Three days of near-constant rain sent creeks pouring into St Louis-area homes over the weekend, and area rivers are expected to approach, or even surpass record levels set during 1993’s massive flood as the rain continued into Monday.
“It has never, ever flooded on the inside of the house until the past few days,” said Cottleville, Missouri, resident John Wozniak, whose 40-year-old house sits approximately 100 yards from a creek where a levee burst on Saturday night.
Nearly a foot of rain was dumped over much of Missouri by Monday morning, pushing the state’s annual rainfall count past its record and making December 2015 the wettest month ever recorded in Missouri. Flash floods led to widespread road and highway closures, and at least eight people are known to have drowned in other parts of the state. Local officials have reported hundreds of water rescues across the state. Several more perished in neighboring Illinois.
Missouri governor Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency on Sunday evening, and much of the state remains under a flood warning.
Officials in West Alton, a town of around 500 north of St Louis, between the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, urged residents to evacuate over the weekend, though no mandatory order has been issued. The Red Cross had opened several shelters near impacted communities outside the St Louis metropolitan area, with others on stand by.
Wozniak’s family, some of whom were visiting for the holidays, waded through the water late Saturday night to dry land, and are staying with other relatives. Wozniak himself chose to stay behind to try and salvage their things and to care for the family’s animals, among them a blind greyhound and a pig weighing more than 200lbs.
“I can’t leave the animals,” he said. “It’s not going to happen. These animals are part of the family.”
As of Monday morning, the water had receded but was starting to fill the first floor of his house once more. “It’ll be back,” Wozniak said.
Major rivers near St Louis – the Mississippi, Missouri and Meramec – are predicted to crest well above flood stage later this week, approaching or even surpassing the record levels set during the 1993 floods that devastated the region.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/28/missouri-floods-rainfall-st-louis-rivers
I’ve seen half a dozen articles putting the death toll from all the storms at 43.