Sunset Hills resident Jennifer Daniels held her breath as she opened the basement door of her home and looked down into the dark, muddy floodwaters that had ravaged her family's two-story house. The stench was palpable.
Floodwaters from the nearby Meramec River wreaked havoc on Daniels' home on West Watson Road next to the Sunset Hills Golf Course where she and her husband, Ryan, live with their 8-year-old twin daughters.
Their home was one of five on West Watson Road hit hard by last week's historic winter flood that forced thousands of evacuations, closed businesses and schools, shut down miles of major thoroughfares and interstates in St. Louis, and claimed two dozen lives in Missouri and Illinois.
Fueled by more than 10 inches of rain over a three-day period that began on Dec. 26, the flood caused the Meramec River to crest on Dec. 31 at 44.1 feet – 28 feet above flood stage – breaking the previous record of 39.1 feet on Dec. 6, 1982, by five feet.
The flood had thousands of residents and volunteers sandbagging in an effort to spare their homes from the rising water levels, but Daniels wasn't one of them.
"We decided not to sandbag because we knew it would not help – we wanted to get everything up (to the second floor) and save what we could," Daniels said Monday as she looked around the ruins of the first floor of her home that had been inundated by at least six feet of floodwater.
The refrigerator had been tossed on its side, cabinets were torn from the walls, couches were thrown across the room and furniture had collided. Toys were strewn about, caked in a thick layer of cold, hard mud. Yet somehow, the family's Christmas tree stood intact in the corner of the living room – decorations and all.
Daniels sat in her van overloaded with clothes and other possessions Monday morning, waiting for dumpsters and volunteers to arrive to help with the massive cleanup. Sunset Hills Alderman Dee Baebler has been organizing volunteer efforts to help residents whose homes were flooded on West Watson Road, and said more volunteers are needed. She said others can also help West Watson residents affected by the flood by donating to their GoFundMe fundraising pages, which can be accessed through the city's website at www.sunset-hills.com.
Daniels said she and her husband have flood insurance, but that doesn't cover contents of the home, lodging or lost wages. She added that her family and neighbors affected by the flooding will need state and federal funding to help clean up their homes. President Barack Obama signed an emergency declaration for Missouri on Jan. 2, making federal emergency aid available to several counties in Missouri, including St. Louis. Daniels and her husband are already hoping for a buy out.
Neighbor Shirley Hume, who lives just a few houses down at 13320 W. Watson Road, hopes to be able to move back into her home despite the damage. Hume has lived there for almost 60 years.
"She wants to come back, so that's the plan," her son Jon Hume said Monday as he pumped water from the basement and the first floor of the home. "Mom's been here since 1959 and the only water that's ever been in the house was in '82 and there was about five feet in the basement."
This time, the water not only overtook the basement, but filled the home's first floor with a foot and a half of water.
Hank Frederick, 84, who has a farm at the end of Rott Road and a home next to it on Weber Hill Road near West Watson Road, said the water was the highest he's seen in his lifetime of living on the property.
"This is the highest it's ever been," he said. "The ironic thing is that both of them (the flood of 1982 and this one) happened in December."
He said these floodwaters also exceeded the flood that devastated the St. Louis region in 1993.
Tapawingo National Golf Club & Neighborhood
Across the way from the flooded homes on West Watson Road, most of the Tapawingo National Golf Club golf course was swallowed by the flood. Although much of the water had receded by the beginning of this week, several parts of the course were still submerged. Golf course employees were busy Monday cleaning Gary Player Drive, which had been overtaken by the water and was still closed to traffic.
The sandbagging efforts of residents living on Gary Player Drive, Break Court and Collar in the Tapawingo subdivision were successful in keeping the water from reaching the basements of their homes.
Sunset Hills Driving Range
The Sunset Hills Driving Range was completely underwater, and the trailer that housed the golf shop there had been swept across the street by the water and slammed against the backstop of the flooded baseball fields.