WINFIELD, MO, June 3, 2019 – Rising floodwaters at Winfield, Missouri begin to overtake some of the homes in the lower area of the town. Police urged several residents to get out while they could and some have sought refuge at the Red Cross shelter opened at Winfield High School. (Red Cross photo by Carl Manning)
WINFIELD, MO, June 3, 2019 – A boat carries residents from their flooded homes to dry land in Winfield, Missouri. The Red Cross has opened a shelter in the town to provide a place to stay for those displaced. (Red Cross photo by Carl Manning)
WINFIELD, MO, June 3, 2019 – Red Cross shelter volunteer Ed McMahan visits with Nora Peters and her grandsons Matthew Berendt, left, and Malichi Berendt at the Red Cross shelter opened at Winfield High School for those being displaced by flooding. Nora said she and her grandsons were told by police to leave before the rising water left them with no way to get out. (Red Cross photo by Carl Manning)
The rain had delayed the Cardinals-Cubs game in St. Louis. It was after midnight but Nora Peters was awake at her home in Winfield, Missouri to watch the game and root for her beloved Redbirds.
As she watched the game with her two teenaged grandsons, she was startled by the loud knocking on her front door around 2:30 in the morning.
Opening the door, she was told by a police officer that floodwater was headed her way and she had leave now or be trapped by the rising water.
“When the police knocked on the door and told us to leave, I was scared and panicky. They said there was no way we could stay,” she said.
Fortunately for her, the Red Cross had opened a shelter at Winfield High School in case people who were forced to evacuate would have a place to go.
“We’re really grateful that there was a place for us. I’ve never been this close to a flood before,” Nora said as she and her grandsons ate lunch at the shelter with Red Cross volunteer Ed McMahan, one of the shelter staff members.
Nora said since being at the shelter, she’s had a chance to talk to some of the volunteers and they helped her to relax.
“They’ve been really courteous, kind and nice,” she said. “You couldn’t ask for any better people.”
Nora said she’s seen where her home is surrounded by water and is worried that it will rise and get inside the house. She and her grandsons have no place to go but she’s not going to let that get her down.
“I’m not a quitter and neither are my grandkids. We’ll make it through and with God’s help we will be able to back home,” she said.
Nora said there was one bright spot in all that happened that night – when she got to the shelter she learned that the Cardinals had beaten the Cubs.
“At least we took the Cubs out of first place,” she said as she broke into a smile.