2023/07/31 - Mayor's Column: Rainfall Events
“AN OPEN DOOR TO O’FALLON”
A WEEKLY NOTE FROM MAYOR HERB ROACH
The recent heavy rainfall on July 14th, which included 4 to 5 inches in less than an hour and high wind in the area resulted in several down power lines, trees down, some flooded streets, some stranded motorists and some water in some residents’ basements. We had 6 power poles that were snapped off during the storm which caused 100’s of our residents to be without power for some time.
Fortunately, we did not have any injuries, deaths, fires or loss of homes or businesses due to the storm.
Our fire department also gave aid to Fairview Heights, which had a home fire and business fire due to the storm. They also had about 4 feet of water at the intersection of Rt. 50 and Rt. 159 by St. Clair Mall.
The main problem was the amount of rain that fell in such a short time. The National Weather Service called it a 500-year rainfall and stated that odds of getting a rain like this annually is only about 0.2%.
Our Public Works and Public Safety Staff were out giving assistance to citizens and cleaning up debris that had fallen across several roadways and caused roads to be closed and power lines to come down. As I was writing this weekly column, another storm moved through the area on July 29th and our crews were out again removing storm debris from the roadways.
Our Public Works staff saw several streets with water that normally don’t have flooding problems. They are now looking to see if there is anything that we can do to eliminate as much of the flooding as we can with some changes. Some of those changes will involve minor changes but others will require some engineering and significant changes.
One small thing that each of us can do to help is to make sure that our grass trimmings and other items don’t get out into the streets and washed down to where they block street drains which prevents water from being drained away.
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.