After this summer’s slew of storms and flooding, Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications is warning residents to be wary of fraud and scams that can arise in the wake of disaster.
Twice since August, city, state and federal officials have gone door to door assessing homes for damage from several rounds of storms and subsequent flooding that swept through the city. However, officials are not currently conducting damage assessments and are warning residents that any home visits, emails or calls regarding flooding assistance are likely a scam, OEMC said.
Officials advised all affected residents to watch for any suspicious activity and report it by contacting the Chicago police’s nonemergency line at 311 or the Illinois attorney general’s office’s consumer fraud hotline at 800-386-5438.
Over the past month, Gov. JB Pritzker has issued state disaster proclamations in response to summer storms and flooding that wrought damage across Cook and surrounding counties. That’s on top of disaster proclamations issued by both Mayor Brandon Johnson and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle following the bouts of severe weather.
In late July, the Chicago area was rattled by heavy rains and flooding. Less than a month later, a round of weekend storms followed by another wave of heavy rains affected thousands across Chicago and the suburbs between Aug. 16 and 19.
After both weather events, residents were asked to complete a flood assessment to determine the extent of storm-related damage. Following the July storms, some 2,900 Cook County and Chicago residents reported damage. Then, after the August storms, another 4,359 surveys had been filled out by residents across Chicago and suburban Cook County, which showed there were 32 residences considered to have been destroyed, 1,893 residences considered to have sustained major damage and 1,827 residences that suffered minor damage, according to OEMC.