Insurers sue Chicago-area towns, counties, townships, forest preserves and MWRD in bid to get flood

For years, Gurnee has projected the rise of the Des Plaines River before heavy rains, bought up property in flood zones and put out sandbags to prevent rainwater breaches.

Still, the village is among nearly 200 communities in the Chicago area being sued by a major insurance company that is arguing the municipalities didn’t do enough to prevent last year’s record flooding. The suits, filed by Farmers Insurance Group, seek to force these communities — and by extension their taxpayers and, ironically, their insurers — to pay back Farmers for claims it paid out for flooding in spring 2013…Please click here to read the story by Robert McCoppin, Lisa Black and Dan Hinkel in the Tribune. A related story, “Cook Towns Hire Michael Del Galdo to Defend against Illinois Farmers Insurance Storms Suit,” can be found here.