With receding floodwaters, Southern Illinois residents begin cleanup

EAST CAPE GIRARDEAU, Ill. — Following Friday’s re-opening of Illinois Route 146 and Route 3 — northbound from the Route 3/146 intersection to McClure — and with the remainder of Route 3 expected to reopen by the middle of the week, motorists may be able to return to their normal commutes after over a month of road closures.

For the residents of East Cape Girardeau and McClure, however, the receding floodwaters have unearthed more hardships to overcome.

According to McClure Mayor Cheryle Dillon, about a dozen families were forced to vacate their homes in McClure and only one has been able to return. Multiple areas still remain submerged, and Dillon said Sunday she expects many structures will need to be entirely rebuilt.

The flood’s aftermath leaves Southern Illinois residents awaiting an evaluation from state officials with the federal Emergency Management Agency. The evaluations will then advance through the agency to determine whether the flood damages meet FEMA requirements for relief.

“It’s a several-month process,” Dillon said. “It’s not going to happen overnight.”

Waterlines can be seen on the side of a Chevrolet Silverado parked in receding floodwaters Sunday in McClure, Illinois.BEN MATTHEWS

After being closed for nearly a month and eight days of cleanup, Willa Simmons’s bar in McClure continues to fight groundswell waters while also working Sunday to replace damaged floorings and completely rebuild their bathrooms.

Teresa Birk, a bartender at Willa’s Getaway, said she ran the bar as long as she could until the flooding forced the business to close.

“We’re just helping, we’re not getting paid,” Birk said as a team of volunteers continued with construction. “We’re just trying to re-open.”

Members of the National Guard continued with the removal of sandbags in East Cape Girardeau, while Tamara Hill worked nearby with her mother-in-law, Carlean Miller.

Hill is a tenant at 40 Brookwood Drive in East Cape Girardeau, where the basement filled with nearly 4 feet of floodwater. The home was left without hot water or air conditioning. Hill was forced to vacate her home and took her four children to live her mother-in-law in Cairo, Illinois.

Hill’s business commute to Cape Girardeau has gone from a 10-minute drive to a 90-minute expedition because of the closure of Route 3.

Although the opening of Route 3 will help with her commute, Hill still has no indication of when her family will be able to return home.

Spark Ministries in McClure has taken on the role of distributing whatever relief materials they can to those affected by the flooding, and the agency holds relief meals every Sunday.

“It’s been difficult in some ways, but it’s brought a lot of people together,” Dillon said. “I’m hoping we can get as many volunteers to come help with the cleanup as we did with the sandbagging.”