Homes, Vehicles Flooded By Record Rainfall In St. Louis Area

Torrential and record-breaking rainfall caused widespread flash flooding in the St. Louis area Tuesday morning, trapping vehicles on streets, forcing rescues from homes and cars and spurring numerous road closures, including part of Interstate 70, officials said.

In St. Louis itself, more than 8 inches of rain had fallen from midnight to 7 a.m. CT -- already surpassing the city’s all-time one-day record of 6.85 inches set on August 20, 1915, the National Weather Service said.

And more rain was expected before tapering by 10 a.m., the National Weather Service’s office in St. Louis wrote.

In the wider St. Louis area, about 6 to 10 inches of rain fell from midnight to 6 a.m., according to the weather service.

Floodwater surrounded vehicles on St. Louis-area streets and crept up to apartments and other buildings, videos on social media showed.