St. Louis officials respond to several calls of motorists trapped during flash flooding
By Tina Burnside, CNN
Rescue crews in St. Louis, Missouri, responded to numerous reports of drivers trapped in flood waters Sunday as thousands in the area were under flash flood warnings.
The St. Louis Fire Department responded to at least 15 different calls involving vehicles stranded and motorists trapped due to flood waters, St. Louis Fire Department spokesperson Garon Mosby told CNN Sunday evening.
Mosby said it wasn’t immediately clear how many occupants were inside of the stranded vehicles. No injuries have been reported.
Video from CNN affiliate KMOV showed flooding inundating several roads, where vehicles could be seen submerged in water Sunday.
As a storm battered the area with heavy rain, over 480,000 people in St. Louis and parts of Illinois were at some point under a flash flood warning, with the National Weather Service warning that people should “move immediately to higher ground.”
“Between 3 and 6 inches of rain have fallen. Flash flooding is already occurring, but heavy rain has ended,” the weather service office in St. Louis said.
All warnings had expired by Sunday night, and roads were beginning to reopen as the rain tapered off.
So far, Shrewsbury, Missouri, has received 4 inches of rain on Sunday alone, while Mehlville received 3.60 inches and Richmond Heights got 3.02 inches.
A slight risk for excessive rainfall, level 2 of 4, remains for the St. Louis area until early Monday morning.
The-CNN-Wire
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CNN Meteorologist Robert Shackelford contributed to this report.
