Missouri Baptist Convention Disaster Relief (MBC DR) teams converged on communities throughout the state in recent days to aid victims of historic flooding caused by more than 10 inches of rain over a three-day period that began the day after Christmas, leaving thousands homeless and killing at least 24 people in Missouri and Illinois.
MBC Executive Director John Yeats made a New Year’s Eve plea for donations to the convention’s Disaster Relief teams and asked people to pray for volunteer workers and the victims.
“Our Disaster Relief teams engaged are making a difference,” he said. “All Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief flood recovery teams have been put on standby to respond as soon as next week. Response from our teams will determine how many other state convention Disaster Relief teams I ask to come and help.”
When all of its state convention Disaster Relief teams are mobilized, Southern Baptist Convention Disaster Relief is the nation’s third largest such organization, ranked just behind the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army.
In the St. Louis Metro Region in recent days about 40 MBC DR volunteers cooked more than 6,000 meals, with plans to prepare 11,000 on Jan. 4 alone. They were provided to the Red Cross which delivered them to needy families. MBC DR is currently working in three locations, in addition to an incident management base, which is also acting as a shower/laundry and communication unit.
Five chaplains made visits in all residential shelters in the St. Louis Metro area, sharing the gospel as they went.
MBC DR Coordinator Dwain Carter said the organization was preparing for similar requests from places such as Arnold, just south of St. Louis along the Mississippi River. The Meramec River, which flows into the Mississippi south of St. Louis, reached 47.2 feet in Arnold on Thursday, more than 23 feet above flood stage. The crest was two feet higher than the previous flood record in 1982. About 100 homes flooded in the northern section of the town, according to local law enforcement. MBC DR volunteers were scheduled to meet Saturday (Jan. 2) with emergency managers and the mayor along with disaster relief volunteers from First Baptist Church, Arnold. MBC DR volunteers were planning to meet with Eureka city leaders as well to determine how they can assist.
A temporary levee Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District workers set up around a plant in nearby Valley Park was breached early Thursday, forcing a shutdown, while another plant in the St. Louis suburb of Fenton did the same. The Valley Park treatment plant handles about 21 million gallons of wastewater a day that is now being dumped into nearby streams and the Meramec River. The Fenton plant handles more than six million gallons daily and is also diverting the wastewater to creeks, streams and the river. Officials said there is no timetable on getting the plants back open as of yet.
People were cautioned to avoid contact with flood waters, as they can carry harmful bacteria. When residents are cleaning up flood damage indoors, officials are recommending workers wear rubber boots, gloves and goggles.
Fifteen pallets of water were delivered to Fellowship Baptist Church in High Ridge on New Year’s. High Ridge is about 20 miles southwest of St. Louis. About 10 miles further southwest in the city of Pacific, MBC DR leaders met with the City Council on New Year’s Day at the invite of council members who asked MBC DR to be the lead recovery group for that community. MBC DR also delivered a truck load of water to hard-hit Moniteau County in central Missouri.
In southwest Missouri MBC DR teams in the Joplin area conducted damage assessments in two communities and more were scheduled. One team will be allowed in to begin clean-up efforts in Jasper and Newton County Monday. Teams were assessing damage in the Tri-County area around Nixa as well, while clean-up teams have begun work in Waynesville.
Meanwhile, in hard-hit southeast Missouri, particularly along the Mississippi River, an urgent call went out to MBC DR volunteers to help Red Star Baptist Church in Cape Girardeau with sandbagging there where the flooded Mississippi has reached record levels. The Mississippi River is expected to top the 1993 record by a foot and a half this weekend in Cape Girardeau. Rising water already has damaged about two-dozen homes and is threatening a power substation, though the community of nearly 40,000 residents is mostly protected by a flood wall.
Sandbagging efforts escalated Friday in tiny St. Mary, after the breach of a Mississippi River levee. The small levee in Ste. Genevieve County, about 40 miles south of St. Louis, broke Thursday night. The river was expected to crest Jan. 2, about 31Ž2 feet below the 1993 record, according to the “Southeast Missourian.” The levee break mostly impacts agricultural land, but water was approaching the town of about 360 residents. Neighbors and volunteers were placing sandbags around endangered homes. There were no immediate reports of damage.
Ste. Genevieve, a historic French village dating to the 18th century, remained dry thanks to a Mississippi River levee that was being constantly monitored, Sandra Cabot, the town’s director of tourism, told the “Southeast Missourian.”
Carter said a plan was being developed for recovery in Southeast Missouri after flood waters recede.
Two major highways – Interstate 44 and Interstate 55 – reopened Friday south of St. Louis after the Meramec withdrew. Missouri Department of Transportation spokeswoman Shaunda White told the “Southeast Missourian” that 76,000 vehicles pass through the 3-mile segment of I-55 that had been closed on a typical day, “so that’s going to be a significant relief.”
Cairo, Ill., where the Ohio and Mississippi rivers meet, seemed safe, despite a near-record crest prediction. It appeared the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would not need to blast a hole in the Birds Point waterway in southeast Missouri, as it did in 2011 to relieve pressure from the flood protection at nearby Cairo, according to the “Southeast Missourian.”