Homemade levees leave big mess
Dirt, sand that saved homes now a burden
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| Ryan Prewitt photo A tractor rests Friday atop a makeshift levee that protected John and Julie Kurtz's St. Peters home from recent flooding. |
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"We're just busy trying to replant," Julie Kurtz said. The flooding this summer wiped out the family's crops.
The family farm normally produces tomatoes, pumpkins, sweet corn, watermelons and cantaloupe.On June 20, the Mississippi River topped an agricultural levee near the Kurtz' home along Highway C, just north of Silvers Road. People living near the highway took matters into their own hands, sandbagging and building makeshift levees to protect their homes.
The Kurtzes built a 6-foot levee around their home.
"The house was saved by the levee," Julie Kurtz said. "It looked like the ocean around here."
The makeshift levee was built by her husband, John Kurtz, and other family members.
"When you think you're going to lose your house, you do whatever it is that you have to do," John Kurtz said.
The river crested last month without damaging their home. The Kurtzes were busy after the flood, replanting wheat on a 30-acre portion of their property just off Silvers Road.
With the putrid smell of muck from the river and the sun beating down on her wavy, blonde ponytail, Julie Kurtz continued planting seeds on a recent afternoon.
As for the dirt levee, Julie Kurtz said the couple plans to keep it, adding that it would cost $2,000 to fuel equipment to remove it.
"Hopefully we'll be okay," Julie Kurtz said.
Tom Conoyer lives across the street from the Kurtzes. Conoyer also built a large dirt levee around his home before the flooding.
"We're going to spread it out in the front yard to make some type of new landscape," Conoyer said.
Other families in the area aren't so sure what they'll do with all the sand and dirt they used to protect their homes from floodwaters.
Marvin Kumer, who lives on Salt River Road, said he has no idea what he will do with the tons of sandbags that sit around his yard. They were never touched by floodwaters.
"We thought FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) would help us out or something," Kumer said.
Kumer said his house was surrounded by three truckloads of sand. He said he feared that with the rising cost of gas, removing those bags will be a slow process.
"I'm on a fixed income. I'm on disability and my wife works but she only gets so much," Kumer said.
Kumer said he would like to get someone to come pick up the sand for free.
John Fuerst, Kumer's neighbor, posted a "free sand" sign at the driveway of his home Salt River Road.
"We are just trying to get rid of all this," Fuerst said. "So far, nobody has come up with a plan tell us where to put it."
County spokesman John Sonderegger said Wednesday that the county has no plans for removal of sandbags.
"It's up to the homeowner as to what to do," Sonderegger said. "If residents have bags without sand in them, we will pick them up."
Fuerst said he will advertise the free clean sandbags on the Web site craigslist.com.
"I've already gotten rid of quite a few," he said. "I've still got quite a lot left, though."
Fuerst said he paid $1,500 for the sand that surrounded their home. In June, a small army of volunteers built a sandbag fortress around the house.
"We got lucky this time," Fuerst said, adding that he thinks putting up the sandbag wall was a waste of time because water only touched a small portion of his property.
"I don't think I'll do it again," he said. "If I knew (the flood) was coming back here again I would take my chances."
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