Downtown stormwater overwhelms city drains

Flash flooding in the wee hours of Friday morning forced downtown Cape Girardeau bar patrons to abandon their drinks and rescue their cars.

The streets became miniature whitewater rivers and manhole covers turned into temporary fountains, the pressure too much for the city's stormwater system to stand.

Business owners returned later that day to face the mess.

"I came in about 9:30 this morning and found sand and dirt and water," said Tammie Blattel, bar manager of Willy Jak's Beach Club at Main and Independence streets. "I don't even know how we're going to get it up."

The National Weather Service reported 3.67 inches of rain fell on Cape Girardeau between 7 p.m. Thursday and 5 p.m. Friday. The event was a repeat of Sunday night's downtown flooding, when at least a few drivers reported flooded cars.

No one reported damaged cars to police Friday, a department spokesman said. But the event left many wondering why the Main Street Levee District's pump system didn't work better.

Typically, Cape Girardeau's stormwater runs straight into the river, but when the Mississippi rises above 30 feet, the tunnel that carries runoff has to be closed and the water pumped into the river. The river was at 45 feet Friday.

Andy Juden, the district's president, said the pumping stations were running properly, but the stormwater system simply couldn't get the water to the stations fast enough.

The levee district also oversees the floodwall, which can handle a river stage of up to 54 feet. The river is predicted to crest at 46 feet on Sunday.

It's a prediction Cape Girardeau residents just north of the floodwall's end are following closely. The Red Star neighborhood is flooded again, although far fewer homes are affected since the record-breaking flood of 1993. Government buyouts meant the purchase and demolition of more than 30 homes in the neighborhood.

But Tom LeGrand, whose transmission repair shop is on the corner of Fourth and Water streets, was still there Friday, his business surrounded by barriers and sandbags as it has been three other times since 1973. River water lapped a few feet from the side of his building.

He told customers not to bring their cars this week.

"I haven't had a vacation in five years, so it's not hurting me that bad," he said.

But his vacation will be spent at his business, watching the rising waters and sleeping on a cot.

Across the street, Sandi Dickerson sat under the eaves of her 92-year-old grandmother's house, contemplating the sandbag barrier around the property. She and other relatives put it there.

Dickerson was visiting from Riverside, Calif., when the waters started creeping into the yard.

"We took my grandmother to stay somewhere else just as a precaution, in case there was a plumbing problem," Dickerson said. "But so far, so good."

hhall@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 121