Record rainfall flooded Interstate 70, closing the roadway and stranding cars at Mid Rivers Mall in St. Peters on Tuesday, July 26, 2022. Photo by Gary Hairlson, ghairlson@post-dispatch.com
Gary Hairlson
First responders from Central County Fire and Rescue and the St. Charles County Ambulance District transport an evacuated elderly woman from her home on Main Street in Old Towne St. Peters after flooding from Dardenne Creek inundated the neighborhood during heavy rains on Tuesday, July 26, 2022. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Robert Cohen
Aubrey Barton holds onto her son Ronon as her dog Warok jumps from a rescue boat after her family was evacuated from their Old Towne St. Peters home on Main Street after flooding from Dardenne Creek inundated the neighborhood during heavy rains on Tuesday, July 26, 2022. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Robert Cohen
First responders from Central County Fire and Rescue and the St. Charles County Ambulance District transport an evacuated elderly woman from her home on Main Street in Old Towne St. Peters after flooding from Dardenne Creek inundated the neighborhood during heavy rains on Tuesday, July 26, 2022. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Robert Cohen
A tow truck driver moves to clear a flooded car as another rolls along Interstate 70 at Mid Rivers Mall Drive in St. Peters after heavy rain fell through Monday night and into the morning on Tuesday, July 26, 2022. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Robert Cohen
Aubrey Barton holds onto her son Ronon after her family was evacuated from their Old Towne St. Peters home by first responders from Central County Fire and Rescue on Main Street following flooding from Dardenne Creek on Tuesday, July 26, 2022. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Robert Cohen
Workers from MoDOT try to clear drains along a shuttered Interstate 70 at Mid Rivers Mall Drive in St. Peters after heavy rain fell through the night and into the morning on Tuesday, July 26, 2022. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Robert Cohen
First responders from Central County Fire and Rescue and the St. Charles County Ambulance District transport an evacuated elderly woman from her home on Main Street in Old Towne St. Peters after flooding from Dardenne Creek inundated the neighborhood during heavy rains on Tuesday, July 26, 2022. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Robert Cohen
Workers try to clear the drains to get water off of Interstate 70 after record rainfall flooded the interstate, closing it and stranding cars near Mid Rivers Mall in St. Peters on Tuesday, July 26, 2022.Â
Gary Hairlson, Post-Dispatch
Matthew Robinson holds onto his dog Bebe as he and Kimberly Tat are rescued from their home by first responders from Central County Fire and Rescue along Main Street in Old Towne St. Peters after flooding from Dardenne Creek inundated the neighborhood with heavy rains on Tuesday, July 26, 2022.
Robert Cohen, Post-Dispatch
Abandoned cars are scattered by flooding across a shuttered Interstate 70 at Mid Rivers Mall Drive in St. Peters after heavy rain fell through the night and into the morning on Tuesday, July 26, 2022.Â
Robert Cohen, Post-Dispatch
Matthew Robinson holds onto his dog Bebe as he and Kimberly Tat are rescued from their home by first responders from Central County Fire and Rescue along Main Street in Old Towne St. Peters after flooding from Dardenne Creek inundated the neighborhood during heavy rains on Tuesday, July 26, 2022. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
ST. CHARLES COUNTY — Heather Thiele was asleep in her basement bedroom in O’Fallon when around 3 a.m. the window above her gave way and water started to rush in. Before long, her entire basement was flooded.
Stacy Stelzer heard running water outside her St. Peters home. She ran out to the backyard, where the water was up to her knees. “It looked like a river,†she said. Then the water began pouring down her basement stairs.
Don Andrews, of Wright City was on his way to work around 2:45 a.m. when floodwaters stranded him on Interstate 70 in St. Peters.
“You couldn’t see where you were going because it was raining so hard,†he said. “All of a sudden I just hit the water and my car shut off. I was a lame duck out there in the middle.â€
Record rainfall shutdown roadways and flooded homes across a swath of suburban St. Charles County. Emergency crews out on boats rescued dozens of stranded motorists and residents. By afternoon, I-70 and several other flooded roadways had been reopened. Authorities didn’t report any fatalities or injuries.
But people forced to evacuate were wondering whether they could return home.
“I don’t even know where I’m going to sleep tonight,†said Stelzer, 50, on Tuesday morning outside a QuikTrip on Main Street, near the stretch of flooded I-70 that had stranded motorists. She was one of about 30 people who had gathered there. On Main Street, about 10 vehicles were left abandoned in high water.
Stelzer said she had woken up early Tuesday expecting it to be a difficult day.
Stelzer was preparing a victim’s statement for the murder trial of a man charged with murdering her daughter, Amethyst “Ame†Killian, 22, two years ago. Stelzer’s family and other relatives had gathered in the home to work on the statement together.
Then floodwaters started seeping into the house.
The basement “contained a lot of my daughters’ stuff that I’m never going to get back,†she said.
“This is just a devastation.â€
‘Never seen it come up that quick’
The National Weather Service office in Weldon Spring said St. Peters saw almost 13 inches of rain, more than doubling previous records. Other suburbs across the county saw at least 10 inches of rain, including Flint Hill and O’Fallon.
St. Charles County spokeswoman Mary Enger said the Regional Emergency Management team had been activated early Tuesday to coordinate rescues in subdivisions along Dardenne Creek, where rainfall swelled creek waters and prolonged flooding in surrounding subdivisions.
St. Charles County Ambulance District helped with the rescues of at least 20 people, spokesman Kyle Gaines said.
In O’Fallon, firefighters rescued dozens of people from flooded homes overnight, and evacuated five families from Cherokee Lake Campground.
Fire crews were also sent to the area around Belleau Creek and Veterans Memorial Parkway to rescue 17 people, as well as several pet dogs, cats and rabbits.
Central County Fire and Rescue did 18 rescues by boat, said spokesman Jason Meinershagen, rescued motorists stranded on Premier Parkway, and responded to dozens of calls for downed power lines and gas leaks.
And Cottleville firefighters assisted with the rescue of a man who was stranded in Spencer Creek, clinging to a tree to avoid being carried off by the flood, Meinershagen said.
At one point, water rose 18 inches in just minutes, crews told Meinershagen. “I’ve never seen it come up that quick,†he said.
‘We’ll get through it’
Thiele, 41, her husband and 7-year-old daughter were rescued in the early hours Tuesday. They booked a hotel room.
When daylight came and the water had receded, the scene looked almost like a tornado had ripped through their neighborhood. Debris was everywhere. Cars had floated from their parking spots and landed in front yards or the middle of the street. A shed was lodged on a street curb.
Inside the house, Thiele’s possessions were floating in the chest-deep water in her basement. The carpet on the first floor squished with water on each step, and her brand-new car in the garage was almost certainly totaled. An army of friends arrived late Tuesday morning to help out, and Thiele said they were working as quickly as they could to salvage their possessions.
The street had flooded in the past, Thiele said, but not like this.
Her husband, Dustin Thiele, worked to load up the car and shook hands with an insurance agent when he arrived.
“We’ll get through it,†Dustin Thiele said.
In St. Peters, residents of the Deerfield Village mobile home just north of I-70 woke up to find water covering the steps to their front doors. Theresa Partrich, 44, was woken up by her daughter to see the water pooling around her home.
“You just watch it rise and pray it doesn’t come inside,†Partrich said.
Officials in St. Peters, O’Fallon and St. Charles closed public services and suspended trash pickups. St. Charles reported that a pedestrian bridge in Frontier Park collapsed because of erosion made worse by the heavy rain.
St. Peters, which appeared to have experienced the heaviest flooding in the area, issued a precautionary water boil advisory shortly before 2 p.m. asking residents in the Savannah Country, Hill Farm and Southwood Drive subdivisions to boil water for the next two days before drinking it, while the city awaits test results.
Andrews, the Wright City man who was stranded on I-70 near Mid Rivers Mall in St. Peters, said he eventually abandoned his vehicle and waded to safety.
“I just got out and walked off the highway,†said Andrews, 42. “The water obviously kept getting deeper and deeper.â€
His wife was able to pick him up from the side of the interstate. They watched a tow truck pull his car off the roadway.
Andrews said his car was likely unrepairable.
“I believe it to be toast,†he said.
Robert Cohen of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
At scattered locations throughout the area, high water and backed-up sewers caused havoc at many businesses.
Record rainfall flooded Interstate 70, closing the roadway and stranding cars at Mid Rivers Mall in St. Peters on Tuesday, July 26, 2022. Photo by Gary Hairlson, ghairlson@post-dispatch.com
First responders from Central County Fire and Rescue and the St. Charles County Ambulance District transport an evacuated elderly woman from her home on Main Street in Old Towne St. Peters after flooding from Dardenne Creek inundated the neighborhood during heavy rains on Tuesday, July 26, 2022. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Aubrey Barton holds onto her son Ronon as her dog Warok jumps from a rescue boat after her family was evacuated from their Old Towne St. Peters home on Main Street after flooding from Dardenne Creek inundated the neighborhood during heavy rains on Tuesday, July 26, 2022. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
First responders from Central County Fire and Rescue and the St. Charles County Ambulance District transport an evacuated elderly woman from her home on Main Street in Old Towne St. Peters after flooding from Dardenne Creek inundated the neighborhood during heavy rains on Tuesday, July 26, 2022. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
A tow truck driver moves to clear a flooded car as another rolls along Interstate 70 at Mid Rivers Mall Drive in St. Peters after heavy rain fell through Monday night and into the morning on Tuesday, July 26, 2022. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Aubrey Barton holds onto her son Ronon after her family was evacuated from their Old Towne St. Peters home by first responders from Central County Fire and Rescue on Main Street following flooding from Dardenne Creek on Tuesday, July 26, 2022. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Workers from MoDOT try to clear drains along a shuttered Interstate 70 at Mid Rivers Mall Drive in St. Peters after heavy rain fell through the night and into the morning on Tuesday, July 26, 2022. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
First responders from Central County Fire and Rescue and the St. Charles County Ambulance District transport an evacuated elderly woman from her home on Main Street in Old Towne St. Peters after flooding from Dardenne Creek inundated the neighborhood during heavy rains on Tuesday, July 26, 2022. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Workers try to clear the drains to get water off of Interstate 70 after record rainfall flooded the interstate, closing it and stranding cars near Mid Rivers Mall in St. Peters on Tuesday, July 26, 2022.Â
Matthew Robinson holds onto his dog Bebe as he and Kimberly Tat are rescued from their home by first responders from Central County Fire and Rescue along Main Street in Old Towne St. Peters after flooding from Dardenne Creek inundated the neighborhood with heavy rains on Tuesday, July 26, 2022.
Abandoned cars are scattered by flooding across a shuttered Interstate 70 at Mid Rivers Mall Drive in St. Peters after heavy rain fell through the night and into the morning on Tuesday, July 26, 2022.Â
Matthew Robinson holds onto his dog Bebe as he and Kimberly Tat are rescued from their home by first responders from Central County Fire and Rescue along Main Street in Old Towne St. Peters after flooding from Dardenne Creek inundated the neighborhood during heavy rains on Tuesday, July 26, 2022. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com