CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Chicago's shoreline is at "significant risk," according to the Army Corps of Engineers, and Mayor Lightfoot is blunt: It'll take money to help solve the problem.
The commander of the Army Corps of Engineers in Chicago is Colonel Aaron Reisinger.
“I think the spring storms and high lake levels put the shoreline at pretty significant risk."
Col. Reisinger took Mayor Lightfoot and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin on a brief tour of the teeming shoreline near La Rabida Hospital.
"The last records were in 1986, over the 100-year record time span, and we anticipate this summer being at or above those records, based on this forecast," Reisinger said.
Related
"Wasn't it five years ago when we were talking record lows?" asked Mayor Lightfoot.
"Record lows, yes, ma'am."
Mayor Lightfoot says she's looking for money to fund a Corps of Engineers study so that more work can be done.
"If you look at those areas where there have been reinforcements, those areas are holding. We need to finish the work for the remaining 8 to 9 miles of lakefront."
The question is: How agreeable will the Trump administration be to give money to Chicago?
"I hate to bring up politics," Durbin said, "but I will. It's not just 5,200 miles of shoreline (including all the Great Lakes), it's hundreds of electoral votes.
"Take a look at the Great Lakes states, and take a look at the target states that the presidential candidates are going to focus on in the Electoral College, and you're going to see they coincide," he said.