WILDWOOD, Mo. — Two nights of heavy, incessant rain was too much for a Wildwood neighborhood creek. Early Thursday morning, water rose rapidly along an offshoot of Wild Horse Creek.
Typically, the creek is more of a babbling brook, but Thursday morning it was a raging river sending full-sized trees downstream where they collided with the subdivision's bridge.
"Aw man, it's overwhelming as usual," resident Matt Davis remarked when he saw the pile up. Overwhelming as usual because this isn't the first time these neighbors have had to drop everything to clear out the creek. "It hasn't in a while," explained Davis, "years ago it was a regular occurrence."
With the help of his family and a handful of neighbors, Davis got to work clearing the pile up. "You start chopping and cutting from the top down," he sighed.
The cleanup required not only multiple chainsaws, but also heavy chains, trucks and ATVs to pull heavy waterlogged trees out of the creek.
"I had no idea it rained that much," Davis said. "I am surprised, yes."
August of 2019 was the last time these neighbors had to come together, but that time was worse.
"Quite a few days, it was more backed up," Davis' daughter Josie said.
Her dad elaborated, "We worked pretty hard to not only clear out the congestion here, but everything upstream and it lasted for a number of years. We were successful. Now we're just back in the loop, trees grow, trees die and here we are."
After four hours in the heat and humidity, the crew decided to call it for the day. The neighbors got about two thirds of the creek cleared.