Residents of Missouri face massive cleanup
The Mississippi river and its tributaries retreated on Saturday from historic winter levels that flooded towns, forced evacuations and killed two dozen people, as residents in the St.
The Mississippi river and its tributaries retreated on Saturday from historic winter levels that flooded towns, forced evacuations and killed two dozen people, as residents in the St. Louis area faced a massive cleanup and recovery effort that will likely last weeks.
The flood, fuelled by more than 10 inches of rain over a three-day period that began last weekend, is blamed for 24 deaths in Illinois and Missouri.
“The healing process, the restoration process has begun,” Chris Greenhagen, pastor of the Central Baptist Church in Eureka, Missouri — one of the communities hit by flooding along the Meramec river earlier this week — said in a telephone interview.
Water from the Mississippi, Meramec and Missouri rivers largely began receding on Friday in the St. Louis area. Two major highways — Interstate 44 and Interstate 55 — reopened south of St. Louis on Friday and some evacuees were also allowed then to return home.
On Saturday, while residents took stock of the ruin, Missouri governor Jay Nixon said he asked for a federal emergency declaration to help speed cleanup of the flood debris. If the declaration is approved, the National Guard would manage the cleanup programme at the state level.
Nixon and Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner also toured flood-ravaged areas as near-record crest predictions of the Mississippi River and levee breaks threatened more homes.
In Missouri, Noelle Pace said she packed up electronics, some furniture and her 4-year-old son’s clothing and toys and left Pacific on Dec. 28, the day after she received a request to evacuate. She felt lucky to find the damage isolated to her crawl space when she returned for the first time Thursday.
“Everybody around us had catastrophic damage,” Pace said. She said she might not be able to move back for weeks while her landlord replaces soaked insulation.
“It doesn’t feel real yet,” she said.
Illinois Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Patti Thompson said the state’s flooding death toll increased to nine. Fifteen have died in Missouri.