Overnight Rain Overwhelms Stormwater Drainage in Hannibal

Heavy rain overwhelmed part of Hannibal’s stormwater drainage in the downtown area overnight.
Board of Public Works officials say the runoff damaged part of the drainage system and stopped pumps late Tuesday and early this morning. Hannibal Emergency Management Director John Hark says "The main storm sewer coming down North Street here is a very, very large sewer. You could probably drive an automobile in it. We had such a hard rain in such a short period of time that it all came rushing down here above ground as well as underground that storm sewer being that big, when it gets down here it has to turn and go down to our pump station. "We got too much pressure and it blew out."

Building owners were called downtown around 1:30 a-m. Water was pumped out by shortly after sunrise leaving mud on streets east of Main and on the floors of some buildings. The Hannibal Filter Plant recorded 1.88 inches of rain in the 24 hours ending at 5 a-m.