ROCHEPORT - It's been 12 years since Missouri's last bad flood, but
residents are getting their hands dirty helping to prepare for what
could be replay of 1995.
Volunteers bagged sand all day and now they're working on moving the sand to around four or five houses that are at risk. An hour after a handful of workers started, 50 volunteers were digging into mounds of sand almost up to their shoulders. The Boone County Fire Department is working with volunteers to bring in sand, bag it, and set up a fighting wall. Some volunteers were here in 1993 to help sandbag and said it was hard, sweaty work but they're here to help the community out.
"We're not too worried, I think that everyone is prepared and I think that if we can get a lot of people out here to help out then everything should be fine," said Emma Power, volunteer.
"We're using mechanized equipment along the trail to defend the city and then a couple of homes that are outside that line of defense will have to be bagged individually," said Doug Westoff, Assistant Fire Chief.
The concrete walls they're putting up are just like the ones you see used for temporary road construction. The fire department says it will continue asking for volunteers if the situation worsens. But for now Westhoff says they have taken the proper measurements with building the defense walls and figuring out possible relocation places for some families.
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