In the heat of a typical summer, the Chain O' Lakes buzzes with boats zipping across the water, skiers bouncing over wakes and revelers carousing in bars and restaurants.
But for weeks now, the lakes have been still and silent. Torrential rains pushed record flood waters over docks and into homes and businesses, prompting officials to close the Chain and the Fox River to recreational traffic, and shutting down most business activity at the height of the season.
Now, weeks of missed opportunity, as flood waters finally begin to subside on the Fox and Des Plaines rivers, businesses are gearing up to recover from one of the most devastating floods to hit Chicago's suburbs.
Leading the way, one of the most iconic businesses on the Chain O' Lakes, Blarney Island — a party destination with live entertainment often called the "Key West of the Midwest" — was scheduled to reopen Thursday after having to postpone its biggest bash of the year, Blarney Gras, now scheduled for Aug. 4-6.
The bar and restaurant, located on an island in Antioch and accessible only by boat or helicopter, stayed high and dry as it was raised 52 inches above the high water mark — a major rehabilitation resulting from the establishment getting deluged in the 2013 flood. But while that flood occurred during the off-season in April, owner Rob Hardman said the latest storms hurt area businesses like his by drowning out the middle of summer.
"It's absolutely catastrophic," Hardman said. "Chicago has a short summer to begin with. Losing the better portion of July is pretty devastating. It's a massive impact to the community as a whole."
There are about 20,000 registered boats on the Chain and the adjoining river, and businesses that cater to them — marinas, restaurants, bars, repair and rental shops, grocery stores and gas stations — have been hit the hardest by the flooding. Some boat dealers were already advertising discounts to reduce their inventory.
At Fox 14 Marina, which has locations in Fox River Grove and Algonquin, owner Garry Zack summed up business this way: "Nobody's boating, nobody's breaking."
In Fox Lake, water rose a foot above the docks and filled the shop floor at the family-owned Chain O' Lakes Marina. Workers raised the height of posts on the piers to keep about 150 boats tied down, co-owner Steve Moulis said.
"This is a real letdown, because the season was just taking off," Moulis said last week. "Now it's come to a screeching halt."
The cancellation of Algonquin's Founders' Days, which had been planned for the last weekend of July, also eliminated a big business draw. It was the first cancellation of the festival in 57 years, organizers said.
The boating season got a late start, anyway, because of a relatively wet, cold June. And after the two-week shutdown of the Chain and Fox, officials say it will likely take another week or two for things to begin to get back to normal. Traffic is still restricted to commercial boats, such as a shuttle to Blarney Island.
Joe Keller, executive director of the Fox Waterway Agency, said Wednesday the system could reopen to boats, with no wake, in five to six days, and to full boating in nine days to two weeks. Agency workers were busy this week clearing trees and branches from the main crossroads of the lake system, Governor's Channel below U.S. Route 12 between Pistakee and Nippersink lakes.
The agency gets much of its budget from selling required stickers for boats, and Keller estimated it could lose some $100,000 in sticker sales with the shortened season. At the same time, the agency's workload has increased with the removal of extra silt and debris caused by the flooding.
"We look at this as a business killer for the rest of the year," Keller said. "It's kind of heartbreaking. But then you'll probably see a busier August. There's a lot of hungry people who want to get out there and enjoy their summer."
High waters prompted the closing of the Chain O' Lakes and Fox River on July 14 so that boat wakes wouldn't rush over sandbag walls protecting homes along the shore. After two weeks of rain that in some areas was seven times the normal amount for that period, and the river's record crest at 13.1 feet Sunday in Algonquin, the waters are finally receding. By Thursday morning, the river had dropped into moderate flood stage at Algonquin, and with dry weather forecast, it was expected to continue its descent and reach minor flood stage by Monday.
At Gurnee, another hard-hit area, the Des Plaines River had declined by more than one-third Thursday from its record height of 10 feet and was at minor flood levels.
But businesses don't have to be on a lake or river to end up financially underwater from the storms.
Many Chicago area golf courses took a hit because of soaked courses that prompted dayslong shutdowns in some cases. Superintendents tweeted photos of holes underwater from tees to greens and water hazards that stretched from hole to hole.
Jesse Benelli, turfgrass program director for the Chicago District Golf Association, said many courses also had to ban the use of golf carts, which could damage the soggy turf, further hurting business.
"There's no miracle treatment for turf that's 3 feet under water in some locations," Benelli said. "The big problem is there's no place for the water to go."
Looking forward, he said, some of the grass will die from being submerged, and other areas will be susceptible to fungus, pests and other diseases.
Still, business owners see dry land ahead, if they can avoid more major storms.
The silver lining to this year's flood was that the waters rose relatively slowly, giving most businesses and homeowners time to salvage valuable items and build sandbag walls to keep the water out, said Lee Jennings, supervisor of Nunda Township in Crystal Lake.
The highway department, using three high-speed sandbagging machines, distributed an estimated 150,000 sand bags.
"The water's ... going to hang around for some time, but cleanup efforts are slowly starting," he said.
Twitter @RobertMcCoppin
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