This week, communities across the Chicago area have been impacted by severe storms that brought heavy rain, flooding, damaging winds, and a tornado. Many residents are now facing significant disruption, including damage to homes, power outages, and urgent recovery needs. As these effects continue to unfold, we are thinking of everyone across our region and hoping that you and your loved ones remain safe.
At 211 Metro Chicago, our role is to connect residents to critical resources when they need them most, and this is one of those moments when the need across our community is especially urgent. In response to the recent storms and ongoing heat, we are making internal adjustments and coordinating with partners to ensure residents can access timely, relevant support in the following ways:
- We are utilizing ComEd outage maps so we can provide answers to residents who have lost power. This also allows us to refrain from referring clients to services located in areas where there are outages.
- Resource Navigators have access to available cooling center locations to share with residents.
- Resources are available for residents who have lost furniture due to flooding, as well as food for those who have lost power and are dealing with spoiled food. Pantry locations, availability, and hours are updated every 6 hours or as changes occur.
- We are communicating regularly with 3-1-1 and connecting residents to them if they need assistance due to issues such as property damage from fallen trees or flooding.
- While we are documenting those who contact 2-1-1 if they’ve been impacted by storms in our region, we are adding a direct question as to “if they have been impacted” so as not to disrupt our database program during high volume.
Our immediate priority is to ensure residents are connected to the services and support they need. In addition, we will collect and analyze the data gathered through this response so we can better understand how these storms are affecting our community and strengthen future preparedness efforts.
If you or someone you know is in need of support as a result of the storms or extreme heat, please remember that 2-1-1 is here to help. You can call, text, or visit our website for assistance.
Richard LaPratt
Executive Director, 211 Metro Chicago
Need help? Contact 2-1-1 today.