Chicago dealt with major rainfall and flash floods on Sunday, but the Week 1 NFL game between the Bears and San Francisco 49ers still went on.
Players slipped and slid across a rain-soaked Soldier Field for four quarters; the conditions made it hard to tell whether either quarterback was actually any good, according to Grant Marek and Dennis Young of SFGate.
“Trey Lance (quarterback of the 49ers) could hardly be blamed for an inaccurate Week 1 as the undisputed starter, as both teams struggled in brutal conditions. Lance was 13-of-28 for 164 yards and an interception, roughly matching his counterpart, Justin Fields, who also failed to complete 50% of his passes,” they wrote.
Fans and reporters at the game captured alarming footage of people in the stands being drenched by waterfalls and water rushing down the stadium stairs. The TV broadcast crew had to use graphics to make the yard markers visible to folks watching from home, SFGate reported.
“Soldier Field is officially now Soldier Pond,” tweeted Adam Jahns, who covers the Bears for The Athletic, during the game.
After three soggy hours, Fields and the Bears pulled off an upset 19-10 win and celebrated by playing in the rain. Elsewhere in the city, Chicagoans were dealing with home damage and ruined cars, as The New York Times reported.
“At some intersections, cars were stranded in the rainwater after motorists drove through suddenly flooded roads. Homeowners whose basements had not seen water in years were unpleasantly surprised to discover that rainwater had surged up through drains, in some cases leaving an ankle-deep flood carrying a pungent smell of sewage. Grocery stores dealing with flooding closed their doors, and some businesses could not open at all,” the article said.
Most neighborhoods in the Chicago area received between four and six inches of rain on Sunday, according to NBC Chicago. The rain is supposed to let up by Monday evening.