Flooding

Some residents in East St. Louis on Wednesday called on the city to do more as floodwaters lingered in their neighborhood following heavy rains in the Metro East on Tuesday.

St. Louis broke a record for the most rainfall in a 24-hour period in November on Monday.

Outdated and poorly maintained sewage and stormwater systems have led to chronic sewage backups in communities across the country.

A shelter has been set up at Trinity Lutheran Church, and the American Red Cross has been activated.

The St. Louis region is forecast to get two to four inches of rain from the storm, which is expected to continue throughout the day.

Warmer temperatures are leading to more extreme precipitation, dry periods and dangerously humid heat waves all at once. But in a complicated system, some things aren’t changing as expected.

To date, only 4% of the money sought for projects to help the city of Cahokia Heights address its flooding and sewage crisis has been spent, according to an EPA analysis.

Officials and lawyers representing the city said Cahokia Heights had still not received most of the funding.

Superfund sites contain extreme pollution. Flooding — made worse by climate change — could carry toxic contaminants into surrounding areas.

The coordinator, Beth Murphy, said a key accomplishment — what she calls the “matrix” — details ongoing construction projects, plus future construction and funding, to fix the chronic water issues plaguing the Metro East community.