ST. LOUIS – Road crews like those at MoDOT and IDOT are trying to get ahead of the approaching storm by having crews out clearing debris to minimize the risk of drains clogging.

MoDOT officials told FOX 2 that crews have been out on the interstates in recent days removing debris and doing sweeping preparations.

Joe Monroe with IDOT shared that his crews have been clearing drains since Monday.

All of these efforts to try and make sure that when the expected heavy rain hits, the drains will be as clear as possible and the water will have some place to go other than collecting on roadways.

We have all seen what torrential rains can do to our roadways.

Case in point, the massive storms from last July that caused major flash flooding.

In that case and in other past instances, MoDOT has said that the amount of rain that fell was simply too much for drains to handle, whether the drains were clear or not.

We spoke with Michelle Forneris, MoDOT’s Assistant District Engineer, as well as Scott Barthelmass, the Assistant Chief for the Eureka Fire Protection District, about dealing with big storms.

“Up and down our interstates and roadways debris does collect on our shoulders and when we get heavy rain it will flow where the water is flowing, and then it collects on top of those drains, so again MoDOT crews are out this week with sweeping operations, large debris pickups across our district.” Foeneris said.

Barthelmass added, “It takes a small amount of water to wash somebody off the roadway it takes a small amount of water for somebody to hydroplane, we’re just trying to avoid, trying to avoid people having those situations.”

The Eureka Fire Protection District is prepared to respond in case anyone becomes trapped and needs to be rescued during the storms.