Waynesville flooding has claimed the life of a 4-year-old boy after the car his mother was driving got swept away in a flash flood.
The boy’s mother was traveling between the Price Cuttery grocery store and Waynesville Middle School when her car was overcome by rising flood waters. The body of the boy was later found near Mitchell Creek while the mother remains missing.
The Waynesville flooding has had far-reaching effects around the Missouri town. Close to 200 homes have been flooded after Roubidoux Creek and Mitchell Creek were inundated with nearly eight inches of rain in just a few hours.
Roubidoux Creek in particular saw heavy flooding, cresting at 2.5 feet above its previous record for flood level.
Even emergency responders found difficulty in the Waynesville flooding. Emergency crews from five counties were called in to help, but two boats with responders capsized and had to be rescued. One of the boats was carrying a family of four.
The situation prompted Governor Jay Nixon to declare a state of emergency, along with a vow to send whatever resources local officials needed to combat the flooding .
It was not just Waynesville that saw flooding. Rainfall was heavy across the region, with Springfield and Rolla also seeing large amounts of rain come. In some places the rainfall totals topped a foot, leading to forecasts for record floods on the Gascondade River. The area around Richland saw 17 inches of rain by Tuesday, with another two to four inches expected to fall by the end of the day Wednesday.
The high level of flooding prompted officials to start releasing water from the Bagnell Dam. Residents who live downstream of the dam have been warned to be on the lookout for rising waters in their areas.
By Tuesday the Waynesville flooding began to subside, but larger streams remained flooded in many areas and in lower areas water still bubbled up from manholes.
