A City That Already Survived One Disaster
Urbana's worst disaster wasn't water: an 1871 fire, breaking out one day after the great Chicago and Peshtigo, Wisconsin fires, destroyed much of the young city and forced a rebuilding wave that produced most of its historic core. That construction, over a century old in places, predates any modern storm-hardening or drainage standard.
Storm Exposure on Century-Old Construction
Central Illinois sees long-track tornadoes capable of running 50 to 200-plus miles on the ground, and Champaign County recorded 79 tornadoes between 1950 and 2019 -- a real storm-damage risk layered on top of Urbana's older building stock. Water and storm damage restoration in Urbana's historic core has to account for construction that was never built to today's code.