ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Record rainfall fell across the area early Tuesday morning. By 8 a.m., 8.3 inches of rain had fallen at Lambert Airport, demolishing the previous daily record of 6.85 inches set Aug. 20, 1915, when remnants of the Galveston, Texas, hurricane moved north to St. Louis. The previous record in twenty-four hours in St. Louis was 5.08 inches in 1898.
What did the flooding look like in 1915? The Missouri Historical Society has been sharing photos of the damage from 106 years ago. See how it compares to the pictures our news crews captured today.
The St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported in 1915 that five people were missing and over 1000 families were displaced in the summer flooding over 100 years ago. The high water was reported in the West End, North and South St. Louis and in St. Louis County.
“The River des Peres, a mile-wide torrent in places was sweeping through the western part of the city at that hour, suburban street car and train service was demoralized, thousands of homes, business houses and industrial plants were inundated and the water stood many feet deep in the streets in several parts of the city.
Great loss of life was prevented only by the heroic efforts of the police, members of the fire department, and other branches of the city government and citizens. volunteers, who worked with boats, from the park lakes, ladders, ropes, and improvised rafts, rescuing persons marooned in their homes by the flood,” states the 1915 article from the Globe-Democrat.
The same portion of the city flooded in 2022 and 1915. Now, there is a MetroLink station in the neighborhood in front of the Missouri History Museum.
The history of this historic day is still yet to be written. The Associated Press summarized Thursday’s record rain with this account.
There was widespread flash flooding across the St. Louis area early Tuesday, 2022, killing one person, displacing many others and prompting rescues from vehicles and homes. One person died when a car in St. Louis was found covered in more than 8 feet of water.
Several puppies drowned when water got into a building at Stray Paws Adoptables, a stray dog rescue operation in St. Peters, a St. Louis suburb.
Damage across the region was widespread after a massive downpour dropped more than 12 inches of rain on parts of St. Charles County and up to 10 inches elsewhere in the St. Louis metropolitan area.
