UPDATE: The state Highway Patrol says seven people are known to have drowned in flooding over the weekend when their cars were swept off of roadways.
Reports say four were international soldiers training at Fort Leonard Wood. Their car was swept off a road near Dixon, Saturday. Two other adults were in a car swept off a road near Crocker a short time later.
A Springfield man drowned after his vehicle was swept into Simms Branch Creek in Green County.
The Patrol says two people died in a crash during the Christmas holiday traffic counting period. The two men died in a head-on collision on I-70 on Christmas day. One was driving the wrong-way in the eastbound lanes.
The Patrol says during its counting period – 6 p.m. Thursday December 24 through 11:59, Sunday night – it investigated 282 crashes, including 78 injuries and those two fatalities. 47 people were arrested for driving while intoxicated.
Those totals could increase if additional incidents are late-reported.
The flooding that continues this morning has proven deadly in Missouri.
This car was caught in flooding on I-70 near St. Louis.
Six people died when two vehicles were swept off low water crossings in central-Missouri’s Pulaski County. Four were international soldiers training at Fort Leonard Wood, who were in a car swept away near Crocker. The county sheriff believes a fifth person was in that car. Two adults were in a vehicle swept away near Dixon.
The state Highway Patrol Sunday morning found the body of a driver in northern Greene County along a creek. That person’s identity has not been released.
The search will resume at daylight for a man missing in south-central Missouri’s Douglas County. His car was found 400 yards downstream in a creek but he wasn’t in it.
Dozens of water rescues have taken place throughout the state in the last couple of days. The National Weather Service, the governor, law enforcement, and other officials urge drivers not to try to cross water over roads.
