Water levels create temporary downtown flooding Thursday

Stormwater crept into parked vehicles and some businesses on portions of Water Street in Cape Girardeau on Wednesday evening as water levels challenged the capacity of the downtown Merriwether Street Pumping Station.

"We just had an incredibly intense rain that came through downtown Cape somewhere around 7 p.m.," City of Cape Girardeau public works director Stan Polivick said Thursday.

He estimated nearly three-fourths of an inch of rain fell in about 30 minutes, producing "pretty severe" street flooding in other parts of town.

Everything was fine on Wednesday, he said, and all the pumps were operational, but that changed when the storm arrived.

Polivick said, "We just had such an intense rain that the pumps couldn't keep up with the water."

Merriwether Street Pumping Station is the only one located on that side of the drainage basin, he said, collecting water from south of Broadway and east of Sprigg. It expels the water into a chamber, separate from the river.

It services a nearly 160-acre area, he said.

The only other pump station in proximity to the Merriwether Street Pumping Station is located near Isle Cape Girardeau, servicing mainly Lorimer, he said.

"And that area just got hammered with a big rainstorm, and all the water runs down the hillside," Polivick said. "And unfortunately, for the Port Cape area, that's basically the low spot in that geographic region.

Inspections take place daily, he said. And beginning Sunday, inspections will take place twice daily.

The inspections serve to check the integrity of the floodwall system, he said, "to keep the river water on the river side."

But the only way for the water to get out is through the pumps.

"Once the rain quit, I think the streets were dry in 10 minutes," Polivick said.

Kim Seabaugh, server at Port Cape Girardeau, said Thursday rainwater had seeped into the restaurant's kitchen, the side door and into the front doorway within the bar area.

"But then I came in at 10 o'clock this morning and the carpet is a little damp, but the kitchen is perfectly fine and it's fine now."

Polivick added, "If we had a rain like we had last night, and let's say we lost power completely or our generator failed for some reason, the downtown area would flood in 15 minutes."

Port Cape Girardeau management could not be reached for comment by press time.

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