© G-Jun Yam/Associated PressA man picks up sandbags to reinforce the barrier he built to keep the flood water from reaching his house Friday, July 14, 2017, in Gurnee, Ill. Illinois officials said Friday that several thousand buildings have been affected by “unprecedented” flooding north of Chicago, and the damage is expected to worsen this weekend as water flows down rivers into the state from Wisconsin.
Severe thunderstorms are expected to hit the upper Midwest again this weekend. Parts of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois are already flooded.
Heavy rains have left large swaths of the region under water. Severe flooding has closed roadways and knocked out power.
The flooding is being called unprecedented. Authorities say
two months of rain have fallen in just 12 hours in Gurnee, north of Chicago. It's not uncommon to see flooding here, 1.6 trillion gallons of water fell this week on portions of Wisconsin and Illinois, where Bruce Rauner is the governor.
"Folks think because it's not raining anymore, things are just fine or getting better -- they're not," Rauner says.
In Lake County, Illinois, 5,800 buildings have reportedly been damaged by flood water. Forecasters say flooding in the northern Chicago suburbs will get worse over the next few days as water flows down rivers into the state from Wisconsin.
Comment: Last month snow and heavy rains disrupted mining operations in the desert region of northern Chile.