ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — At least five people have died in Missouri due to flash flooding, including two in south St. Louis County and two poll workers in southwest Missouri.
St. Louis County police say a business owner saw an SUV submerged near Bayless Avenue and Interstate 55 early Tuesday morning, and alerted officers. St. Louis County Police were in the area due to the flooding.
Lemay Fire Protection District personnel found an adult dead body inside the vehicle, according to police. Preliminary investigation revealed that the victim drove her car in the water during the height of the flash flood. The cause of death is unknown, according to police. The investigation is ongoing.
Five additional vehicles were found submerged in the same area of Bayless Avenue and Interstate 55, but none were occupied.
Crews from Mehlville and Lemay fire protection districts conducted several rescues in the area Tuesday morning.
Tuesday afternoon, police confirmed another adult was found dead in the flood waters. A death of an adult male is being investigated as a probable drowning. His body was found in a creek in the 1600 block of Avenue H near Lemay.
In Wright County, about 210 miles southeast of Kansas City, vehicles driven by a 70-year-old man and a 73-year-old woman were swept away by flooding at Beaver Creek around 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, the state patrol said. The bodies were found more than four hours later.
Wright County Clerk Loni Pedersen confirmed that both of the people who died were poll workers. Three people in two other cars swept away by the fast-rising creek were able to swim to safety, the patrol said.
Also, the Missouri State Highway Patrol recovered a 66-year-old man’s body after a car was swept off a bridge in Ironton, about 90 miles south of St. Louis.