Hinsdale Hospital Among Flooding Victims In June

HINSDALE, IL — For months, residents in northeast Hinsdale have struggled to get reimbursed for flooding in late June. They blame the Interstate 294 expansion project for the damage.

Among those flooded was the local hospital, known as Amita Health Adventist Medical Center Hinsdale.

Through a public records request with the Illinois Tollway, Patch obtained an email from the hospital chain, among many other documents.

Two days after the June 26 floods, Kurt Martz, regional director of facilities for Amita, emailed the village and the tollway's engineering firm about the hospital's flooding.

He said the hospital took on "substantial" water in its basement and the Elmwood Hall building, with the bulk of the damage in walls and supplies in the basement.

"(An) additional concern we have is much of our electrical distribution system is in the basement, and we were dangerously close to water entering that distribution center," Martz said. "As you can imagine, this would be mission critical to our operation if we impacted that utility system."

He continued, "As I know your team is working hard to look into the issues, I would like to stress the potential impact of our community hospital if we flooded in a manner that impacted our electrical system."

According to Illinois Tollway records, the flooding impacted 47 properties in Hinsdale.