Flash flooding strands residents of historic St. Louis, closing roads

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Heavy rains caused flash flooding in and around St. Louis on Tuesday, leaving residents stranded in their cars and homes as rainfall levels broke records set a century ago.

As of 10 a.m. local time, the city had received over 8.5 inches of rain, more than an inch in a single calendar day. A record of 6.85 inches Set in Galveston, Tex. in August 1915 when the remnants of a hurricane passed through the area.

Some parts of the northwest part of St. Louis More than 10 inches of rain fell In six hours overnight – an event 0.1 percent chance Happens in a particular year. At 8 am, heavy rain fell in the northeast, but the rain continued to affect the city.

Emergency crews responded to multiple reports of drivers whose cars were submerged in floodwaters. A block on the city’s west side, the St. Louis Fire Department said it used an inflatable boat. To rescue six people Also, 6 dogs out of 18 houses were caught in heavy floods. About 15 people opted for accommodation.

As of 10 a.m. local time, no injuries had been reported in the flooding, said Ann Wastmans, spokeswoman for the St. Louis County Office of Emergency Management.

Videos shared on social media showed many roads completely impassable. A portion of a major highway, Interstate 70, was closed due to flooding. According to the Missouri Department of Transportation.

St. Louis County emergency officials urged residents not to travel and said they had set up a shelter for displaced people. The central part of the district is the most affected by the rains, they said.

“Use extreme caution,” said St. Louis firefighter Caron Patrick Mosby He said in a video shared on Twitter. “We’re being captured here.”

Extreme precipitation events have increased significantly over the past century and have been linked to human-caused climate change warming. Such extreme events increased 42 percent in the Midwest between 1901 and 2016, and additional increases are expected as the climate continues to warm. According to the US government’s National Climate Assessment.

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Thunderstorms began to fall in St. Louis late Monday Formed along the west-east line, passing through the city over and over like train cars on the tracks until Tuesday morning. The National Weather Service warned of “life-threatening flash flooding” between 2 a.m. and later A flash flood emergency has been declared, its most severe flood warning. By then, 3 to 6 inches of rain had fallen and high water “threatened homes” while vehicles were heavily submerged, the weather service said.

“This is a particularly dangerous situation,” it warned. “Now seek higher ground!”

St. Louis received the equivalent of two months of rain in six hours. A creek in St. Peters, Mo., northwest of St. Louis, rose 21.5 feet in seven hours, setting a record mid-stream.

Thunderstorms that formed on the northern rim of the heat dome spread across the south-central states, with Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas recording high temperatures in recent days. St. Louis is located in the turbulent transition zone between warm and cold weather as it enters the Upper Midwest from Canada.

On Tuesday, the weather service declared an area from eastern Missouri to central West Virginia under a risk of heavy rainfall, with the greatest risk from the St. Louis area to southern Illinois and southwest Indiana. That risk It is predicted that the area will be transferred Wednesday and Thursday from southeast Missouri through West Virginia.

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