"Historic rainfall" brings "life-threatening" flash floods in St. Louis
CBSN
Record-high precipitation is soaking St. Louis, leading to what the National Weather Service called "life-threatening" flash flooding. Though no one has been reported dead, authorities said they were carrying out multiple rescues — and photos showed cars almost entirely submerged in the water.
Massive thunderstorms that hit St. Louis overnight prompted a "historic rainfall event," per the National Weather Service, which in turn caused "widespread flash flooding" throughout Tuesday morning. As of 7 a.m. local time, the city had shattered its daily rainfall record, reporting 8.06 inches of rain in just seven hours, the Weather Service said. The previous record, set in August 1915 after the Galveston hurricane, was 6.85 inches.
The rainfall led the National Weather Service to declared a flash flood emergency for St. Louis early Tuesday morning — which, per the Weather Service, describes the "EXCEEDINGLY RARE situations when extremely heavy rain is leading to a severe threat to human life and CATASTROPHIC DAMAGE from a flash flood is happening or will happen soon."
