Mascoutah Grapples with Severe Flooding Fallout: A Citizen’s Experience and City’s Response

By Zachary Daum

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On July 16, residents of Mascoutah, Lebanon and the surrounding area found themselves contending with severe flooding. This flood, which some compare to the severe flood of the 1950s and the 2022 event, tested the city’s flood management systems and elicited strong responses from both residents and city officials.

Carol Sinnard is a resident of Mascoutah and retired Scott Air Force Base weather forecaster who lives in northern Mascoutah on Winnebago Way with her husband. At the recent August 5 Mascoutah City Council Meeting, Sinnard let the city council know her plight. She faced significant damage to her home due to the July 16 flood. Her home was severely impacted, with repair costs estimated between $40,000 and $50,000. In a further interview with Sinnard, she criticized the city’s response, noting a lack of communication. “I’ve heard nothing from the city since the flood,” she remarked. “It feels like they’re not taking the concerns of people like me seriously.”

Sinnard also reported issues with a failed pump and backup generator, which exacerbated the damage. “A backup generator failed, and that’s part of the reason why my home was so badly affected,” she said.

In an effort to explain what had occurred, Mascoutah City Engineer Sal Elkott addressed some of these concerns. He first stated that he has contacted Sinnard and is waiting for a return call. He also acknowledged the overwhelming nature of the flood, which he described as an event where the city’s systems “could not keep up with the massive sudden flooding.”

Regarding the backup generator issue, Elkott clarified, “There were no reports of generator issues from the city’s side. When Silver Creek rises it backs up flood waters into many other ditches, which backs it up into pipes, and culverts. This is backwater flooding, it is often what causes flooding at SAFB. Imagine you have a big pipe… Now imagine if the creek downstream is rising, it’s going to rise and fill that pipe and the pipe isn’t going to drain,” Elkott explained, illustrating the challenge of backwater flooding.

When asked about what the city would be able to do differently at this time if a flood like this happened again, Elkott elaborated on the limitations of dealing with backwater flooding such as rising creeks “If it’s the creek rising,” he said, “if I told you that we can do something about that, I would not be making a factual statement.” This reflects the complex nature of managing such severe flooding events.

The recent flood mirrors past events in Mascoutah, including the significant flood just two years ago, in 2022. Despite efforts from the city to mitigate future flood damages after the 2022 flood, the recent flooding highlighted persistent vulnerabilities. Elkott, who became city engineer after the flood of 2022, noted that while improvements are underway, the extreme nature of these events continues to pose challenges.

The short time between the 2022 flood and the most recent one also serves as a reminder of the increasing frequency and intensity of such weather events. Elkott stated that the city’s response first involves collecting data to improve infrastructure and applying for grants to address vulnerabilities. “With respect to what the city is doing about this, we have started with collecting flow data for analysis. This flow data is needed for design work which in turn is necessary for construction work. Each of the design and construction activities are enormously expensive which the city has to apply for grants to pay for. Grants that other cities will compete with us for. “We have to identify where the vulnerable areas in the system are and methodically work to improve these vulnerable parts of the system. We are doing that.”

With Mascoutah’s rapid growth in recent years, concerns about the capacity of existing infrastructure to handle new developments have arisen. Elkott stated that new developments are required by code to provide detention facilities for stormwater runoff to avoid exacerbating existing issues, also highlighting that much of these issues are discussed before construction. “For new developments, the stormwater part of it, the standard way of dealing with it is detention,” he explained. “You create basins in the ground substantial enough to make sure that whatever water runs off from this new development in post development doesn’t exceed the pre-development condition. Storm runoff gets stored in these basins and is released at a lower rate of discharge.”

Sinnard’s concerns about rapid development and its impact on infrastructure highlight anxieties about whether the city’s systems can keep pace with growth. Elkott acknowledged that while improvements are necessary, the process is often slow, complex and costly. “The biggest, most expensive thing that the city owns is the infrastructure,” he said, “and we only get a small fraction of the tax revenue to be able to maintain it into the future.”