Citizens feared that sewage run-off from the storm would reach the intake cribs of the Chicago lake tunnels (built in 1866 and 1874) and pollute the city’s drinking water.
[2] According to the legend, typhoid, cholera and other waterborne diseases from the contaminated drinking water killed up to 90,000 people.
to have been created by the Illinois legislature in 1889 in response to a terrible epidemic which killed thousands of residents of this fledgling city.
The supposed 90,000 deaths would have represented 12% of the city's entire population[3] and would have left numerous public records as well as newspaper accounts.
[5][6] In the late 19th century, typhoid fever mortality rate in Chicago averaged 65 per 100,000 people a year.