, that's where you. Okay.
>> Taylor: Yes, yes. Because some of them, some of the basements, like, are up to like, the door of the tunnel also.
>> Farz: Got it. Okay.
>> Taylor: You know, and then as the tunnels get full of water, they're gonna. It's gonna rise, right?
>> Farz: Yep, yep.
>> Taylor: so eventually they have to, like, send someone down there to be like, what is down there? You know, they don't know. So they go down, they find the hole. By this time, the hole is 20ft wide and they just start throwing shit into it. They throw rocks, they throw mattresses, they throw cement, they're like, how can we plug up this hole? Like, this is going to be a problem. They're able to drain the river a little bit around it because of the locks, the lock system. until someone is like, we have this, new cement, potentially from the Army Corps of Engineers, potentially from a man named Brian Rice of material Service Corporation or Kenny Construction. I saw something different in every single article I read. But they find a new cement that's like quick drying and they're able to. A quick setting and they're able to use that because they, they drill holes on like, the other side of the tunnel where the hole is, and fill that. So they're able to kind of stop it. Like, they don't plug the hole, but they like, make new holes on the other side and make essentially those waterproof doors that they should have made in the first place.
>> Farz: Yeah, makes sense.
>> Taylor: And stop it.
>> Taylor: incidentally, the army Corps of engineers, they are in charge of like, highways and rivers, and they're as old as time. They were created in the continental congress on June 16, 1775, which I think that was cool. I didn't know that they're that old. it took days, obviously, to clean up and reopen. it cost the city of Chicago between two and $4 billion. It, said that the Chicago Mercantile exchange and other stock, market, lost billions of dollars in trading that day because they weren't able to do anything, in. And people had to commute differently. A lot of the subways were closed for a while and they had to have alternate ways around it. Businesses were pumping water out via huge hoses. So for the next couple of weeks, there were just huge hoses and dehumidifiers and stuff, trying to get all the water out of these basements and sub basements of these huge buildings. insurance wanted to call it a flood because you know how you need separate flood insurance in your house? But, flood was like, not exactly what happened. It's not like it was like a flood cause of nature. So they called it a leak. So they were able to get insurance money. So some people call it the great Chicago leak and not flood insurance companies.
>> Farz: They'll find a way.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: Ah, they'll try at least.
>> Taylor: It's never really been decided whose fault it was. some people were saying that the new pilings went right into the tunnels, and that the people who were putting those in should have known that they were there, but they were like, we didn't know that they were there. And it seems like not many people knew that the tunnels were there. Anyway. the way that the tunnels usually worked underneath the Chicago river is they went straight. They, like, went with the river under. Scary. Under the river. With the river in the middle of the river. Right. But the. This bridge, the Kinsey bridge, was one of those bridges, at the time that it was built, where it had a pillar in the middle of the bridge, swung rather than lifted.
>> Farz: Oh, okay. Yeah.
>> Taylor: You know what I mean? Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure this is really helpful.
>> Farz: The visuals helping.
>> Taylor: The bridge swung. And, so the tunnels were built around that middle piling. So maybe they assumed that the tunnel. The tunnel was in the middle of the river. Like, it was in like, 90% of the bridge cases, but in this case, it wasn't. It was on the side.
>> Farz: Okay.
>> Taylor: So, like, it's unclear, like, if they knew that or not. but. But eventually, I think it just, like, went to court and, like, some people were in trouble forever. No one, like, went to jail or anything, and nobody died, which is great. so, they did some things to kind of fix it.
Chicago still has tunnels that collapsed during the 1992 flooding
So, you know, they put in those waterproof doors. They wanted to make sure that it doesn't happen again, if any of this happens. But the tunnels are essentially still there. One of them collapsed recently when they were filling it with cement to just close it up when they're building a road above it. So there's still, like you said, there's anthill of holes all around the city of Chicago and I'm sure many other cities as well. and I also found two t shirts on ebay that say, I survived the great Chicago flood of 1992. They're vintage from 1992. I thought it was really fun. I'll put those online as well because people started making t shirts right away so that they could have them. That's it.
>> Farz: So basically the city paid for all this?
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: I went to. Floods are so, such a nightmare. Like, it is like one of the worst things that happens, like, in, in nature because it literally just ruins everything. Like, you will never get that smell out. You will never. You have to just like tear out drywall and maybe even like some of the, some of the studs, to get out of the, out of the system. But it's interesting too, because I was in Houston, like, I don't even know, like maybe like a month ago, and, even then you see the after effects of flooding where things are just down. And then I was about Houston specifically. Like, it happens like every hurricane season. Every hurricane season there's pictures of somebody on the roof of their car on like a, highway or something and they're trying to like get through a flood and it's like, manda, you gotta get out of there. So at least natural occurrence for Chicago.
>> Taylor: Yes. Which is great. Yeah. Houston is 50ft above sea level.
>> Farz: Seems like a lot.
>> Taylor: I mean, hold on. not enough. I'm 3000ft above sea level, I think.
>> Farz: Sea level. Mine. Yeah, like 2000ft, nearly 500ft. Mom's safe.
>> Taylor: Yeah. The kids one time we're like, what if the ocean like floods all the way up to here? I was like, if the ocean floods all the way up to our house on top of this mountain, then, like, we're fucked.
>> Farz: Everything else. Everybody else is already dead.
>> Taylor: Yeah, everyone else is already dead. Don't worry about it.
A tunnel in Los Angeles flooded and the city had to pay for it
>> Farz: so was this litigated, this go to court?
>> Taylor: It looks like it did, but I don't know exactly what the answers were because, like, the companies that were involved in like making the tunnel were gone. So like, no one owned the tunnel anymore, just kind of existed. and I think that the, the, company that put in the pilings, they got, they were not in trouble, in trouble for it. because they were able to prove that like, they didn't know they were there, but in the end, like, the city had to pay for it anyway because there was so much damage. It just kind of, like, came out of nowhere.
>> Farz: So apparently. Okay, keep talking. I gotta google something.
>> Taylor: Okay, you let me know. You're the lawyer. no, I think what you're saying about flooding. I remember when there was a big flood in Florida one time, looking at people's houses when there's just, like, water all the way up your kitchen counters. Like, everything in your house is garbage now.
>> Farz: It's crazy garbage. And also, you just. You know what it is? Is like, I have this, like, thing in me where when I know what is coming ahead is just gonna be horrible and arduous, I just want to, like, give up right then and there. And with a flood, it's like, this is my life for the next. Like, this smell in all of this shit is just a way of life. Like, your way of life just literally changes because you gotta work around the fact that now my carpets are full of molds and I gotta hire a contractor. The contractor's late, and then he. The drywall guy showed up before the floor guy. It's like an awful nightmare.
>> Taylor: We have friends in LA who bought, like, a big, beautiful house, like, up in Los Feliz, and it flooded like a, water main broke. They take it down to, like, the studs. It was terrible. No, they sent us a video of, like, they have, like, a walk in closet, and it was just like a waterfall, like, going all over all their stuff. It was terrible.
>> Farz: And in that condition, like, the. Literally the best you could ever hope for is please let insurance cover at least some of this. In a lot of cases, like I said, they'll find a way not to cover any of it.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: So apparently.
Chicago is the number two most financially precarious city in the US
Okay, so I was wondering this, because I remember a while ago that there was some talks about Chicago filing for bankruptcy. because they were in, like, a horrible, horrible financial condition. And I was looking up, like, what you were. As you were talking about how the. The debt obligation that they incurred on the cleanup was. Yeah, like you said, like two. $3 billion. About four and a half billion dollars as of today, which even for city of Chicago, sides, like an unexpected $4 billion. You don't mean like. Yeah, like, it's like, for me or you to be like, oh, by the way, you need. You need to come up with, like, 70 grand for something. It's like, that's not that easy to just pull out 70 grand out of my ass. Like, tomorrow.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: And so apparently Chicago is the number two most financially precarious city in the US due to. Well, due to a lot of things, but a part of it has to do with debt. So I would imagine that this also contributed to that.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: Can't help.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: Number one is Detroit.
>> Taylor: It wasn't that long ago also. I mean, it was like 30 years ago, whatever. But it, Yeah, I'm sure they still have, like, debt from it, you know, because it's just, like, unexpected, like you said. Yeah.
>> Farz: Wild. Are there pictures you want me to look at?
>> Taylor: Yeah, let me show you those articles. Cool. historical is like, just, I'm just gonna copy the images from it and put them online. Cause from the tribune, I think it's like a. It's like an old one. So, like, the words are kind of weird, but the pictures are great. so it's like you can see people, like, just look in a basement, like, what are we gonna do? You know, you can see the pilings and people walking through the streets. You see a guy, two days later, with the s five, the great Chicago flood t shirt.
>> Farz: They did this in, like, 92, but they made it look like it was, like, 1850, you know?
>> Taylor: I like, all these are, black and white. This guy, this guy, this old guy holds a fish he found. Great.
>> Farz: Wow. Yeah, that Marshall fields. I mean, the fact that what is underneath her. Oh, my God, that's so scary.
>> Taylor: I know. Like, what is. What is even in there? What is she going to do? That's so scary.
>> Farz: Blood sale? yeah, of course. Sell everything. Who gives a shit?
>> Taylor: Yeah, so, yeah, look at these.
>> Farz: What's crazy? He's like, yeah, you're right. That's only 32 years ago. But, man, we look different back then.
>> Taylor: We did, we did. And I love. I mean, Chicago guys really look like those Saturday Night live Chicago guys.
>> Farz: I know.
>> Taylor: That is not a fucking joke. M. Yeah, it's so funny. Like, I just like you guys. Chris Farley could be any of these guys. And, like, his, like, starter jacket, you know, like, banging on his chest. So good. It's so fun. Yeah.
>> Farz: This also reminded me of that one episode I did where there was that company who had built all those, underground tunnels for the salt mine, and it was abandoned many, many decades or whatever, century later. And then somebody was, like, building something on top of it and then, like, drilled through it and all of a sudden it, like, caused a vortex that flooded. Yeah, flooded all of them.
>> Taylor: yeah.
>> Farz: Which is, again, another terrifying stuff. Like, that just freaks me out. I don't know why I can't handle that. I have such weird phobias that have, like, they're not rational phobias. Like, nobody should fear tunnels.
>> Taylor: But, like, no, I think everybody channels. I was, in London one time, and I. With, like, very cool people and, like, a very cool wine bar that was, like, in an old tunnel, like, under the ground. And so, like, the wall was all, like, you know, like a dome. You're, like, entered in this dome. And I had a panic attack. And the guy I was with was like, this has been here for, like, 300 years. Taylor, calm down. I was like, this has been over 300 years, so I gotta have to get out of here. And you don't.
>> Farz: Yeah. 300 years and maybe a day.
End of my Chicago stories for the time being. But I'm sure there will be more
>> Taylor: Today's the day. Yeah, this were brand new. And I'd be like, maybe this is. Oh, tell me it's old. I'm just like, get me out of here.
>> Farz: Yeah, yeah.
>> Taylor: He was unimpressed with me, but I was like, no way. cool. That's it. End of my Chicago stories for the time being. But I'm sure there will be more.
>> Farz: I'm sure that I do. I would love if you wanted to ever cover the reversal of the Chicago river. That'll be kind of fun.
>> Taylor: Oh, yeah. That does sound fun.
>> Farz: Yeah, because that also sounds terrifying. And, like, what is. What are humans doing?
>> Taylor: Actually, I don't. I mean, there's so many, like, I was thinking we could do, like, obviously, like, so much mob stuff that you could do there. and there's, What else? There's, like, the politics is interesting too. Like, there's, like, seven mayor dailies, or maybe two. But I want to know more about them.
>> Farz: one of the pictures is a mayor. Daily. Daily walking down the street.
>> Taylor: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
>> Farz: The mob stuff, the crime stuff. It's funny because the politics of the mob are kind of like the exact same thing. So let's just.
>> Taylor: Oh, totally.
>> Farz: Which is weird.
>> Taylor: I feel like we might get there when we, like, I think it's probably similar because I know we want to talk about Tammany hall some way. If we can, like, do that together somehow. Like, think about somehow, we just have to do it. But, like, we can just figure out how to do that. You know?
>> Farz: It could be a thing where we do, like, dual, like, parallels of, like. Yeah, Tammany hall. And then, like, you do that, and then I do, like, more modern politics and how, like, one mirrors the other.
>> Taylor: Yeah, that could be fun.
>> Farz: Well, sweet. Thanks for sharing. and, I'm going to promise to edit this on time, unlike this week situation.
>> Taylor: We're fine. We. We are. We are busy. It's going to be a couple months of craziness. Yes, we're fine. Everything's fine.
>> Farz: sweet. Anything you want to read out?
>> Taylor: Nope. no. Just. Thanks. Everyone, please tell your friends and we'll keep going.
>> Farz: Boom. Love it. Okay. Doom tofelpod.com.
>> Taylor: Oh, yeah.
>> Farz: On the socials at doom to fall pod. And wishing Taylor a speedy recovery from her latest Covid diagnosis.
>> Taylor: I know, I'm, like, slowly fading. Like, I could feel my face get full of snot.
>> Farz: On that note, we're gonna go ahead and cut this off.
>> Taylor: Okay, bye.
>> Farz: Stop recording.
>> Taylor: Bye, friends.