VILLA RIDGE, Mo. – The only bridge into a Villa Ridge neighborhood in Franklin County had just been repaired. Firefighters even tested its integrity with a brush truck before it washed out again.

First responders with Boles Fire Protection District and the Meramec Ambulance District checked out the latest ways to deal with the problem on Wednesday.

They were looking at how they would now get inside a 27-home neighborhood with the only road washed out at the Harvester Road Bridge.

“We’ll just have to bypass and go off-road to get there until we get something better in there,” Assistant Fire Chief Rich Long said.

Neither the fire department nor the Franklin County government can do anything about it because it’s a private road and the responsibility of the homeowner’s association.

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We saw a resident using a UTV to get into the subdivision through the creek. Even that was not easy. And the fire department says it would take 38 similarly sized UTVs to bring the same amount of water as one pumper.

“We have the capability to carry patients out on them as well, so if somebody was sick or injured, we could get them out of here,” Asst. Chief Long said.

The bridge washed out previously on July 3. Remnants remained at that time that some people could walk across.

“Well, to get to work, I’ve been having people pick me up,” Richard Burkett said at the time.

This past Monday, the fire department took pictures of the temporary repair that they successfully were able to cross with a brush truck.

“They did all that work and the rains washed it all away. It was a lot of water, really fast. Obviously, the whole area found that out the hard way,” Burkett said.

One resident we spoke with said he moved his car out right after the repair, fearing the bridge might not hold through the rain.

The damage is worse this time. The drainage pipes are now full of rock and other debris, and the rushing water has carved out a new creek path around them. Someone appears to have placed a ladder over the gap as a possible way to acrobatically cross.

Firefighters are also looking at other ways in.

“…Old trails or places, there’s an opening in the wood line and stuff that we could possibly sneak through to get into,” Asst. Chief Long said.

Citizens, meanwhile, are arranging to get food and medicine delivered at the creek bed entrance.

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