Residents Air Flash Flood Complaints With City Council

Irene King said she awoke in the middle of the night June 25 to find 7 feet of water in her basement.

“I lost antiques, photos, things that cannot be replaced,” King told St. Charles Council members Tuesday night. “I’ve had to stay in a motel for the last nine nights.”

She said she has flood insurance, but that will not cover all her costs.

“This is going to cost me $10,000 that I don’t have,” King said.

King’s home, which is on Shelbourne Drive, is one of many houses damaged by flash flooding caused by Cole Creek overflowing its banks June 25 when storms dumped several inches of rain on the area in a few hours.

City council members heard from several residents whose homes were flooded, either by creeks overflowing their banks or sewers backing up in their homes June 24 and June 25.

The council also got an update from city staff on recovery efforts.

Michael Spurgeon, director of administration for St. Charles, said about 300 structures throughout the city had some level of damage from flooding or sewer backups from storms that night.

He said city inspectors have gone door-to-door, left door hangers, sent out mailings and made calls in attempt to reach any residents who might suffered damage.

City residents can call the Flash Flood Recovery Hotline at 636-255-6153 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday to ask questions or receive guidance from city staff on recovery or insurance questions.

“There may be situations where we may need to pay claims, so I encourage everyone to file a claim if they have one,” Spurgeon said.

He said residents also should take damaged items to the curb by July 12, but the items likely will not be picked up until July 18. He said that is necessary because the city has to follow Federal Emergency Management Agency guidelines if it hopes to be reimbursed for its costs should the event be declared a disaster.

“The goal is to have a contractor ready to go a week from Friday, the 15th,” he said.

Spurgeon also said that many residents seemed to believe the city had some liability, so staff members are looking into what may have caused creeks to overflow and sewers to back up.

The area also flooded about three years ago.

King said she saw three dump trucks haul neatly sawed trees up to 12 feet long and a foot in diameter out of the creek bed. She said the trees wedged against the Runnymede Drive bridge over Cole Creek and stopped up water.

Ray Wilcox, another resident affected by flooding, said the creek bed has not been maintained, and trees aren’t cut down and removed when they it should be.

He said that when AmerenUE cuts down trees in the creek bed, it leaves the logs in place. Those get washed downstream and end up blocking water flow, Wilcox said.

After the meeting, Ward 10 Councilwoman Bridgett Ohmes said her ward was the most affected, with 110 homes being damaged.

“We’re waiting for our engineers to determine what caused this,” Ohmes said. “Everybody has their opinion. Some people think it’s the bridge, some people think it’s because of the stabilization project at Hunter’s Ridge, or a combination of things. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

Ward 2 Councilman Tom Besselman said, "Six inches of rain in a couple hours might have had something to do with it. So would leaving cut trees in the creek bank."