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After Days of Sandbagging, It's Time to Watch and Wait in Rocheport

Janet Saidi
/
KBIA
On a break from the sandbagging, Rocheport Alderman Conrad Yates stands in front of his business, Yates Bed & Breakfast Inn, on June 4, 2019. Yates says he feels the city is as prepared as it can be "for the moment" for the floodwaters.

In Rocheport, residents, business owners and volunteers have completed almost two weeks of sandbagging, as the community now watches to see what the river does next.

 

And people here said it’s the waiting and watching that’s the hardest part.

Tuesday afternoon at Rocheport’s Meriwether Cafe and Bike Shop, owner Brandon Vair sat with a group of staff members from Les Bourgeois Winery. The group had spent nearly two weeks volunteering in the city’s sandbagging efforts, and were taking a break to sit back and eat lunch.

 

Credit Janet Saidi / KBIA
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KBIA
Brandon Vair owns Rocheport's Meriwether Cafe and Bike Shop with his wife, Whitney Vair. In the cafe office on Tuesday, June 4, 2019, Vair said waiting and watching is the hardest part.

Vair held his four-month old son Bel and visited with the group, the floodwaters steps away from the cafe. But he said Meriwether’s – like other Rocheport businesses - is open.

And he said after days of intense sandbagging, waiting is the hard part.

“What happens now - we wait and watch the river,” said Vair. "Just like every farmer … just like everybody else. Nobody’s special. We are all at the will of nature right now.  ... You can plan for the worst and hope for the best and I think that’s what we’ve done.”

Rocheport City Alderman Conrad Yates was enjoying a day of rest at his Yates House Bed & Breakfast Inn, after the intense days of sandbagging. He said he saw the historic 1993 flooding, having moved to the area two years before, and he feels community response efforts have been greatly improved since then because of cell phones, GPS and better river level reporting that is accessible on mobile phones.

And he says the community has done everything it can to stay ahead of the flood waters.

“Sandbagging has been done as well as it can possibly be done for the moment,” said Yates. “We’re under no illusions that this will moment will last – there are many variables that could lead to higher river levels.”

 

Credit Janet Saidi / KBIA
/
KBIA
After nearly two weeks of sandbagging efforts, the city of Rocheport was watching and waiting, on Tuesday, June 4, 2019.

In the meantime, Yates and Vair both emphasized that Rocheport is open - that no businesses have been closed by the floodwaters. Yates said one of the hardest things for business owners is fighting the impression that the city is under water – it’s not. And the best way people can support the town, he said, is to come out and have something to eat.

Janet Saidi is a producer and professor at KBIA and the Missouri School of Journalism.
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