Big Lake residents rebuild after May flooding

BIG LAKE, Mo. (AP) -- With wilted drywall and moldy mattresses at the curbs of homes in Big Lake, residents are rebuilding after the May flooding that forced them to flee for weeks.

Eight weeks after floodwater crept into the community of Missouri's largest oxbow lake, nearly all of the 120 full-time residents at the 675-acre lake in Holt County have returned.

"Everybody tells you: 'You're in a flood plain. It will flood! You won't know when, but it will happen,"' said LaVern Wymore, who has lived at Big Lake for two years. "That's one of the risks."

Most residents had about a five-hour window to secure their belongings and evacuate hundreds of homes as water breached levees in Holt County.

Connie and Rick Barnes moved to Big Lake in 1976 and have suffered through the floods and the droughts, but they never considered moving off the lake-shore property.

"We were more fortunate than a lot of people," Connie Barnes said of the recent flood that left about a foot of water in their basement. "A lot of people lost everything."

Steph Miller, a real estate agent at Big Lake, said only one resident, an 85-year old woman, vacated and sold property after the recent flood.

But some, like Joann Thompson, are weighing their options. The flood along with the recent death of her husband and the encouragement of her children to move closer to them have made her question life at the lake.

"It's up in the air now," she said. "We'll have to wait to see what property values do. I'm not real anxious to move. I like it here, and I'm pretty well settled."

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Information from: St. Joseph News-Press, http://www.stjoenews-press.com