Rains wash out Cape roadway, creating hazard for residents

A Willow Street family is safer today after work crews filled a 3-foot-deep gully that separated their home from the rest of Cape Girardeau.

Heavy rainfall Wednesday and Thursday -- 2 inches in 48 hours -- cut an 8-foot-wide, muddy gully across the only entrance onto Willow Street, leaving residents stranded for several hours.

Donna Renschen, whose house is one of only two located on Willow, was the first to discover the trench in a near-accident as she was driving her 6-year-old grandson to school Thursday morning.

She said she was driving down the street when she saw the trench, located near the intersection of Willow and Maple, and attempted to stop. She was only going about 10 miles per hour, but because the pavement was wet, her car skidded and she came within 8 inches of landing in the trench.

"It was scary. There were no cones up or anything at that time, and there was water in the hole so I couldn't tell how deep it was," Renschen said.

She is a heart-transplant recipient, and her two grandchildren have heart disease. Renschen said she was terrified to be cut off from medical care.

She called the Cape Girardeau Public Works Department, but was told the trench wasn't the city's responsibility.

According to Tom Wiesner, technical assistant with the city's engineering department, the trench is the responsibility of a Doniphan, Mo.-based contractor hired by the city to install a new stormwater system along Willow Street.

Wiesner said in order to accommodate a new stormwater line, a trench had to be dug across Willow Street, and a section of the pavement removed. Workers filled the trench with rock to allow traffic to access Willow, but the recent rainfall washed the rocks away.

Wiesner said the city contacted the contractor, who immediately hired Jim Thomure of Cape Girardeau to fill the trench with rocks. By Thursday afternoon, the road was accessible again.

"There's only two property owners on that street. It's not a heavily traveled road," Wiesner said. "Now that we know it's a problem, we'll keep a closer eye on it."

That sentiment offered little comfort to Renschen.

"What if there had been an emergency?" she said. "An ambulance couldn't have got here. A fire truck couldn't have got here. The ground's too muddy to cut across the grass."

Wiesner said he believes there is a grassy area off Maple Street that emergency personnel could have driven across to access Willow.

"Once the weather lets up, the contractor should be able finish the project fairly quickly. Then the road will be repaved and it won't be a problem," Wiesner said.

cclark@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 128