Paved DHS parking lot is a rainy day nightmare for city and homeowner

Paving the Du Quoin High School parking lot years ago made it much better for students and Du Quoin football fans.

But, before the repaving, rain water simply ran down into the rock. Now it doesn't.

Instead, a river of water flows to the southwest corner of the parking lot and hits the intersection of South Peach Street and East South Street.

It also floods the front yard of Brian and Mary King immediately across the street.

Du Quoin street and water department were quick to respond at 7:30 a.m. Thursday morning as the water rolled up to their garage door.

Most at the scene say there was no engineering to figure out where the water would go after it leaves the paved parking lot. The city is repairing a partially collapsed catch basin at South and Madison streets which will help. That work began Thursday. Short of installing expensive drainage under the parking lot, keeping leaves and gumballs from getting into the system is the only short term solution.