Lemay residents feeling weight of flood damage

LEMAY, Mo. – Tuesday brought lots of flooding in neighborhoods around St. Louis, including in the Lemay area.

Homeowners voiced complaints regarding the damage to their houses from the rising water lines and felt like much of the negative aftermath was on their shoulders.

“The water table is really high in the ground right now, so the ground is already really saturated. We have additional rain; all that water needs to go somewhere…and unfortunately, a lot of that water will flow into the basements of our residents,” Lt. Jason Brice from the Lemay Fire Protection District explained.

One Lemay resident quickly sprang into action when her family’s house began flooding, preventing the situation from going from bad to worse.

“I was stressed. It was very stressful and I was anxious about our basement getting ruined again,” she told FOX 2.

Another family, whose basement and personal items were also destroyed in floods last year, felt the need to take protecting their property into their own hands this year. They dug a trench on the side of their house in order to let some of the excess storm water come through and they also created a makeshift dam.

“It spans our garage door. We have weather stripping on both sides and then we have some sandbags around the edges. Even with these ingenious house hacks,” Curtis commented. “I tried to get a shop vac and vacuum it up; it was a pretty futile attempt.”

Now that the streets are beginning to dry up and shop vacs around Lemay are fired up, it’s still the safest bet to get settled in for the night.

“Don’t take the extra risk if you don’t have to. That’s the biggest thing; stay home, don’t go outside, don’t drive if you don’t have to,” Brice advised.

For additional information on road closures and emergency measures, residents are encouraged to visit MoDOT’s social media .

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