Steelville parishioners glad to be ‘back home’
Returned to St. Michael Church 11 months after flash flooding rendered it unusable — Enjoyed the hospitality of neighboring Holy Cross Parish in Cuba
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Mike Kempf waded in the water, and there he found trouble aplenty.
The sky had soaked the landscape, and the creeks and rivers all around Steelville were topping their banks.
“Shock. I think that’s what you’d call it,” said Mr. Kempf, a member of St. Michael Parish in Steelville, looking back at Nov. 5, 2024, the night he found 6 inches of rainwater running through his church.
“We’d had a little bit of water come in before, but nothing nearly this bad,” he recalled.
The overnight cloudburst eluded forecasters, so parishioners didn’t have time to put up a wall of sandbags.
The rushing water caked the floor with mud.
“It didn’t just flood through the side doors,” said parishioner Jeanette Middleton. “The ground was so saturated, it was coming up through the vents in the furnace.”
“It was very devastating,” said parishioner Judy Plank. “It came in the middle of the night. Downtown Steelville was flooded. There was 4 or 5 feet of water in the road as you went up Main Street.”
Water works
Mr. Kempf notified Father Anthony Onyiehe, who was the parochial administrator at that time, and Brad Copeland, diocesan director of buildings and properties.
Churchgoers and neighbors brought mops, squeegees and wet-dry vacuum cleaners and put them to work.
A restoration company came to dry out the soaked walls and furnishings.
“We brought in a bunch of young kids,” said parishioner Larry Howdeshell. “Some nieces and nephews, some sons came to do the heavy lifting. And our older guys and older ladies were out there doing more than their fair share, hauling everything they could.”
A company in St. James lent the parish a 53-foot box trailer to store furniture while the damage was being assessed.
“That was just the beginning,” said Mr. Kempf. “We thought it wouldn’t be that big of a deal. It turned out to be a very big deal.”
Friendly neighbors
Fr. Onyiehe relocated St. Michael’s 8 a.m. Sunday Mass, as well as its regular Tuesday Morning Mass, to Holy Cross Church in Cuba, about 14 miles away.
It would remain so for about 11 months, while insurance claims were being settled and every trace of the flood was being vanquished.
St. Michael parishioners held their annual Thanksgiving Dinner at Holy Cross a few weeks after the flood.
“They kept that parish tradition alive, even when our church was closed for repairs,” said Mr. Howdeshell.
“Holy Cross welcomed us with open arms,” said Mr. Kempf. “They accommodated us really well.”
Parishioners Lisa Kreamalmyer and Jennet Middleton, who are sisters, were among those who would share rides to Cuba for Mass each Sunday.
“I’m eight miles one way and she’s five or six miles the other way,” said Mrs. Kreamalmyer. “We just met at the school and carpooled.”
“We would just think about our day and wonder if we were going to be to church on time!” Mrs. Middleton added.
Throughout the interim, a core group of St. Michael parishioners held their after-Mass “donut time” in Holy Cross’s multipurpose room.
The flood and its aftermath showed Mr. Howdeshell how much people in neighboring parishes care about each other.
“The folks at Holy Cross and St. Francis (Caracciolo in Bourbon) were always very kind and welcoming,” he said. “They all wanted to know how we were doing and how the church was coming along.”
Weekly offertory collections remained steady while St. Michael Church was being repaired.
In this together
Related work not covered by insurance included replacing the St. Michael Church roof, installing new light fixtures, rebuilding some of the cabinets in the kitchen, upgrading the heating and air conditioning, and removing old asbestos floor tiles.
“We had several generous anonymous donors help with all of that,” Mr. Howdeshell noted.
Parishioners were concerned that the elaborate murals behind the altar were ruined and would have to be painted over.
“We were lucky,” Mr. Howdeshell stated. “If any of the artwork was damaged, it was below the baseboard. I don’t think we lost anything on the wall.”
Volunteers laid hands at least four times on every item that was salvaged from the flood in the church.
First, they moved the chairs and other items they could into the elevated sanctuary, which was the only dry part of the church.
Then, they hauled everything out to the storage trailer.
Two weekends before the first Mass was to be celebrated, they removed everything from the trailer and set it in the parish multipurpose room.
From there, they carried each item again to its rightful place in church.
“You’d be hard pressed to find a parishioner that didn’t contribute in some form,” said Mr. Howdeshell.
“Wonder and awe”
In July of 2025, Father Mark Smith succeeded Fr. Onyiehe as pastor of Holy Cross Parish in Cuba, St. Michael Parish in Steelville and St. Francis Caracciolo Parish in Bourbon.
The church restoration continued on his watch.
Parishioner Phyllis Perkins likened the whole experience to “trying to get back to our temple, as the Israelites had done.”
“It was a study in patience, endurance and surrender to God’s will for the parishioners of St. Michael in Steelville,” she said.
Fr. Smith offered the first Mass in the restored church on Sept. 28, 2025, the Feast of St. Michael.
“Everyone was tickled,” said Mr. Kempf. “We’re back in, we’re back home!”
“Our hearts were filled with wonder and awe,” stated Mrs. Perkins, “just as the shepherds were struck at the sight of the newborn lying in the manger.”
But would there be a delay in everyone returning to Sunday Mass like there was after the COVID-19 pandemic?
No.
“People have come back in droves,” said Mr. Kempf. “It just reiterated for me that our parish is as close and committed as we thought we were.”
The ecumenical community quilting group settled back into the parish’s multipurpose room a few weeks after the first Mass.
Fr. Smith said the restored church looks “absolutely beautiful.”
“It’s kind of like walking into a brand-new church. Everything is shiny, bright, looks new or repainted,” he said.
The expanded sanctuary has more room for priests and deacons to move around during Mass, he said.
“But, what’s even more lovely is that the church is open and that we’re able to worship here again,” he said.
Tight bonds
St. Michael Parish has about 35 registered families.
“We’re not a big parish,” Mr. Howdeshell noted, “but we’re a tight parish.”
“We’re a group that if something needs to get done, we pull together and make it happen,” said Mr. Kempf.
Steelville, population 1,600, is the seat of Crawford County in the southeastern corner of the diocese.
St. Michael Parish was founded in 1949 as a mission of Holy Cross Parish in Cuba.
Bishop Michael F. McAuliffe, now deceased, who was second bishop of the diocese, dedicated St. Michael Church at its current location in 1983 and rededicated it after a major expansion 10 years later.
“Right now, our congregation is made up mostly of older people, but we’re still able to pull off some pretty good challenges,” said Mr. Kempf.
Visitors to local rivers and resorts swell the Sunday Mass attendance each summer.
Mr. Kempf loves the sound of babies and children at Mass.
“We’re starting to get some younger families here, and some of them are having young’uns,” he said.
He said the more seasoned parishioners treat the children of the younger parishioners like family.
“They set a good example by consistently coming to church and praying, by encouraging the young servers and ‘oohing’ and ‘aahing’ the babies,” he said.
Something gained
Mr. Kempf said that even without the sanctuary furnishings and the presence of the Most Blessed Sacrament, St. Michael Church still felt like a prayerful place.
“I always felt like Jesus is there, that it’s still church,” he said. “We have a beautiful mural on the wall behind the altar. Jesus and the crucifix were always visible.”
Mr. Kempf believes at least one good thing came from the flood and the months without Mass in the church.
“Other than the fact that everything looks beautiful now, there were a lot of people who’d see each other every Sunday but didn’t associate much with them,” he said.
“After the flood, we got together to work on moving things out and then moving them back in,” he stated. “I think the parish got strengthened a bit because we had to work together.”
Reflecting on the past year, the people of St. Michael Parish turn to God in prayer.
“First of all, thank God that we were able to accomplish what we accomplished,” said Mr. Kempf. “And pray that we never have to go through a crisis like that again. And if we do, pray that we can rise up and endure like we did this time.”
“Pray for the people who come here on vacation or live here part-time,” said Mr. Howdeshell. “For them to know they have a home in our parish and are always welcome.”
