WESTON, Mo. — Days after seeing water levels rise to dangerous levels, at least three Weston, Missouri businesses and the City Hall building remained surrounded by flood waters on Tuesday.
Both Weston Tobacco and the Sur-Gro Plant Food company, which has been in business for more than 50 years, were forced to evacuate last week ahead of the flooding and were still dealing with feet of water inside and outside their storefronts.
Sur-Gro manager Orville Fulk gathered a team on Tuesday morning before entering the facility for the first time since the flooding.
“I’ve been a manager here for 34 years and this is the third time we’ve had a river flood,” he said. “The big problem is you never know how much damage you really have until you get back in.”
The cleanup effort on Tuesday involved removing piles of debris to clear the way for Fulk’s car before he drove through feet of water to get to the business.
Last week, Fulk said the team worked long hours to move around 15 tons of fertilizer to other areas and evacuate the business to prepare for the flooding conditions.
Before seeing the inside of the Sur-Gro building on Tuesday, he told 41 Action News that the recovery ahead for the local businesses would bring even more work.
“It’s going to amount to tearing sheetrock and insulation out and redoing the whole office,” he said. “It’s going to be awhile to see what the river is going to do before we start bringing everything back.”
A short distance away, Weston City Hall also continued to deal with flooding conditions on Tuesday.
With the facility unable to be safely reached by car or foot, city leaders have had to work and conduct city operations from the police station a block away.
“Working up there is cramped quarters and difficult,” Mayor Clifford Harvey said. “We just have pull together and make things work.”
As a result of City Hall being closed due to the flooding, Harvey told 41 Action News that meetings have had to be conducted at the local fire station.
With the city still seeing the impacts from the conditions, Harvey worried about how local businesses and tourism would be impacted by further possible flooding.
“All of the businesses up Main Street rely on people coming to town and buying stuff in their stores,” he said. “If people are worried about flooding, they’re not going to come.”
The mayor added that he had recently declared a local emergency in Weston and planned to apply for FEMA funding to help the area move forward.
As Weston now waits for the flood water to recede, Harvey expected the community to keep working hard.
“It’s really nice to see that when something happens, the neighborhood pulls together and helps everybody out,” he said. “Everybody gets together and somehow life gets back to normal.”
