It is hard to believe that nine years have passed since the flood of 2013. It was a life-changing event for us who lived through it, and especially for the ones who suffered and lost that week.
It will be forever etched in our memory.
Growing up, I loved to sleep with the sound of rain falling on the roof. After the flood of 2013, that enjoyment was gone for a long time. I had taken office as mayor of Waynesville in April 2012 and this event changed everything about my tenure. Plans were changed and goals adapted to address flooding problems and for many years those were the city’s main focus.
In the early morning hours of Aug. 6, 2013, the torrential rain falling on the City of Waynesville brought a feeling of foreboding of what was to come in the following days and weeks. Not able to sleep, I logged onto my Facebook page and wrote, “I am fearful of what tomorrow holds for us.” As a new mayor, I was nervous and felt unprepared for what was coming. Over a period of three days, 22 inches of rain inundated our community. When it was over, a young mother and her son had lost their lives, 23 homes in the city and over 260 homes throughout the county were badly damaged and the city had suffered over $1,000,000 in damage to equipment and infrastructure. The residents of Waynesville were forever changed that night, not only with material loss, but the loss of security was even more devastating.
The loss of the Lee family put everything into perspective for our community.
That Tuesday morning a young mother, Jessica Lee and her 4-year-old-son, Elyjah, left their home in Hunter’s Point, across the interstate from Waynesville, on their way to her job at the Day Care Center at Fort Leonard Wood. Literally, a perfect storm was waiting for them at the corner of the outer road. High water swept them off the road and turned the angle of their SUV just enough to fit through a tight opening of the drainage tunnel that ran under Interstate 44. The waters swept them into Mitchell Creek. Jessica struggled to get her son and herself out of the car. The water current was too strong, and they were swept away.
Ely was discovered in the backyard of a home in Hull Valley later that day. The community searched for days for Jessica, finally discovering her body on Friday. Her body had been making its way down Mitchell Creek to the waiting Roubidoux Creek, which was swollen out of its banks. Amazingly, once her body reached the creek, it turned left into an area full of brush keeping her from being swept away forever. Her mother, Michelle, called to tell me Jessica had been found, “Jessica was trying to get to Ely, even in death.” Her body had been found just yards from our funeral home, where Ely was waiting. I was invited to be there with the family as they came together at the funeral home. It was a heartbreaking night.
The next two weeks were busy times with disaster response and clean up for citizens and city staff. Dealing with FEMA/SEMA during the months that followed was a continual disappointment, bordering on the absurd. At every meeting a new representative would appear, and they would have to be schooled on the basics of our disaster.
Our city employees responded quickly and worked long hours to help our residents recover. Ruined appliances, discarded food, mattresses and household debris very quickly began to spoil in the summer heat and the stench was becoming evident throughout the city. In the first two weeks, the city removed over 300 tons of debris from affected residents with the help of our partner, Zeigenbein Sanitation, as well as other municipalities who willingly helped our citizens.
Quickly, a massive volunteer effort was evident throughout the city. The Red Cross arrived. State government responded with a central location of available resources for our citizens. As a result of the flood, a community organization, dedicated to disaster preparedness, “Communities Organized Against Disaster,” COAD, was created. We are a community which learned valuable lessons from this tragedy.
The next week after the flood, the city hired a hydrology team, Benton and Associates, to give us an analysis of the event and suggest plans for mitigation. The engineer’s report highlighted a 100-year flood for most of Waynesville, with pockets of a 500-year flood around the Mitchell Creek area. The initial weeks after the flood were traumatic for our citizens. We were denied individual help from FEMA and that created problems for our citizens.
In Waynesville, we are accustomed to the flooding of the Roubidoux Creek and in this case, it did flood. But the major damage in August of 2013 was a small creek that runs through the city. Mitchell Creek overflowed its banks and devastated several residential areas in the city. Mitchell Creek had become the depository of over 4,000 acres of watershed, including the south side of I-44. That area is under county jurisdiction and has no planning and zoning, thus no regulation for drainage and storm water, and the flash flood that day came barreling down on the residents of Waynesville, as Mitchell Creek collected all the storm water from across the interstate.
Two weeks after the flood, I attended the chamber of commerce monthly luncheon to thank the community.
“It has been a week I will never forget,” I said. “It has been a very emotional week. I am an ugly crier, so please forgive me, as I try my best to get through these first public comments about our experiences.
“The experience of the Lee family puts everything into perspective for us all. We have embraced Jessica as our daughter, as our sister, and Ely as our little boy. We send our deepest sympathy to the Lee family.
“I thank our neighbors. I thank the volunteers. I especially want to thank our city team. As a rookie mayor, I have played this by ear, but truthfully, I have played it by heart.
“I have been the spokesman for the city and our citizens…but I am not:
• The fireman rescuing the lady from a tree.
I am not:
• The Highway Patrolman jumping in a boat risking his life in a raging river of water to rescue others.
• The policeman carrying our lost child.
I am not:
• The city worker climbing a utility pole in raging water to catch a live electric wire.
• The EMT carrying the elderly man to safety.
• The fireman discovering our lost mother.
• The Red Cross worker hugging and comforting scared and frightened people.
• The funeral director comforting the Lee family.
• And I am not the citizen who has lost everything and does not know what will happen next.
“But I am the leader of Waynesville, and I will work to coordinate our efforts and assist our citizens.
• I am the comforter, and I will hug and reassure.
• I am the friend who you can talk with and share your concerns.
• I am the face of the city that will bounce back and be even better.
• And to my community, I thank you all for everything you have done. And in that optimistic spirit, I say to our community, ‘We will soldier on!’”
“Mitigation” became the key word for Waynesville in the weeks and months that followed the flood. The City’s strategy was to correct the mistakes in years past of not addressing problem areas and we began the planning of several major mitigation projects to improve our situation. We felt correcting these issues was paramount, as we had the opportunity for help with funding. As we began the process, we were met with denials and roadblocks at every turn from FEMA and SEMA. But we never gave up. Several meetings, letters, and arguments later, we were given approval for the major projects we had planned. All were aimed at mitigation. They would change our future.
The city continues to focus on improving storm drainage within the city. We replaced the last of our low water crossings with a bridge; we removed the lift station from the creek bed; we moved the street department to a new location on higher ground. Our RV Park continues to operate and now has a new mobile shower house. We created gravel traps above Tiger Bridge and in the Roubidoux Creek; we performed cost shares with citizens to improve the safety of property along the creek beds; partnering with the Waynesville R-VI School System, we created a detention area above Tiger Bridge to slow water flow from Hunter’s Point; we moved our Kiwanis’ ballfields to higher ground; we re-routed Electric Feeder Line # 1 off the banks of the Roubidoux Creek; we contracted a hydrology study of Mitchell Creek; and we created a Farmer’s Market Pavilion in the RV area, using the former Street Department foundation. Attention to Mitchell Creek continues today.
No city can build for a 100-year flood, much less the pockets of a 500-year flood that we experienced in 2013. With losses of over $1 million dollars during the 2013 flood, the flood of 2017 was a test for many of the mitigation projects we had undertaken. Losses during the April/May flood of 2017 resulted in $206,000, with the majority of that cost being the loss of the Electric Feeder Line #1, which for years had been positioned along the banks of the Roubidoux Creek. We moved it off the banks of the creek.
As 2019 ended, I was reminded that we had devastating floods in every odd numbered year of my tenure as mayor. In 2013, with the loss of the Lee family and the flooding of Mitchell Creek; in 2015, the loss of five foreign military students and two Dixon residents; and in 2017, the massive destruction of Devil’s Elbow. I held my breath until 2019 ended, hoping it would not be the most heartbreaking coincidence ever. We did have flash flooding in December of 2019, but our damage was limited to the RV Park area by the Roubidoux Creek, and it seemed that the mitigation efforts we had made over the years had worked, holding losses at approximately $20,000. We were doing our job. Jax Welborn created this photo collage of the four events with iconic views of each year.
This was truly the most stressful event during my time as mayor, but it was also a time of deep pride in our community. I cried many tears for the Lee family and for our citizens.
I appreciated our citizens, our city council, our law enforcement community, our churches, volunteers, civic organizations, neighboring cities, local businesses and elected officials. Our city staff and crew worked tirelessly during those days without complaint. I was one proud mayor! I was Waynesville Proud!
