UNIVERSITY CITY, Mo. — As the rain poured down on Tuesday in record numbers, a University City man, waiting for FEMA's buyout after the 2022 flood, received more rain instead.
Wilson Avenue has been an area that is prone to flooding in UCity, and this time Special Education teacher Liam Briick said the water came to his kneecaps as he stood in his driveway.
Initially, Briick braced himself for a couple of inches this week by clearing storm drains to prevent backups.
"We otherwise were not ready for the storm," he said about Tuesday's flooding.
"The 2022 flood was the most disastrous in the history of this home," Briick said about the home he purchased in 2018. "I did some research and pulled some records on the 2008 flood for this specific home and this was about 2 feet more with an additional like $50- or $60,000 more worth of damage. My basement was filled with 4 feet in the first floor and it caused structural damage as well as just general damage that happens with that amount of water when it's a large river flowing through the whole street."
RELATED: University City family recalls losing almost everything in historic flooding, 2 years later
Tuesday's flood brought back those old memories.
"We were in fight or flight mode," He said. Briick and his partner "began organizing our pets, trying to get our clothes, trying to get our stuff so that if things happened, we could leave. I was out in the water in my waders talking with police trying to mitigate any water from coming in the home."
Every time rain comes, Briick said River Des Peres, which sits 100- 200 feet away from his home, fills and has nowhere to go, so it flows into the street and a handful of homes are greatly impacted.
"In 2022, we were displaced and our displacement was almost a full year. We were condemned, but our condemnation did not occur until 30 days after the flood," Briick shared.
He said a city inspector told him they did not realize Wilson Avenue was flooded.
"So this whole time we were living at my partner's apartment while dealing with clearing out and restarting and drying things out in the meanwhile, University City was not aware that we were impacted," Briick said in frustration.
Briick said he is one of 12 homes on his street that the city sought federal funding to buy out in 2022.
According to Briick, he has not heard from local officials about the FEMA buyout since November 2023. Briick has tried contacting the case manager for the FEMA buyout but he has not received any communication from local government officials.
When he purchased the home he recalls being notified that the home was located in a flood plain after paying the down payment. As a result, Briick also purchased flood insurance.
"I was not aware that there was any sort of buyouts or any homes that were even on that street because across the street from me is blank. They tore down their homes in 2011 in order to mitigate the flood because they were getting flooded so often," he shared.
Tuesday's flood left the couple trapped. They said were no evacuation sites due to the presidential election, and the water enclosed around the property to a point where they could not leave or drive their car through the floodwaters.
"We were kind of accepting our fate of where we were. Just really emotionally charged because we were thinking the number of times we've communicated with government officials, the number of times we've communicated with news reporters, the number of times we've just had these conversations, we just feel like we're talking to no one and getting no response," he said. "So there's a lot of emotion and anxiety that occurs every time there is rain and I don't think us living there for the last year and some change, it doesn't change. My feelings haven't dissipated from the original flooding over two years ago."
John Wagner, the director of planning and development in UCity, said, "The flood buyouts are still in progress -- both the FMA Grant that covers three of the four buildings that comprise the Hafner Court Apartments, as well as the HMGP Grant that covers the twelve single-family homes on Wilson Avenue and the fourth Hafner Court building."
The State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) has indicated to Wagner that the buyout will happen soon.
"I know soon is a nebulous, non-specific term, but I’m hesitant to provide a specific timeline, only to have it extend, for whatever reason," Wagner added.
Briick's home flooded in 2019, 2021, and 2022, and now this.
He recommended homebuyers do their due diligence when purchasing a home. Now more than ever, Briick understands how important is is to ask the right questions.
"I truly love the community of University City and that's what hurts the most is the feeling of alienation," he said. "That's what I get the most when these experiences occur because I can't talk to people down the street and say I had this lived experience, this trauma, lived experience and they don't know how to respond to it. And so it's very similar to when I work with my students. I don't know what they have lived through, but I can empathize and I don't feel that from my immediate community."
"The residents that were affected by the flood in 2022 have been through a lot, and they deserve reliable information, once it becomes available," Wagner said.
Right now all he knows is that is that FEMA would not ask for additional information if the grants were not still in progress.
