Residents in Valmeyer prepare for the worst as river levels expect to crest
Beth Andres helped move Valmeyer High School two miles up a bluff after the 1993 flood of the Mississippi River devastated the riverside town.
“It makes me sick to my stomach thinking about people just having to go through that,” she said.
On Wednesday afternoon, Andres, who now teaches at the high school, was helping fill sandbags at the Rock City caves as Monroe County prepares for a river crest next week that would come second only to the 1993 record.
The river level was at 42.3 feet around 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday at St. Louis. On June 4, it’s expected to crest at 45.2 feet. Monroe County Sheriff Neal Rohlfing said Tuesday that if the level reaches 46 feet, he will ask all residents in the floodplain to evacuate.
Though Andres now lives east of the floodplain and safe from any flooding, she said she showed up to the mines to pack polypropylene bags with sand because she worries about her neighbors in “the bottoms,” or below the bluffs.
“It’s a close community,” she said. “I wouldn’t think twice about helping out.”
Volunteers both young and old came from all over the area to assist in sandbagging efforts after the Monroe County Emergency Management Agency put a plea out on social media for volunteers Wednesday morning.
Inside the mine, volunteers operating dump trucks poured sand into machines that then pump the sand into the bags held by other volunteers. Kevin Scheibe, the assistant director of the Monroe County EMA, said that the technological advances made since the Great Flood of 1993 are tremendous.
“The resources are amazing,” he said. “What used to take 200 people to do in 10 hours now takes 100 people in three to four hours.”
Scheibe said that as of now the county is mostly worried about sand boils, which occur when river water finds its way under cracks in the levee, eventually eating through and breaching it. At least 1,800 sandbags are needed on just two sand boils.
“The main reason we’re loading up the sandbags now is to keep them in stock so that they’re ready for deployment,” Scheibe said.
Four generations of Scheibe’s family were there on Wednesday, including his dad, who drove volunteers to and from the base site and into the mines. The bags are kept in the mines because they are climate controlled and safe from the rising water, Scheibe said.
Scheibe said that the difference between the flooding this time around and 1993 is that residents are educated and better prepared. And this time, they don’t have to learn the hard way.
“The citizens are more aware and they help prepare,” he said.
Amy Juelfs, who has lived in Valmeyer her whole life, said the lessons they learned from 1993 help residents navigate what to do during recent floods.
Like Andres, Juelfs lived through the 1993 floods and watched her family scramble to save their farm in the bottoms, when they had just two days to empty seven grain bins. Now, she wants to help prevent that from happening to the approximately 60 people who live along the floodplain now.
Juelfs said she’s seen people moving as much equipment, animals and crops as they can up the bluffs. On Wednesday afternoon, she was headed to help some family friends do the same.
“You have to pitch in and help,” she said. “You can’t just be sitting at home.”
Volunteers will continue sandbagging efforts Wednesday night from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thursday. Rock City’s address is 1429 Boulder Blvd.
This story was originally published May 29, 2019 at 4:26 PM.
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