At least one person was killed on Tuesday, July 26, as record-high precipitation was soaking St. Louis, leading to what the National Weather Service called “life-threatening” flash flooding.
Public safety officials discovered the body inside a vehicle that was underwater at an intersection, St. Louis Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson said at a press conference Tuesday afternoon.
The incident has been classified as a “sudden death” pending further investigation, the St. Louis Police Department said in a statement, and the medical examiner’s office will ultimately determine the cause. The person has not been named.
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 rainfall led the National Weather Service to declare 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.”
Residential properties were also impacted. One video, recorded by a resident and shared on Twitter by a reporter with CBS affiliate KMOV, showed the person’s backyard completely inundated with water. A fence and tree trunks appeared to be partially submerged.
The St. Louis Fire Department said it had responded to 18 homes with “substantial flooding or trapped occupants.”
