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2022/08/01 - Mayor's Column: Historic Rains

“AN OPEN DOOR TO O’FALLON”
A WEEKLY NOTE FROM MAYOR HERB ROACH


The rainstorms that hit the St. Louis region last week were record setting.  It was reported that it was the most rain in a single day in recorded history of St. Louis.  Those records go back to 1874.  In less than 24 hours, about 25% of our annual rainfall fell from the skies.

While we did have a couple of damaging events, like road closures, cars stalled out in water, and buildings with water in their basement, we did not have any deaths, mass evacuations, buildings collapsing, need for swift water rescue, or roads washed out that occurred in some local communities.

It was a big-time test on some of the new storm water drainage systems that have been installed over the past five years in various parts of town. I’m very pleased to say that severe flooding and/or roads being underwater that has occurred in some areas in the past did not occur even with this severe rainfall.

I want to give a shout out to O’Fallon’s Public Works staff and other first responders that were out around 3 AM to take precautions and monitor critical areas. I also want to give them credit for the work done over the last five years to correct many of the known drainage problems. They have been trying to address as many as possible each year.  These problems did not happen overnight and have needed some attention for some time.  We have plans in our five-year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) to keep working on others that still need to be addressed.

While we still have room for improvement, I did want you to know that we have had some good success addressing some of these problem areas and we will continue to work on the others in a fiscally responsible manner.

As residents of O’Fallon, you should always be able to reach out to your elected officials and ask questions about what is happening in O’Fallon. Having open communications is important to me and something I care very deeply about. Thank you for reading, and please remember, my door is always open.