Campground building collapses under floodwater, 20 rescued

The Missouri National Guard deployed Black Hawk helicopters Friday to airlift more than 200 children and staff from Camp Taum Sauk in the southeastern community of Lesterville, after floodwaters washed out nearby roads and stranded the camp, said Sgt. Eddie Young, a Missouri State Highway Patrol spokesman.

The campers were flown to a nearby elementary school and reunited with their families, Young said.

Separately, about 20 people at the Bearcat Getaway campground near the Black River had climbed onto a building to escape the rising water when the structure collapsed, Young said.

Rescue teams also extracted three people trapped in trees along the Black River on Friday evening, Young said. Two rescue boats capsized in Reynolds County, but emergency personnel recovered all the responders safely, the sheriff’s office reported.

No major injuries or fatalities were reported directly from the flooding, Young said. However, a woman in Crawford County was missing after a house she was in was swept from its foundation by the floodwaters, according to Young.

The severe weather dumped 6 to 12 inches of rain across parts of southeastern Missouri as thunderstorms trained over the same areas, said Matt Beitscher, a lead meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in St. Louis. Beitscher said the affected counties contain campgrounds and float trip locations that are vulnerable to flash flooding.

The NWS issued flash flood warnings and cautioned that if southeastern Missouri saw additional heavy rain overnight into Saturday morning, “considerable flood impacts will be likely.”

Gov. Mike Kehoe declared a state of emergency and activated one of the state’s search and rescue teams. In a statement late Friday, Kehoe said hundreds of people had been saved from floodwaters, trees, rooftops and stranded vehicles. Several major roads were impassable due to flooding and damage, and the governor warned that the Black River was continuing to rise.

Kehoe urged residents in flood-prone areas to remain alert and be prepared to take protective action.