Pacific, Eureka officials, volunteers working feverishly against flood

Preparation better than it was in 1982

By Danette Thompson
Saturday, March 22, 2008 7:05 AM CDT

Aided by dozens of volunteers, local emergency and city officials are focusing on resident safety and doing what they can to protect homes and businesses as area rivers continue to rise.

Flood waters from the Meramec and Big rivers have closed roads and forced many Eureka and Pacific residents out of their homes into local hotels, friends' or family's houses or to emergency shelters.

"Eureka has become four different islands," said Kate Moore, public information officer for the Eureka Fire Protection District. "We've got several areas that are completely shut off - Hoehne Springs (along Highway W), the Highway FF area, Highway 109 and Allenton. We encouraged people in those areas to leave, and most of them evacuated, but we've got about 10 people who just aren't going to go."

Eureka firefighters already have been called to rescue several people who tried to drive through flooded areas, and Moore said emergency officials expect they'll be called out again before the flood waters recede late this weekend.

Many times those rescues become a necessity because people try to drive or steer a boat through flood waters, Moore said.

"We try our best to warn people against it, but there are people who underestimate the force of the flood waters and who think their vehicle or their boat can get through," Moore said. "But they can't see what's underneath that water. The road could be washed away or there could be a swing set or a car that a boat could hit.

"It's not worth risking your life or the lives of the emergency responders. If people would just heed the warnings, then most of these incidents could be avoided."

Pacific officials coping with the evacuation of the city's south side also tried to curb the potential for traffic congestion and other problems by asking people not affected to stay away.

"We've had difficulty with people coming into the area and gawking," said Dian Becker, city emergency management director. "It adds to traffic congestion and it interferes with our efforts to monitor water levels on streets that will need to be closed for citizen safety. We're asking people who are not from the potential affected areas to please stay away."

Becker said the Pacific Police Department has increased patrols in the area to help control traffic in and out and to provide additional security.

Both cities also are coordinating volunteer sandbagging efforts and looking ahead to the end of the weekend, when the flood waters recede and a major cleanup effort begins.

"We're doing all we can to save homes and businesses from damage," said Pacific City Administrator Harold Selby. "We can only do so much because while we know where the water is going to go, we don't know what role development in the community over the last 25 years is going to play."

The last record flood in the area was in December 1982.

Eureka Mayor Kevin Coffey said there are some areas of Eureka severely affected by record 1982 floods that have been converted to green space or park land.

Eureka's Kircher Park on Williams Road once was a trailer court. The city also negotiated a buyout of several properties in the Meramec River bottoms area around Eureka.

That doesn't mean the flooding predicted for Eureka - expected to exceed the record high crest of 42.9 feet in 1982 - will leave the city unscathed.

Businesses along Central Avenue and in the old downtown area surrounded their buildings with sandbag walls in anticipation of flooding in that part of town. Other areas of the city, including the Elk Trails subdivision and along Highway 109 and Alt Road, were expected to be affected by flood waters.

Nearly 200 people, from children to senior citizens, showed up Thursday along the Highway W spur to help fill about 15,000 sandbags and deliver them to potentially affected areas of the city.

Coffey said once the waters recede, the city has about 150 trained Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) volunteers and another 50 Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts ready to help assist with the cleanup efforts.

"Our priorities are first and foremost, that no one is hurt or killed," Coffey said. "Then we want to protect property as much as possible and, finally, minimize the inconvenience. Hopefully, when it's all said and done, the worst of it will be the inconvenience."

Although church groups, students, civic organizations and individuals offered Pacific help in preparing for the impending flood, Selby said more help will be needed with the cleanup effort.

Officials in both cities were coordinating response efforts through St. Louis County and Franklin County emergency management agencies, and working with the American Red Cross to ensure there is emergency shelter available to those who need it.

"We've got good emergency response plans in place, and there's been a tremendous outpouring of help in the community," Coffey said. "Compared to 1982, we have a much better coordinated response effort. We will survive this, and help will be there for the people who need it."