A SECOND body has been pulled from the water in St Louis where dozens remain trapped after record rains swamp the region, leaving eight people dead in Kentucky.
Storms and flooding continue to impact parts of the US, including Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, and Virginia.
A flash flood warning was issued for parts of the St Louis region on Thursday, following storms on Tuesday and Wednesday that left multiple people dead.
Two people drowned in the storms earlier this week.
One was found on Tuesday and another was discovered near an abandoned semi-trailer truck on Wednesday.
According to a tweet from the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency, vehicles are involved in more than half of flooding deaths.
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Residents in impacted areas are urged to avoid travel and discouraged from driving through floodwater.
East St Louis is located in Illinois, directly across the Mississippi River from downtown St Louis, Missouri.
Both were heavily impacted by the flooding and continue to recover.
The National Weather Service said the rain that began falling Tuesday was the most prolific since 1874 when records in the area began.
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'ENTIRE TOWNS SUBMERGED'
Flash flooding and mudslides in Kentucky on Wednesday night left eight people dead and others missing.
Entire towns were left submerged in water with families waiting to be rescued from their roofs as the National Guard was called in to battle the horror floods.
More than six inches of rain hit the area last night, with hundreds of homes and businesses destroyed.
“For so many of our residents, we are currently experiencing one of the worst most devastating flooding events in Kentucky's history,” Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, said this morning.
“What we're going to see coming out of this is massive property damage, we expect the loss of life, hundreds will lose their homes, and this is going to be yet another event that it's going to take not months but likely years for many families to rebuild and recover from.”
The governor said in an update on Thursday evening that eight fatalities have been confirmed.
More than 23,000 people are without power as boats, jet skis, and helicopters continue to scour the area for those in need of rescue.
The flood led to two dead in Perry County, including an 81-year-old woman. A third person died in Knott County, Beshear later revealed.
'THANKFUL TO BE ALIVE'
One Kentucky flood survivor, Brianna Imhoff, had to shoot a gun in the air so emergency crews could rescue her, along with her husband, dogs, and an elderly neighbor.
“I’m just really thankful to be alive,” she told The Sun. “It is really hard to start over but I am glad we still own our lives.”
Imhoff said she woke up around 5am to the sound of water pounding on her home.
When she looked outside, the yard was "completely submerged" in the rapidly rising water.
Imhoff and her husband, Austin, then waded to their neighbor's house with their two dogs in tow.
“You could not see anything but the roof,” Imhoff recalled.
STATES OF EMERGENCY
The same storm system that affected Missouri, Illinois, and Kentucky moved east towards Virginia and West Virginia, where some residents were being evacuated.
Others were being rescued after the storm dumped about six inches of rain in parts of the two states.
A State of Emergency has been declared in Fayette, Greenbrier, Logan, McDowell, Mingo and Wyoming counties by West Virginia Governor Jim Justice.
"We were prepared for this. We knew that these rains were coming and that our people were going to have to be super, super careful," Justice said.'
"We reached out to emergency management officials across the state this morning and determined that we had several counties in need of this emergency declaration, but we’re just thankful that it wasn’t worse.
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"Very luckily, we have not yet seen any major life-threatening impacts from these storms."
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin took similar steps, declaring states of emergency in the western parts of the state most affected.
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