Amid flood damage across St. Louis region, MSD plans to ask voters for the authority to help

May 16—MEHLVILLE — A wet weekend punctuated by fierce downpours dealt a fresh wave of water damage in spots across the St. Louis region — including back-to-back rounds of flash flooding to residents within at least one south St. Louis County neighborhood in Mehlville.

Nick Bauder was one of the flood-damage victims who spent Monday grappling with the aftermath in a neighborhood where multiple homes had waterlogged belongings and mountains of trash bags piled outside.

Despite buying his Bellsworth Drive home less than two years ago, Bauder has already endured a handful of basement-flooding crises — one from a sewer backup, one from last summer's torrential rains and now the water from this weekend's rainstorms.

On Saturday, it blasted through a door and wall in the back of his house and swamped his basement with close to 4 feet of water. Another round of storms the next day was even worse, neighbors said.

The latest episode of damage is far worse than Bauder has faced before, and he thinks someone — whether it's a local government body or the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District — should bear responsibility, particularly because he had complained about past flooding.

"Someone owes me something," said Bauder. "I am on the verge of literally losing everything I own."

He said the house — with a sopping basement and missing an entire portion of a wall — is now uninhabitable.

He, his wife and their 5-month-old daughter have been taken in by relatives while they try to figure out what's next.

Tales of damage and flash-flood-induced desperation have become a familiar refrain from residents around St. Louis in recent years, as a hotter climate grows more likely to hold, and then dump, more water than drainage systems can handle.

St. Louis' urban flash flooding victims often touch on another familiar lament, in nearly the same breath: They wonder who, or what entity, should be responsible for managing the problem.

And so far, there is no clear answer. The sewer district agrees that it could be naturally suited to fill that role but says voters have not granted the utility the authority and related funding to do so — even rejecting it from assuming those duties in a vote a few years ago.

"Unfortunately, we don't have a funding source for this situation — for flooding or erosion issues," said Bess McCoy, a spokeswoman for MSD. "We are not a flood authority. We are not a flood control agency. ... But we know that it's a major problem, and we think we can be part of the solution."

She said the stormwater and wastewater utility plans to put the question to voters once again next year, which would cost owners of typical residential properties $25 per year.

And even if the utility takes on the challenge, officials warned that it can't feasibly out-engineer the worst storms that hit the region.

This weekend's rainfall was very hit-or-miss — with places like St. Louis Lambert International Airport receiving only about a 10th of an inch on Sunday, while spots like the Mehlville area were among the hardest-hit, receiving about 3 inches of rain within a few hours, according to the National Weather Service.

Denise Strehlow's basement on Ellwine Drive was engulfed by at least 6 inches of water — and lots of the new mulch she'd spread in her backyard — on Saturday, when surging storm water overpowered her exterior basement door and broke its wood trim.

She spent all of Sunday cleaning up. And then, that evening, another round of storms hit. Strehlow said she spent the second rainstorm bracing the basement door, even while standing ankle-deep in about 3 inches of water that still seeped in.

She was unsure Monday about what would happen next; she awaited some official opinions about the work that her home would require.

"It's terrible," she said. "It was a river running down the street."

Just uphill, Bauder considered himself lucky to have neighbors, friends, and family lending help. And he said he was also fortunate to avoid injury — or worse — after the water entered his home with such terrifying force and nearly swept him up, as it toppled furniture and appliances, including the storage freezer where the couple keeps breast milk for their infant daughter.

But instead of inflicting bodily harm, he is instead left with the financial pain from a home that is now gutted and, in his eyes, worthless.

He said he doesn't have flood insurance, because the area is not in a floodplain. But he is painfully aware that his house sits at a point of vulnerability — in a saddle between two slight hills on either side, and also down in front of a culvert that empties into a storm drain behind his backyard fence.

He said that drainage system easily gets overwhelmed — particularly with the pavement-heavy corridor of Telegraph Road sitting just yards away.

He alerted MSD to the issue after last summer's downpours.

"The fault lies with somebody," said Bauder.

"I'm not here to make money," he continued. "I'm here to get out of a situation that is terrible."

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