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Harrisonville residents, business frustrated after flood, want city to fix problem

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HARRISONVILLE, Mo. — It's a clean up process that seems never-ending for families and business owners in Harrisonville, Missouri.

Heavy rain poured down Saturday night causing flash flooding on the south side of town.

Days after, many are still cleaning up.

"Everyday is a new stage," Lani Cook, owner of the Trade Fair Mall, said.

About three feet of water rushed into her business, covering the floor and ruining items on the shelves.

"Pretty much everything is ruined this time," Cook said, "Unfortunately, some of the cooler pieces are just gone, there's just nothing you can do."

It's another devastating blow, as Cook tries to once again dry and clean her business. She went through the same process in 2017 when the business flooded during a storm.

"If you flood within 10 minutes, there's a reason it's not getting out," Cook said, "and we're all tired of it."

Just behind the Trade Fair Mall are several houses also impacted by the flood.

"We still have the fans going," Jared Johnson, who lives in a house that flooded, said. "We got the humidifier trying to get the water out."

Every time it rains, it's an unsettling feeling for his family.

"It's really the fear factor of it all, really," Johnson said. "It's you know, you're watching the news, you get the heavy storm forecast and then you're like, 'Crap.'"

Daniel Barnett, public information officer for the City of Harrisonville, said the rain pours into two tributaries, and, on Saturday, it couldn't handle it all.

"Unfortunately, when we get that much rain in that short amount of time, they can't hold all that water," Barnett said.

Therefore, since the last flood in 2017, the city reached out to the Army Corps of Engineers to figure out how to stop the flooding from happening again.

"Hopefully, from there, we are able to say, 'Alright. This is good information. These are things we can feasibly can accomplish,'" Barnett said, "and hopefully we can reduce some of the flooding in some of these flood-prone areas."

It's a study many hope fixes this problem, but some say it's a little too late.

"Something definitely needs to be done over here," Johnson said. "We're tired of the house flooding, and we're tired of constantly keep cleaning."

Cook had similar thoughts.

"Am I going to flood within the year again? Likelihood of it," Cook said.

The study will be made public at a meeting at 5:30p.m. on Monday at the Harrisonville Community Center.