Torrential rain triggered flash floods in parts of St. Louis and other areas of Missouri early Tuesday, with reports of rescues from residences and submerged vehicles on swamped roadways, officials said.
“Historic rainfall” of up to 10 inches caused widespread floods across the St. Louis area, the National Weather Service said.
The city’s fire department said on Twitter that it was responding to multiple reports of vehicles and people trapped in high water.
St. Louis was one of more than a dozen residential areas in Missouri and in neighboring counties in south-central Illinois that were inundated with heavy rainfall overnight.
Residents in St. Charles County, in Missouri’s central eastern region, were told to stay home. A county official told News 4, a St. Louis TV station, that emergency dispatchers were overwhelmed with water rescue calls, mostly from the St. Peters and O’Fallon areas.
Flash flood warnings remained in effect for much of the region into early Tuesday morning, the National Weather Service said.
