ST. CHARLES COUNTY 鈥 After years of repeated flooding, St. Charles County offered to buy the properties of 30 owners. Only three took the deal.
St. Charles County is using $856,000 in federal funds to purchase the homes 鈥 one in O鈥橣allon, one in St. Charles and one in the eastern part of the county along the Missouri River 鈥 that have experienced significant flood damage of $5,000 or more at least three times over the past decade, county officials said last week.
鈥淭hese properties are classified as severe, repetitive losses,鈥 said Robert Myers, who works in the county鈥檚 planning and zoning office.
Unlike an ongoing $15.7 million buyout program related to 2019 flooding, this buyout program is not specific to any one particular incident, Myers said.
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About 30 homeowners qualified for this buyout program, which has strict criteria regarding flood insurance, but ultimately only three submitted an application.
鈥淲e didn鈥檛 think all 30 were going to apply,鈥 Myers said. 鈥淲e typically get somewhere between two and five property owners [who] will respond.鈥
Following an agreement approved by the St. Charles County Council last month, officials estimate that demolition of the three homes 鈥 a two-story home on Avon Place in St. Charles, a single-story ranch-style home on Belleau Lake Drive in O鈥橣allon, and a secluded home down a narrow private drive on Wiedey Road in rural St. Charles County 鈥 will begin this fall.
The work is expected to be complete in November 2026.
The Avon Place property is prone to flooding, neighbors say, due to a small creek that flows behind the home. The property owner did not respond to interview requests.
Neighbor Chris Huffman has seen water come cascading down the hill and surround the home on Avon Place.
鈥淎s recently as a week ago, there was water at her house,鈥 said Huffman, who lives on a hill.
鈥淪he absolutely needs to go,鈥 Huffman said. 鈥淓very time it floods, her house is impacted.鈥
She said she can remember at least 15 flash flooding events in the five years that she has lived on Avon Place. Other residents have taken buyouts over the years, and those former homesites are now patches of grass.
Twelve miles away, the home at on Belleau Lake Drive is abandoned, cobwebs stretch across the wrought-iron bannisters of its front porch.
It is one of a dozen homes that were flooded during a flash flood three years ago, when water from the swollen Belleau Creek gushed into the residential neighborhood in O鈥橣allon, said neighbor William Mueller.
鈥淲e had 12 inches of rain in four hours,鈥 Mueller said. 鈥淭here was no place for all that water to go.鈥
The damage from the flash flood was so great that it forced several homeowners on the street to abandon their homes, including the homeowner who is now getting a buyout on Belleau Lake Drive. Other homes ended up being foreclosed on. Others just sit vacant, Mueller said, because the homeowners are hoping to get a buyout eventually.
But Mueller is not one of them. He inherited the house from his parents in 2005.
鈥淲here would I go?鈥 Mueller said. 鈥淭his is my home.鈥
Meanwhile, the Wiedey Road property is sandwiched between the Missouri River and the Katy Trail in rural St. Charles County. Myers, with the county鈥檚 planning and zoning staff, said it has weathered many floods over the years. Homeowners there did not respond to interview requests.
Per the terms of the buyout program, the county will maintain ownership of the property once the homes are demolished. Myers said it is unclear what the county will do with the properties.
He said the county is considering a program that would allow adjacent property owners to lease the property for vegetable or flower gardens, a backyard camp site, or to allow it to return to natural wildlife habitat.
Turning the properties into neighborhood parks is another possibility, he said.
Post-Dispatch photographers capture hundreds of images each week; here's a glimpse at the week of June 1, 2025. Video edited by Jenna Jones.
