The
Impact
of
Climate Change
ILLUSTRATION by EMILY WHANG / NEXTGENRADIO
Walter Thomas-Patterson speaks with 59-year-old Alvin Cooper who is struggling to recover after his home was flooded from torrential rains in late July of this year. Cooper lives in a floodplain just ten minutes outside of St. Louis, an area that is especially vulnerable to climate change because it lacks government attention. He is trying to recover, but can’t do it alone.
When the water recedes but the hardship remains
One man’s struggle to rebuild after a one-in-a-thousand-year flood
'I don't have pride in my home right now'
Click here for audio transcript
I’m Walter Thomas-Patterson with NPR’s NextGenRadio in St. Louis.
59-year old Alvin Cooper is trying to recover after his house was flooded in late July of this year from torrential rains.
He lives in a flood plain along the Mississippi river just 10 minutes east of St. Louis… an area vulnerable to the hazards of climate change because it lacks government attention.
He’s trying his best to survive, but he can’t do it alone.
ALVIN: “I have took out about 63 gallons—3 gallons—3 gallons a bucket each with three gallons of water. I filled them up at least 60 or 70 times.
“My name is Alvin Cooper and I’m a storm damage victim here in city St. Louis and I was just trying to see, can someone direct me or get me the proper help that I need to try to get my house back in order.
“Right now I’m still stressing because I don’t have the necessary funds to fix the house but I’m living—you know what I’m saying. I can still live and work in the house—wait on work on it little by little until I get it back together.
“Right, right now I still don’t have hot water cause I need an electrician to come out and do the hot water tank. All my electrical outlet from the water shorted out, you know, I have electrical problems that have to be looked at in this house still.
“Now this is my faucet in the restroom. I got cold running water. It works perfectly on cold—hot running water, still cold water. So I have a home, but ‘m not gonna have any heated water as of this moment. So just like I said, right now I do the boiling water. Take a shower. When I do that twice a day or when I need to in the day.
“A man of may age, you know if I was a little younger, maybe I could do a little more. But you know, you stand up, you trying to make ends meets, keep your utility bills paid and your electric bills and stuff paid and you be hitting with all these other whammys. So you’re getting behind even in your utility bills and other expenses that you need to have because you have to do all these long hours to catch up where the storm caused you all this grief at.
“I had to pay outta my own pocket to get repaired, to keep my yard and stuff cut in my yard still is not cut properly with a push mower as what I could with the rider. All my equipment was damaged back there. To get it back straight all the way, about 15 grand, and that’s cheap.
“All my tools and stuff got wet. My waste system got wet. Just numerous things, equipment got wet—you know ahh man— the list goes on and on and on— 60 items back there.
“So that’s what I’ve been cutting all this big yard with a push mower by myself. It’s kind of – I’m up in age and I can do it but it’s a lot on me. Cuz you got to cut this big yard— a half an acre with a push mower.
“I don’t, I don’t have pride in my home right now the way it looking the way and the, the damage to the storm caused. I was more happier before the storm came than I am after the storm came. I’m more down and, and, and kind of sluggish and depressed a little more now.
“Unless they go through what we goin through, everybody else like if it aint happening to me, they simply just look over it, just that simple, that’s the normal way people think sometime. As long as it ain’t me, I ain’t worried about nobody. Even when I was growing, the weather wasn’t this crazy, even when I was growing up 40 years ago, it was not this crazy. We used to tell winter from when its winter and when its cold.
“I’m worried about the future generations. If it’s gonna be in the future. Cause where it’s going. I don’t know if it’s gonna be another future, maybe another 20 or 30 years.
“My faith is number one – keeping me going, believing in God and letting me know that things are going to change. And I have been a lot worse situation than this. And I prayed to God and God helped me each time.
“Even when I was growing up 40 years ago, the weather wasn’t this crazy. Climate change is real out here—these storms, these hurricanes, ain’t coming for nothing.”
On the early morning of July 26, East St. Louis resident Alvin Cooper climbed into bed with his rottweiler by his side after an overnight shift at the local candy factory. Falling asleep to the sound of rain pounding the roof of his one-story house, Cooper could hear what sounded like a terrifying storm outside.
The sun casts on Alvin Cooper’s home on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022, in East St. Louis, Ill.
JAZ’MIN FRANKS / NEXTGENRADIO
Yet just an hour later, Cooper awoke to the sound of his dog whimpering, and turned to see his cat staring at him in silence at the head of his bed. When Cooper went to place his feet on the ground, he could immediately feel that something was wet.
Making his way to the utility room, Cooper discovered that it was filled with “a river of water.” Glancing around the room, he could see spark plumes exploding from the outlets as water seeped into them.
Cooper frantically tried to drain the water from his house, but was stymied by the poorly maintained city sewer system, which would prevent water from quickly draining on his block. Copper grabbed a bucket from inside his house in order to remove the water.
“The buckets each held three gallons, and I filled them up at least 60 or 70 times,” he said.
Alvin Cooper recounts experiencing historic flooding on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022, in East St. Louis, Ill. He said he worries future generations would not have a the city to grow up in.
JAZ’MIN FRANKS / NEXTGENRADIO
LEFT: Water pools outside of Alvin Cooper’s home in late July in East St. Louis, Ill. The region saw historic flooding after torrential downpour, breaking the highest one-day rain record in the region for the date since the early 1900s. (Photo courtesy of Alvin Cooper). CENTER: Alvin Cooper, 59, takes his dog inside on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022, outside of his home in East St. Louis, Ill. (Photo by Jaz’min Franks/NPR Next Generation Radio). RIGHT: Alvin Cooper, 59, points out where his siding is buckling on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022, at his home in East St. Louis, Ill. (Photo by Jaz’min Franks/NPR Next Generation Radio)
“Even when I was growing up 40 years ago, the weather wasn’t this crazy. Climate change is real out here—these storms, these hurricanes, ain’t coming for nothing.”
Over the next few weeks, the stench of standing water in his house smelled like a mix of rotten eggs and raw sewage – a smell Alvin said made his head hurt.
He also needed to have his flooring be ripped out and replaced, but he doesn’t didn’t have the money to hire labor to help him fix it. Because his electrical system had been shorted out during the flood, and still a month-and-a-half later, Cooper still lacks a hot-water. He now relies on his stove to boil water for showering and cleaning.
He took time off from work to begin cleaning up his house, but Cooper didn’t have all of the resources to finish all of the necessary improvements. On a half-acre lot, his rider lawn mower would make it easier for him to mow, but he didn’t have it, so he had to use a push mower, which was physically taxing for the 59-year-old in the midwest heat.
“Right now I’m still stressing because I don’t have the necessary funds to fix the house but I’m living — you know what I’m saying,” Cooper said. “I can still live and work in the house — wait, work on it little by little until I get it back together.”
For Cooper, climate change not only impacts his home, but it also threatens his identity. He identifies with the city of East St. Louis because it is an intrinsic part of his soul. He grew up in the area, and doesn’t see himself living anywhere else.
Therefore, he grows concerned when he hears about climate change because it could no longer make his home or his community inhabitable. This new reality could wipe out not only his identity, but the identity of generations of African-Africans who have rooted themselves to East St. Louis, and who are determined to see the city grow and attract a more diverse array of residents.
“I don’t have pride in my home right now the way [it’s] looking [from] the damage to the storm,” Cooper said. “ I was happier before the storm came than I am after the storm came. I’m downer and kind of sluggish and depressed a little more.”
Cooper was also behind on his taxes and home bills, and it made it hard for him to pay for these things because he had to take time off work. Because he was by himself, Alvin didn’t have people who could help clean up his house while he was away.
“I don’t know if the town will ever go back to being in full bloom, with the pretty roses that lined the blocks.”
He is worried that climate change — the extreme weather, the flooding, the humidity — will make it difficult for future generations to live in the area he does. Although he mentions he could move to nearby cities, he says he doesn’t because this is the city he grew up in, it is the city he holds closely to himself.
GRAPHIC BY BRENT JONES