CITY CLEANUP TO TAKE AWHILE; MANY KEPT BUSY RIDDING HOMES OF WATER AFTER THURSDAY'S FLOOD

Vacuuming wet basements and cleaning muddy sidewalks and drives were necessary chores for many Cape Girardeau residents and business owners Friday as they regrouped from floods that ravaged the city a day earlier.

Swift storm waters brought on by more than 5 inches of rain Thursday morning caused massive flooding throughout the city.

Police, firefighters and others rescued motorists from stalled cars and evacuated several residents from flooded areas during the deluge, which overflowed creeks and drainage systems.

Reggie and Stephanie Williamson heard water pouring into their basement bedroom soon after the storm began.

"It's raining in my basement," Stephanie Williamson said Thursday, resigned to the dampness and musty odor she knew would follow. "I heard the water hitting the floor and knew I couldn't do anything about it."

Among the lucky ones

Tim Kurre was among the lucky people whose homes and workplaces remained dry following the downpour. But Kurre's luck wasn't all good: Near the end of the storm he lost power to his home, which meant the sump pumps working outside his three basement windows were inoperable.

"I knew as soon as it went off that I was going to be in trouble," Kurre said. "I got a bucket and just went outside and took turns dipping them out."

Kurre worked more than 30 minutes before the storm ended.

"I wouldn't have wanted to do it very much longer, but a dry basement was worth it," Kurre said.

Cape Girardeau Fire Chief Mark Hasheider said flash flooding was a problem throughout the city, but areas in the north- and south-central sectors of the city were hardest hit.

Especially bad were neighborhoods surrounding Dennis Scivally Park and west of Jefferson Elementary School.

"The ones that really concerned us as emergency response were areas that had swift water to them," said Hasheider. "Those are some of the areas that people don't realize can move their cars with a minimal amount of water."

Heavy load for workers

Residents aren't the only people digging out from the debris the water left behind. City crews will have plenty of work in the next few days cleaning washed-out ditches, roadways and alleys and the clogged storm-water system, said assistant public works director Tim Gramling.

"The work will be considerably worse than after a typical storm," Gramling said. "But it's pretty much the same things we do after a normal rain, only this time it's to a greater degree. We'll have enough to do for at least the next week, maybe two."

Gramling said all of the department's 18 street division workers and 13 storm-water workers will be dedicated to cleanup the next couple of days.

While the street division is busy cleaning roads, storm-water workers will be unclogging storm pipes and cleaning the storm drains and paved creeks.

Gramling said the city received dozens of calls, but he did not know the exact number.

Gramling said the storm-water system worked.

"A lot of the water did get off the roads quickly after the rain," Gramling said. "For the type of rain we got, the system worked well and Walker Branch and Cape LaCroix really did their job."

Staff writer Scott Moyers contributed to this report.