UNIVERSITY CITY, Mo. — University City Emergency Responders are hoping new signs around town will help people take notice of the area around them, so they are prepared for the next time heavy rain hits.
They almost look like a traffic sign. But then you take a second look, and you can see these are actually signs marking the level of the River Des Peres on July 26 of last year.
That was the day historic flash flooding hit the St. Louis area. Rising water caused damage and endangered lives across the St. Louis region. One of the hard-hit areas was University City, where water as high as 8 feet turned streets into rivers and flooded dozens of homes.
We could hope it would never happen again, but University City Fire Chief Bill Hinson knows better.
"It's something this area sometimes gets, however, that was one of the worst that we have seen here," Hinson said.
The catastrophic flooding led to multiple dangerous rescues, both from people in cars and people in homes. It stretched University City fire crews thin.
"Most of them hadn't slept in, that was the second day of a 48-hour shift, so most of them hadn't slept in 30-40 hours."
Now emergency crews are hoping they can get people's attention, with signs marking the height of the River Des Peres on that day.
"It gives people a border or information to know so that if we put out a CodeRED alert saying there may be flooding coming, if they see these signs they know that they are in that general area that the flooding can happen," Hinson said.
Haven't heard of a CodeRED alert? If you live, work or spend a lot of time in University City, you should. The emergency notification system sends University City residents time-sensitive and emergency notifications such as weather warnings, boil-order notices, missing child or evacuation notices.
"Through this system, we are able to send out warnings to anybody who is signed up through the city," Hinson said. "They will receive a warning. These warnings can be as general as the whole city, they can be down to a ward, they can be down to a city block."
And Hinson said other tools can help rescue teams can pinpoint trouble on the river before it happens,
"The other system, Q Data Live here, University City rain gauges, they will give us about 40 minutes of warning," he said.
That 40-minute warning would mean ample time to get out of the flood plain and to higher ground.
To register for University City's CodeRED emergency notification system, click here.