Record-breaking rainfall is causing widespread flash flooding in the St. Louis region on Tuesday as Election Day voting begins.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Abby Llorico, Jonathan Ahl, Rachel Lippmann and Andrea Henderson contributed to this report.
