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December 3 1, 201 5 • $1 .0 0
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Police step up holiday patrols
McHENRY COUNTY MAN AMONG THOUSANDS FALSELY REPORTED DEAD BY SOCIAL SECURITY
IDOT reports an increase in crash fatalities By EMILY K. COLEMAN ecoleman@shawmedia.com
Photos by Sarah Nader – snader@shawmedia.com
John Grether looks out the window of his home Dec. 23 in Holiday Hills. Social Security has reported Grether as deceased three times, each time cutting off his health insurance, his benefits and his pension. He is among the 14,000 people inaccurately reported dead each year by the agency.
‘I just keep dying’
Chain reaction affects family’s health benefits, income and more By EMILY K. COLEMAN ecoleman@shawmedia.com HOLIDAY HILLS – Linda Grether read the letter four times. The letter from their Medicare Part D insurance provider was addressed to the estate of her husband, John Grether, and it expressed condolences for her loss. The thing was, John Grether wasn’t dead. The Holiday Hills man wasn’t dead six months later, either, when a second letter arrived, or this December when a third letter arrived, but for some reason, John Grether kept getting reported as deceased to the Social Security Death Master File, resulting in a chain reaction that affected their health benefits, their Social Security income and his pension from his job as a construction company shop foreman. Social Security receives death information from a variety of sources, primarily from family members, funeral homes, financial
Linda Grether and her husband, John Grether, talk Dec. 23 in their Holiday Hills home. institutions and state governments, regional spokesman Doug Nguyen said in an email. Of the 2.8 million death reports Social Security posts each year, about 9,000 are found to
be false. That number is down from the average of more than 12,000 a year found to have been erroneously added to the Master Death File
from May 2007 through April 2010 by the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General, according to a 2011 report. Nguyen credits the increased use of electronic death registration, which automates Social Security’s receipt of death information. Illinois is among the 42 states using the system. “Universal implementation of [the system] has the potential to virtually eliminate death reporting errors and would ensure that our death records – whether pertaining to current beneficiaries or other persons – include the most accurate and most current information,” Nguyen said in an email. The Grethers have their suspicions for why the death reports keep happening, but they don’t understand why Social Security hasn’t been able to flag the account or otherwise prevent it from happening again.
See DEATH, page A4
Police agencies across the state and McHenry County will be cracking down on drunken driving this New Year’s. The number of people who have died in crashes is up 8.5 percent over last year, the Illinois Department of Transportation has reported. Of the thousand fatalities that occurred this year, 18 happened in McHenry County. Last year over the New Year’s holiday, 10 people died in Illinois and 856 more were injured in crashes, data showed. Half of the fatalities resulted in crashes in which a driver had been drinking. “Fatality numbers are a way to measure progress, but they are clearly so much more than just numbers,” IDOT’s Division of Traffic Safety Director Jared Thornley said in a news release. “They represent friends, family and loved ones.” Area police departments, including Crystal Lake and Algonquin, will have more officers patrolling the streets, conducting additional roadside safety checks, manning seat belt enforcement zones and conducting traditional patrols. The extra hours will be paid for using federal highway safety funds allocated by IDOT, the release said, adding that the crackdown will focus primarily on driving under the influence, speeding, distracted driving and seat belt violations. IDOT officials are advising those heading out for the holiday to plan ahead by designating a sober driver; use a taxi or public transportation or look into community designated driver programs; as well as report drunken drivers and wear a seat belt.
Rescue crews assist with evacuations in Midwest flooding By JIM SALTER and ALAN SCHER ZAGIER The Associated Press ST. LOUIS – As swollen rivers and streams pushed to heights not seen in nearly a quarter-century, officials in Missouri and Illinois helped residents get to higher ground Wednesday amid fears that already dire conditions could worsen as floodwaters began spilling over the federal levees protecting some communities and farmland. In Eureka southwest of St. Louis, firefighters and their boats have been in high demand since Tuesday, accounting for roughly four dozen res-
cues of people in their homes, businesses or vehicles. Television news footage showed at least one home there drifting in the swollen river Wednesday, when firefighters rescued by boat a man and a dog as floodwaters lapped at the eaves of the house roof on which they’d been trapped for a night. “Our crews are getting dispatched to another rescue now,” Scott Barthelmass, a Eureka Fire Protection District spokesman, said mid-afternoon Wednesday as the swollen Meramec River there was cresting. “I think you’re seeing people who are desperate or impatient, putting NWHerald .com
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themselves in predicaments.” The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced Wednesday that nine levees had been topped by water, although some of those earthen barriers were meant to protect farmland rather than populated areas, so it wasn’t immediately clear how many homes were in jeopardy. Nearly a dozen other levees were considered at risk for “possible significant distress” but were holding as of Wednesday evening, the Army Corps said. But people were moving out just in case, including the St. Louis suburb of Valley Park, where Mayor Michael Pennise ordered mandato-
ry evacuations for 350 to 400 homes and dozens of businesses in the section of town near the fast-rising Meramec River. At least 20 deaths over several days in Missouri and Illinois were blamed on flooding, mostly involving vehicles that drove onto swamped roadways, and at least two people still were missing Wednesday. Search teams went out for a third day in hopes of finding a country music singer from Arkansas who disappeared while duck hunting in a flooded area in northern
See FLOODING, page A4
AP photo
Paul Dusablon (left) and Richard Kotva row Wednesday from the Circle K at Springdale Park after helping the owner move electronics off the floor inside the convenience store in Fenton, Mo. A rare winter flood threatened nearly two dozen federal levees in Missouri and Illinois as rivers rose, prompting evacuations in several places.
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1st phase of Longmeadow Parkway bridge corridor open for bidding / A3
Emanuel: Chicago police changes will focus on use of force / A7
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