CHICAGO | Riverline | 8 Towers | 600FT - 500FT(X2) - 380FT(X2) - 242FT(X2) - 300FT~

[Chi-Sky21]

Originally Posted by BrickellBased

Did a little Googling.

Apparently the river height is pretty well controlled.

Worst case:

"Highest Recorded Level: The North Branch at Grand Ave reached 5.7 feet on October 10, 1954."

Also

"The "Reversal" Trigger: When the river rises high enough to threaten the downtown area, the MWRD opens the locks at the lakefront. This usually happens only when the river level is higher than the lake, allowing gravity to pull floodwaters out to the lake to prevent catastrophic city flooding."

Lake Michigan is about 2 feet higher than the river. If the river gets too high they can simply have it flow back into the lake (the original way nature intended).

Based on the photo I think there's about 10 feet of clearance so it really should never get that high.

Chicago remains basically disaster free as far as major cities go.

Well except for that pesky great fire and the flood of 1992
Actually I forget when but the river did rise pretty high not that long ago, they could not open the gates right away as usual because the weather was pushing the lake water higher by where they would open the gates.