Local coverage
Project conversations across Will County and the Joliet area.
Real coverage near Joliet depends on independent provider availability, not this list; each community page below adds its own housing and site context.
Shorewood
Shorewood began as a fishing and resort community called Troy on the Des Plaines River, anchored by an 1845 water-powered flour mill and incorporated in 1957, with river flood exposure still shaping many losses.
Local planning notes →Crest Hill
First explored by Louis Joliet and Pere Marquette in 1673, Crest Hill grew from a post-WWII building boom and incorporated in 1960 to avoid annexation, so its uniform basements fail in uniform ways.
Local planning notes →Rockdale
Settled by Slovenian and Lithuanian immigrants and incorporated in 1903, Rockdale saw the U.S. Navy build ships along the Des Plaines River there during the 1930s, and river proximity still competes with rainfall as a source.
Local planning notes →Plainfield
The oldest community in Will County, Plainfield traces to the 1828 Walkers' Grove settlement and was the site of the region's defining storm-damage event, the August 1990 F5 tornado, which reshaped much of its housing.
Local planning notes →Lockport
Platted in 1837 as the Illinois and Michigan Canal's headquarters town, Lockport takes its name from the canal locks needed to manage a roughly 40-foot drop, and that grade still routes water toward the lowest structures.
Local planning notes →New Lenox
First settled in the late 1820s near Gouger crossing as VanHorne Point, New Lenox was renamed for its township after the railroad arrived in 1852, and its postwar slab construction spreads a loss laterally.
Local planning notes →Channahon
Channahon's name means meeting of the waters in Potawatomi, marking where the Des Plaines, Kankakee and DuPage rivers converge, which puts genuine flood exposure into many losses here.
Local planning notes →Minooka
Platted in 1852 by railroad surveyor Ransom Gardner at the highest point on the Chicago-to-Ottawa line, Minooka's name comes from a Potawatomi word for good land or high place, and that elevation spares its core much of the surrounding runoff.
Local planning notes →