Flooding Sets Record At Meramec Caverns, Massive Cleanup Underway
“This was the worst flooding we’ve ever seen, worse than 1982, worse than 1993,” said Lester Turilli, Jr., Meramec Caverns, Stanton. “The water inside our facility was about four feet, and a foot taller than 1982.”
Meramec Caverns, one of the area’s largest tourist attractions, is open for cave tours, but much of the facility is undergoing massive cleanup work after the “Flood of 2008.”
Turilli and some friends were able to repel off a bluff and get into the Caverns during the crest of the flood and observed the devastation firsthand.
“We lost the kitchen, food, our gift shop. There was water and mud everywhere,” said Turilli. “We had about 75 people working around the clock and were able to open the cave in three days. We had a lot of our crew working and a number of volunteers that came in to help.”
Turilli stated that crews used high-pressure water hoses to flush mud out of the facility while crews used heavy equipment to remove gravel from the business parking lot, which appeared as a large gravel bar once water receded back into the Meramec riverbank.
“The mud in our facility was from an inch thick to six inches thick,” said Turilli. “We had people working 16-to-18 hour days to get open and now we’ve got crews working around the clock, seven days a week, trying to get things open again.”
Crews were already overhauling the Caverns kitchen area and gift shop.
Once outside the facility, the Cavern grounds looked like it had been hit by a tornado. Bathhouses were destroyed, concession areas destroyed, boat docks gone, and new gravel bars in places they are normally not found.
“It will be at least a month before we get the restaurant up and running and the campgrounds will probably not open until June 1, but the cave tours are open and running daily,” said Turilli.
Meramec Caverns estimates that the flooding damage will be in excess of half a million dollars.
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