A small gas station at the crest of Independence and Kansas City has been all but ruined by consistent flooding.
The latest flood at 23rd Street Trafficway and Television Place happened in September 2016. Gas pumps were underwater, thousands of dollars of food were destroyed and traffic lights were knocked out.
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The owner of Fisca gas station said a nearby creek has overflowed at least three times since 2015. He's been trying to get city and state officials to fix the problem for months.
"We have a problem, I call everybody," said Khurram Gawed, who goes by Jay Jay.
It was difficult for Jay Jay to get a clear answer. The back half of his property is in Independence, which is unincorporated Jackson County. The front two pumps and a grassy inlet is in Kansas City's territory, which is where the creek sits. But 23rd Street Trafficway is the state's jurisdiction, run by the Missouri Department of Transportation.
After talking with officials from all of these departments, it was MoDOT who took responsibility for the area. One manager did some research to find that the landowner where the creek sits was changed between 2009 and 2010.
Interstate Underground Warehouse had built an access road through the creek and it was stopping the natural drainage of water. They told the vice president of that company what was going on, and they acted within the day, removing the road.
MoDOT is confident this will fix the issue, but workers say they will have to wait until the next big rain to test its viability.
"Hopefully we don't have a big rain. We gonna see," said Jay Jay.
In the meantime, Jay Jay has lost about $180,000 from the flooding. He has had to replace eight gas pumps from the damage.
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Belinda Post can be reached at belinda.post@kshb.com.
