Questions already were being raised Sunday as to why Munster's efforts to control Little Calumet River floodwater appeared to lag behind Hammond's effort.

State Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon, D-Munster, said she and residents were left to wonder why berm construction began on the Hammond side of the Northcote Avenue bridge Saturday night but did not begin on the Munster side until Sunday.

"It was too little, too late," Candelaria Reardon said.

The Hammond-Munster border is delineated by the Little Calumet River, so residents on either side can compare how the neighboring municipality is handling things.

Candelaria Reardon spent much of Sunday sandbagging with residents at the bridge.

In the evening, the town placed the area under an evacuation advisory.

Munster Town Councilman Mike Mellon said he, other town officials and public safety workers monitored from Saturday night into Sunday the northeast corner of town where the bridge is.

"I don't understand the point to her comments," he said when told of Candelaria Reardon's criticisms.

The Hammond Public Works Department began building berms Saturday night along the Little Calumet at Columbia Avenue and at Northcote Avenue, Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. said.

"I've had people working 36 hours," McDermott said Sunday afternoon. "This will be expensive."

The berms on the Hammond side of Columbia Avenue worked, but McDermott said he watched as water cascaded from the Columbia Avenue area into Munster neighborhoods.

Mellon said the Munster side of the bridge is lower, so water would naturally pour that way.

McDermott made no criticism of Munster's efforts, but offered plenty for the Indiana Department of Transportation regarding the Interstate 80/94 closure.

McDermott was furious Sunday night when he discovered Hammond's Dowling Park and surrounding homes were besieged by a "rushing torrent of water," which he said flowed from the expressway. Highway crews were not pumping water from the road, but something was sending water into the south Hessville neighborhood, McDermott said.

"It's like, oh my God, what are these guys doing to us? They're going to ruin a whole neighborhood," McDermott said.

"It's like a firehose pouring right into our neighborhood," he said.

The expressway also was closed a little more than a year ago, and the state transportation department never backed off its claim that the highway is properly engineered. An engineering report placed most of the blame on a malfunctioning flap gate.

McDermott continues to disagree with INDOT on the matter.

"It looks to me like you can't have a 100-year flood every year," McDermott said, mocking claims the expressway can handle all but the worst floods.

INDOT crews pumped the I-80/94 expressway at Kennedy Avenue throughout Saturday night and into Sunday morning, McDermott said. But when Optimist Lake south of the Lake County tourism center began to overflow, the expressway was doomed, he said.

Hotels in the area were evacuated by firetruck, boat and tow truck.