East St. Louis releases estimate of flood damage from heavy rains that pummeled region
The damages and economic impact caused by Tuesday’s flood could be an estimated $10 million in East St. Louis, Mayor Robert Eastern III said Saturday.
“When you’re talking about homes, vehicles, wages lost and that’s just on the citizen’s side … and when you couple that with the infrastructure and the manpower and the resources that the city has put in, it’s probably going to be upwards to $10 million,” Eastern said.
An estimate of flood damages for elsewhere in the metro-east was not available.
The flooding occurred after 8 to 12 inches of rain fell in the St. Louis metro area on Tuesday and a daily rainfall record was set at St. Louis Lambert International Airport.
St. Clair County and East St. Louis issued disaster declarations.
Some East St. Louis streets remained flooded during the week, but by Saturday, the floodwater had been drained from the streets and the fire department was able to hose off streets and sidewalks, Eastern said.
Terrace Drive was the hardest hit area in the city, Eastern said, and 30 to 35 families have been displaced by the flood.
An overnight, temporary shelter opened for displaced residents on Saturday at Mason-Clark Middle School at 5510 State St.
Eastern said the city had provided transportation for displaced flood victims and paid for hotel rooms at the Casino Queen in East St. Louis and the Super 8 in Fairview Heights.
Why did floodwaters persist?
“It’s a combination of a lot of things so you can’t really point your finger at one thing,” Eastern said about the cause of the flooding and why the water remained in place for several days.
Terrace Drive is near the confluence of the Harding Ditch and Schoenberger Creek near the intersection of Interstate 255 and State Street.
Eastern noted that these waterways receive rainwater runoff from developed areas above the Mississippi River bluffs.
“Rainwater runs downhill correct? Not uphill,” Eastern said. “It all runs through the city of East St. Louis and Cahokia Heights.”
Cahokia Heights Mayor Curtis McCall Sr. made this same point on Wednesday.
Some of the pumps used to drain the Terrace Drive area had automatically shut off when the Harding Ditch became too full to accept more water, Eastern said, based on information he received from engineers and the Metro East Sanitary District.
He added that one pump failed but that he hopes it can be replaced. To help with draining the floodwater, the city received temporary pumps from the Illinois Department of Transportation, Eastern said.
Eastern said the Harding Ditch needs to be dredged deeper and widened but he has been told that this would cost tens of millions of dollars and that there weren’t federal funds available.
He also said the area has an aging sewer system.
“It’s a lot of issues and it needs to be a synchronized, systematic approach,” Eastern said.
Cahokia Heights residents had been told by officials including Gov. J.B. Pritzker and U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, that they supported a $22 million federal grant to fix sewer and flooding issues but this plan was not approved last year, the Illinois Emergency Management Agency reported.
Residents in the former Centreville community, which is now part of Cahokia Heights, have filed a lawsuit against local officials over the sewer and flooding problems.
Federal buyout of flood-damaged homes?
When asked whether homes in the low-lying areas by the Harding Ditch could be purchased by the federal government, Eastern said he’s interested in this type of plan.
“It’s definitely one of the things that I’m trying to champion,” Eastern said.
He has assigned the city staff to inquire about this possibility.
It wouldn’t be the first time that federal funds would be used to buy homes in floodplains in the metro-east.
After the Great Flood of 1993, the town of Valmeyer used federal and state funds to buy 242 properties, many of which were damaged in the flood, according to a report by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA.
The residents were relocated to a “New Valmeyer” above the Mississippi River floodplain.
“The acquisition project moved quickly, and within two years nearly the entire flood ravaged Village had been acquired and demolished,” the FEMA report states. “The site of Old Valmeyer has been dedicated to open space and will be used for recreation and farming purposes.”
In Belleville, the city received funding to buy 19 homes along Richland Creek after flooding in 1996, FEMA reported. In 1957, 10 people died in a Richland Creek flood.
