ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. – Closures were common Monday in parts of Eureka thanks to recent heavy rain.
Parts of Highway W were shut down causing those driving to find alternate routes. Some parks remained closed. Minnie Ha Ha Park in Sunset Hills is still shut down as water blankets the soccer fields and adjacent BMX course.
Meanwhile, those familiar with flooding are keeping close watch on the river levels.
The staff at Fenton Feed Mill are checking the forecast daily.
“If it’s going up or down. Where it’s cresting. It’s supposed to crest today, so we’re not worried about it at all,” said River Wight, Fenton Feed Mill.
They’re used to the flooding issues along the Meramec. In fact, they still have a marking of how high waters reached on New Year’s Eve in 2015.
“We’re due for it to flood real good, but we’re hoping that it doesn’t,” Wight said.
And it didn’t even take flooding to cause potentially dangerous situations. In Arnold, a maintenance worker had to be rescued after sinking knee deep in mud.
“We’re immediately thinking of a year or two ago where Maryland Heights they had a similar situation like this that turned into a major rescue. So we made sure we had everybody come at the right time to mitigate that situation,” said Mike Shafferkoetter, the Division Chief of Rock Community Fire District.
It took about 40 minutes for the rescue and it provided a reminder that the recent rains can result in danger in even the most routine tasks.
“But it’s very easy in the mud, in the soup, and the amount of rain we had recently for this kind of stuff to happen,” Shafferkoetter said.