Elevator Constructors Local 3 member Tim Padfield swept away in floodwaters, presumed drowned

Otis Elevator hosted fundraiser Thursday, July 18, to help family

BY TIM ROWDEN
Editor

The tragic impact of this year’s flooding continues to be felt by union members and their families.

Tim Padfield, a 35-year member of Elevator Constructors Local 3, was swept away and presumed drowned Sunday, June 2, when floodwaters created a 100-foot-wide breach in the Pin Oak Levee that protects a section of Winfield, about an hour’s drive north of St. Louis.

Padfield owns a farm in Winfield and was at the property moving equipment to higher ground when the levee breached, his wife, Nat Padfield, said. “I had talked with him that evening; we talked for 11 minutes,” she said. “He told me he felt like they had misjudged the water levels out there. He wanted to secure the truck and other things so they didn’t get damaged. I told him to call me when he was done, but he never called.”

Nat Padfield said she tried calling him every hour that night, thinking maybe he had gone to bed and forgotten to call. By 6:30 a.m., she had begun to fear the worst.

Nat said Tim was back at the house, which was on higher ground, when she talked to him. His wallet, cards and blood pressure medicine were found on the kitchen table. The bottle containing his blood pressure medicine was full of water, and there were muddy footprints in the house.

For some reason, maybe because he remembered something else he wanted to secure, he went back outside.

Master Sgt. Charles Bowles, Missouri State Highway Patrol Marine Division, told her Tim was probably caught off guard when the levee broke.

“We don’t’ know why he went back outside,” she said. “Once that levee breeched, Sgt. Bowles said there was five and a half feet of water in the barn.”

Several agencies have searched the area using helicopters, boats, drones and sonar, but to no avail.

Tim Padfield would have been 61 on July 2.

Local 3 Business Manager John Orr said with Tim still missing, Nat can’t access his pension or death benefits.

Orr said members have donated and are working to raise money for the family and he has been in touch with the Missouri AFL-CIO’s Working Families Relief Fund, established last month to help union families in need impacted by this year’s flooding and tornadoes.

“We’ve raised money from the membership, and we’ve got some other things were trying to do for them,” Orr said. “But in the meantime, his weekly income is missing. It’s a dirty shame.

“He was a good guy,” Orr said. “We’re a small local, only 330 members. So we’re all feeling this.”

Otis Elevator, Tim’s employer, hosted a fundraiser on Thursday, July 18.

“A lot of the guys that he worked with have reached out letting me know if there’s anything they can do,” Nat Padfield said. “I just can’t believe this is happening. His lunch box is still here with the snacks he had bought for the next week.”