Flash floods kill five people in Missouri, including two election judges

By JIM SALTER, The Associated Press

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Flash flooding from torrential rains in Missouri has killed at least five people, including two election judges who died Tuesday when their vehicles were washed away in the southern part of the state.

Parts of Missouri received up to 8 inches of rain in two days, causing widespread flooding and dozens of water rescues. It was part of a storm system that spawned tornadoes in Oklahoma and Arkansas.

In Wright County, Missouri, a county of about 19,000 residents 210 miles southeast of Kansas City, vehicles belonging to a 70-year-old man and a 73-year-old woman were swept away by flooding in Beaver Creek around 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, state police said . Their bodies were found more than four hours later.

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Wright County Clerk Loni Pedersen confirmed that the two people who died were poll workers. Three people in two other cars who were swept away by the rapidly rising stream were able to swim to safety, the patrol said.

Two additional deaths were reported in St. Louis County. Firefighters were called Tuesday morning after a submerged SUV was spotted near flooded Gravois Creek near Interstate 55. Crews broke through the sunroof and pulled out a woman who was pronounced dead, said Jason Brice, spokesman for the Lemay Fire Protection District.

Hours later, a man's body was found in the same flooded creek, Brice said. Authorities were investigating how the body got there. Firefighters rescued 10 more people from flooded vehicles, Brice said.

On Monday, Missouri state troopers recovered the body of a 66-year-old man after a car was swept off a bridge in Ironton, about 90 miles south of St. Louis.

The National Weather Service said four tornadoes and possibly more likely touched down in parts of Oklahoma and Arkansas on Monday. There were no reports of deaths or injuries from the tornadoes.