At least two people died as a result of flash flooding in the St. Louis region on Tuesday, and Gov. Mike Parson declared a state of emergency in response to the severe weather.
St. Louis County Police say a woman was found dead in a vehicle near Interstate 55 and Bayless Avenue as floodwaters receded late Tuesday morning. A second victim, an adult male, was found in Gravois Creek near Avenue H and Reavis Barracks Road around 2:45 p.m.
“Officers have been in the area of Bayless Avenue and I-55 all morning due to flooding. As the waters receded, a business owner in the area observed an SUV submerged and advised officers,” St. Louis County Police spokesperson Mary Schmitt said of the first death. “When access to the vehicle could be obtained, Lemay Fire Protection District personnel found a deceased adult in the vehicle.”
Police said the unidentified woman drove her car into the water sometime early Tuesday during the height of the flash flood. The cause of death is currently unknown. They did not have any additional information about the second drowning, including details about how the man got into the creek.
St. Louis saw the most rain in a 24-hour period ever recorded in November on Monday, and rain is forecast to continue through Tuesday afternoon.
Metro Transit reported more than a dozen bus routes were out of service at the start of the morning commute. Authorities reported road closures in Maplewood, Creve Coeur, Rock Hill near where South McKnight Road crosses Deer Creek and multiple parts of St. Louis near River Des Peres.
Metro said limited bus service was restored by 9 a.m. on all MetroBus routes impacted by flash flooding. The agency said bus service would continue to be restored to impacted routes as floodwaters recede.
The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department said officers responded to vehicles trapped in flooding at Skinker and Olive boulevards and at River Des Peres and Gravois Avenue. Officials said it is difficult to tell how deep water is on the road, so commuters should avoid driving through floodwater.
Captain Garon Patrick Mosby, a spokesman for the St. Louis Fire Department, said as of noon Tuesday firefighters had responded to 18 incidents involving vehicles stranded in flood waters, but no injuries have been reported.
The emergency declaration from Parson makes it easier for state agencies to coordinate flood response and makes state resources such as the National Guard available to local governments.
Power outages
Two polling places lost electricity Tuesday. In St. Louis, Christ Southern Missionary Baptist Church on Page Boulevard was without power in the morning. The city and Ameren were working to restore electricity. In the meantime, officials were directing voters to other locations. In St. Louis County, Holy Name Community Center in Bellefontaine Neighbors had an outage. Voting is continuing with a generator, but officials are encouraging voters to go to other locations.
Ameren officials said power should be restored by 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Holy Name Community Center. The company said technicians are working to restore power as quickly as possible. The 9,700 Ameren customers across Missouri who lost power early Tuesday dwindled to 3,000 by 1 p.m.
At the Christ Southern Missionary Baptist Church, workers were rushing to get a generator running to restore power to the polling place. Elections officials said workers restored power just before noon.
St. Louis Board of Elections Deputy Democratic Director Brian Sullivan said during the early morning downpours, a tree had fallen onto a power line serving the church.
A poncho-clad election worker carrying an umbrella directed voters to roll down their car windows, telling them to go approximately four blocks down Page to another polling station, at Better Family Life community center.
By 10 a.m., they had turned away around five dozen voters, Sullivan said.
“The voters have been fantastic,” he said, adding that a St. Louis law allows residents to vote at any polling place has helped.
“When a situation like this occurs, now you can vote anywhere,” he said. “You can guide them to another location, they can cast their ballot without a problem at all.”
Down the street, Better Family Life Cofounder DeBorah Ahmed said voters began lining up at the nonprofit in the rain before the polls opened at 6 a.m.
“What I see on people’s faces is determination to make sure they get the job done,” said Ahmed, also executive director of the organization's Cultural, Educational and Business Center.
Voter Derrick Owens, who lives in the neighborhood, said he walked to Southern Missionary Baptist Church to vote before being redirected to the new polling station.
He said the rain didn’t cause much of an issue for him. Fighting discouragement with the voting process was more frustrating than the weather.
“Honestly it was a struggle [to come vote],” he said. “I do understand my vote is important, but I also understand sometimes it gets discouraging when you do vote, and what you want to see happen still hasn’t happened.”
Still, “I have to do what I’m called to do,” Owens said.
Zachary Barton, a voter in south St. Louis County, left at 6:30 to get to the polls before work. He said flash floods near the River des Peres and the closure of Bayless Avenue meant a normal five-minute drive to the polls turned into a 50-minute trek.
Even after braving the heavy rain and an additional 30-minute wait at the polling place, Barton said the effort was worth it.
“It's often hard to have a voice in the political landscape,” he said. “So I really don't want to just throw away what little voice I have for an inconvenience that I can work through. Because there's a lot of important things on the docket right now.”
St. Louis County police said floodwaters appeared to be receding before 11 a.m.
Cahokia Heights and East St. Louis
Some Cahokia Heights residents who have long dealt with sewer and stormwater issues had to leave their homes Tuesday morning due to the flooding. City leaders said the area received more than 7 inches of rain over the last 48 hours. Rising waters also impacted some residents in East St. Louis, and they expressed concerns that they wouldn’t be able to vote, according to Kennedy Gardner, an attorney at Equity Legal Services in Fairview Heights, Illinois.
“The city is pumping in one neighborhood that we know of but there are still residents with active flooding and we are unsure what is being done by the city, if anything, in East St. Louis,” Gardner said in an emailed statement just before noon on Tuesday. “We have gotten a call for one resident who urgently needs to get out of their home for medical needs.”
Gardner said the city urged people to call 911 if they needed to get out, and fire officials have been conducting headcounts and rescues as the water continued rising. “But then Cahokia Heights came by later to say the residents could stay home since the water is going down,” Gardner added. “The residents haven’t seen the water going down yet. They all have bags packed ready to go in case they need to be rescued/get out.”
65-year-old Yvette Lyles has lived in Cahokia Heights for 31 years and said she’s fed up with her home and neighborhood smelling like sewage.
“It's so wrong to continue to let people live like this, and they don't come out and clean up,” Lyles said. “They don't help us get this crap up out [of] our house, they don't help us get the raw sewage up out [of] the crawl space.” She said fire officials were preparing to help her leave her home Tuesday, but later returned and told her to stay since the waters were receding.
Lyles said the flooding occurs several times a year and each time, many of her belongings are destroyed by water. She said it’s disrupted her life and exacerbated her asthma, heart problems and other health conditions. Lyles said the city has shown an inadequate response and lack of support for years, despite the area being a known flood zone. She highlighted the need for professional cleaning services and better infrastructure maintenance.
“My house used to be a beautiful home when I bought it, and it's falling apart right before my very eyes, just like my health is falling apart,” Lyles said through tears Tuesday. “I can't keep cleaning up raw sewage. Nobody should have to do this.”
Cahokia Heights Mayor Curtis McCall Sr. said emergency officials have been out since dawn Tuesday pumping water, cleaning catch basins and making other efforts to help. Some residents went to stay with relatives, McCall said. “City workers will continue their flood efforts throughout the day and night, if necessary,” he said.
Other flooding impacts
In Rolla, flooding in low-lying areas closed roads and prevented some school bus routes from operating.
Climate change is making these types of rainfall events more extreme and more common, said National Weather Service meteorologist Melissa Delia.
“We can't necessarily attribute one instance, one event, to the effects of climate change, but we are having these extreme rainfall events happening more frequently, and they will continue to increase in frequency,” Delia said.
The National Weather Service recorded 3.75 inches of rain in St. Louis on Monday, which almost tripled the previous record for Nov. 4 and broke a 1921 record for daily rainfall in November. Delia said it’s a big deal to break a monthly record.
“If you think about the number of days in November from 1888 until now, the opportunity to have those high values broken, it's just rare,” Delia said.
The rain should leave the St. Louis region between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.
This story has been updated.
Correction: This story has corrected DeBorah Ahmed's title at Better Family Life.
Abby Llorico, Jonathan Ahl, Rachel Lippmann, Will Bauer and Andrea Henderson contributed to this report.
