Helicopter evacuations from Missouri summer camp
Heavy rains and widespread flooding battered parts of Missouri, prompting the evacuation by helicopter of more than 150 children and staff from a summer camp and the rescue of about 20 people from a collapsed camp building.
The children were stranded at Camp Taum Sauk in the small southeastern community of Lesterville because nearby roads were wiped out and more rain was forecast, according to Sgt. Eddie Young with the state highway patrol. He said the Army National Guard used Black Hawk helicopters to fly it to a nearby school.
Meanwhile, Young, St. He said campers at the Bearcat Getaway campground near Black River, about 86 miles south of St. Louis, climbed a building to get away from raging waters when it collapsed.
“Because of the weight and the steady waters beneath him, he succumbed to them,” he said.
Three people stranded in trees on the Black River in Reynolds County were rescued Friday evening, Young said.
No major injuries or deaths were reported, but a Crawford County woman went missing after the home she was in was swept off its foundation by flooding, Young said. District, St. It is approximately 70 miles southwest of St. Louis.
St. Matt Beitscher, chief meteorologist at the NWS office in St. Louis, said the National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings for the area, which received 6 to 12 inches of rain from successive thunderstorms.
“This is a very, very popular place for recreation,” Beitscher said of the affected counties. “So there are campgrounds there. There are floating excursions there. There are a lot of vulnerable populations that could be exposed to flash flooding.”
The weather service warned that “significant flooding impacts will be likely” if southeast Missouri sees more heavy rain overnight into Saturday morning.
Governor Mike Kehoe declared a state of emergency and deployed one of the state’s search and rescue teams to assist. Hundreds of people had been rescued from floodwaters late Friday, he said.
He said many major roads had become impassable due to flooding and damage.
Two rescue boats in Reynolds County were capsized by flooding, but other emergency personnel rescued those who responded safely, the sheriff’s office said.
