By Jackie Olson

Businesses in downtown Naperville are fighting the rising waters of the DuPage River this morning after yesterday’s near seven inches of rainfall and the opening of the Fawell Dam.

The Washington and Eagle Street bridges are now closed, as well as parts of Main Street, Water Street, and Jackson Avenue. The Riverwalk is completely shut down, with most of it submerged, including the entire amphitheatre.

“We came in here yesterday at five o’clock and we were already four feet under water,” said Mark Clemmons, an employee at Cookie Dough Creations. “We have seven pumps going right now, and the water is still pretty hefty.”

Clemmons’ workplace is one of only a few on Main Street that was not sandbagged, but it is unclear as to whether it would have made a difference. Behind Frankie’s Blue Room and Features Bar, a wall of sandbags and pumps work to keep the water at bay as well.

“They said it was going to crest last night, supposedly at midnight, but I just see it getting worse,” said Clemmons. “The streets weren’t flooded at five this morning and now they’re flooded.”

Cookie Dough Creations still has electricity upstairs, but the phone lines are down, and Clemmons is unsure if they will conduct business today.

“We won’t know how much inventory we’ve lost until we go down there, and we can’t yet because of the electricity, but it’ll be a lot,” said Clemmons.

Across the street, however, Einstein Bagels operates normally.

“We are still open. I’m not worried. I’m used to floods, so it did not scare me at all,” said Einstein manager Daisy Weeks.

The front entrance to the restaurant is sandbagged, but customers continue to use the door on Jackson Avenue, despite the water that laps at the building’s front curb. NNHS senior Kelly Systo was among the customers.

“I was surprised that it was sandbagged, and surprised by how much water was on Jackson [Avenue], but I still came anyway,” said Systo.

Weeks is unsure of who actually placed the sandbags on the front stoop.

“It looked like we were sandbagged by the Park District. I don’t think our team did it here,” said Weeks.

With some businesses better off than others, the time it will take to get all of downtown cleaned up is unclear. On-site Park District crews and police were unable to comment.

“I don’t think there’s much we can do now,” said Clemmons. “The damage is done. We just want the water to go down.”