By By Matthew Hathaway and Tim O’Neil
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS — As a fast-rising bulge of floodwater pushed the lower Meramec River on Wednesday toward crests that could wash away the records, jittery residents loaded trucks and headed once again for high ground.
Along the low and unprotected streets of Pacific south of the railroad lines, truck-packing was the rage. And on the already-flooding Big River, which meets the Meramec near Eureka, rescue workers used boats to evacuate stranded people.
Even in Valley Park, where Mayor Jeffery Whitteaker expressed faith in the city’s new $49 million levee and urged people to stay put, some residents weren’t taking chances.
The volatile Meramec has a knack for rising swiftly. It did so most famously in December 1982, when it inundated the towns along its lower reaches. This week’s flood is compliments of two days of heavy rains that covered all of the river’s watershed, which extends to more than 100 miles southwest and south of St. Louis. Rainfall totals of 5 to 7 inches in that hilly country were common.
“This could be the biggest flood we’ve had in the Meramec basin,” said Mark Fuchs, hydrologist for the National Weather Service office in Weldon Spring. “It’s obviously a huge flood.”
The Weather Service forecast a near-record crest in Pacific late tonight, and record crests Friday and Saturday in Eureka and Valley Park. If the river floods as advertised, it would spread to near the railroad lines in Pacific and Eureka, and within 2 or 3 feet of the top of Valley Park’s new three-mile-long levee, which was completed in 2005. This is its first test.
The St. Louis County Emergency Operations Center called Wednesday morning for a voluntary evacuation all along the lower Meramec, but Whitteaker said it was safe for residents protected by the levee to stay home.
“We’ve been told by the (Army) Corps of Engineers that we’re good to go, and the levee will withstand it,” Whitteaker said in the afternoon. “I feel comfortable with the current projections.”
By then, some of his residents already had begun filling trucks with their possessions. Longtime residents have good memories of the old bottomland town’s propensity for being swamped.
“I know the Meramec River,” said Phyllis Jacoby, 65, a lifelong resident who lives on Pyramid Drive, next to the levee, and was headed for a relative’s home in Festus. “I pray that (the levee) holds and everyone doesn’t lose all they own, but I don’t think it’s going to hold. It’s just dirt.”
Over at Fourth and Benton streets, flood-veteran Susie Shields prepared to leave. “We’re not taking any chances. I’ll move in with my brother in the hills.”
Said Whitteaker, “Everybody’s got a different comfort level.” With him was Leon McKinney, a retired former Army Corps official who is advising the city.
But there wasn’t unanimity within Valley Park officialdom. Fire Chief Charles Wilken worked Wednesday to evacuate the formerly flood-prone firehouse on St. Louis Avenue. Wilken said his move could inspire a “panic situation. But it’s the right approach and we need to be honest about it.”
If 1993 is the Great Flood along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, December 1982 is the main event along the Meramec. It flooded hundreds of homes and helped bring about the end of Times Beach, the former weekend-cabin town that also had been contaminated with dioxin. The state and federal governments bought hundreds of damaged homes and wrecked cabins, but there still are enough people living along the river’s lowlands to guarantee damage under the predicted crests.
The Weather Service forecast a crest of 40 feet at Valley Park late Friday or early Saturday. That would be just higher than the record of 39.7 feet set on Dec. 6, 1982, and a full 24 feet above flood stage there. The Meramec rose above flood stage early Wednesday and was forecast to rise 10 or more feet daily to Saturday, then drop quickly by Monday.
Heavy rains earlier this week pummeled southern Missouri and Illinois with 5-plus inches. St. Louis officially had 3.6 inches, but Cape Girardeau, Mo., had a foot of rain, and Ellington and Clearwater, 120 miles south of St. Louis, had 9 and 10 inches respectively. Five people in Missouri drowned or were killed in flood-related accidents.
In Pacific, many families south of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe line were evacuating after the city - or their memories - urged them to. Nicole van Alstyne, 31, had to drive to St. Clair to find a rental truck so she could move a second time from her home on Watson Street. A tree that fell across her home last year forced her out the first time.
“Everybody in the neighborhood has to carry flood insurance, but I didn’t think we’d actually have a flood,” she said.
Jeff Snider, a real estate agent, knew better from experience. He hired people to stack sandbags around his office, near Orleans and First streets. “I just want to mitigate any damage. Flooding can be a massive loss and a lot of sadness,” Snider said.
In Eureka, landlord Patrick Butler and his tenants stacked sandbags against the front of his building on Central Avenue, which the flood of 1982 barely reached. Said tenant Donna Knapp, “I’m not a worrywart, so I’ll see what happens.”
But she did move the expensive equipment from her screen-printing shop to a safe location.
To the south along the Big River, rescue teams used boats to evacuate residents of Riverview Drive near Morse Mill. The Big rushed from its banks and surrounded the homes - a 360-degree view of the river.
Cathy Francis of Riverview Drive said water was waist-deep in her lower floor. “All my stuff is gone. I’ve lost everything.”
Michelle Coplin, a neighbor who also took a boat ride, said she was surprised by the river’s quick rise.
“At 2:30 a.m. I went to bed and there was no water even in the street yet,” she said. “When I got up a few hours later, the water had already covered my yard.”
Linda Koenig looked at the bright side, saying Wednesday’s evacuation was only her second in 17 years and that she’ll return. “I love it down there. Wherever you live, something can go wrong,” Koenig said.
Back in Valley Park, Mike and Tracy Schwarztrauber accepted offers from friends and regular customers to care for the noisy population of their Varietees Exotic Bird Store, at Marshall Road and Highway 141. “We’re hoping we don’t have to evacuate, but we can’t take a chance with the birds,” said Mike Schwarztrauber.
On Wednesday morning, city employees and volunteers, including uniformed members of the Valley Park High School baseball team filled about 500 sandbags for contingency. Mayoral candidate Grant Young, who supervised the job, said he had faith in the levee.
“But this is the first time it’s been tested, and it’s going to be quite a test,” Young said.
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