So is it just in Illinois that we have http://www.illinois1call.com/? This seems to be seriously effective. Someone doing work on the yard calls the number and sometime the next day a whole passel of yellow/blue/red flags are planted in the ground, marking where various things are. They are doing resurfacing on the subdivision street, and there are flags everywhere, sometimes augmented with yellow paint on the grass.

On the other hand, Chicago is famous for having a $2 billion dollar flood in which nobody was hurt or killed. One of the city inspectors called out apparently did not even know of the abandonded underground railroad that as he "inspected" the area, the flood was just about to get underway.

This was a major urban adventure, as they tried to plug the hole. One scene had huge concrete trucks hurtling down city streets in excess of 70 mph flanked by police cruisers. Another scene had unimaginably large pumps brought in to pump out basement complexes. (The Army Corps of Engineers would not let them be used, as the draining would have been too fast, causing collapse of walls)

There was even a special extension granted to individuals whose tax returns filed late due to this adventure.