Overnight, St. Louis and its surrounding suburbs experienced the highest rainfall on record since 1915. As of Tuesday morning, more than 9.5 inches of rain had inundated parts of the city, leaving roads flooded, commuters stranded and many residents unable to leave their homes.

Video transcript

[RAINFALL]

JEROME SMITH: Interstate 70, just outside of St. Louis, Saint Peter's, Missouri. The road is completely flooded.

SYDNEY STALLWORTH: This video was captured by my fellow reporter Mercedes McKay. Our car was carried into these waters. Luckily, even though our engine was stopped, Pattonville Fire Department saw us underneath that overpass with the emergency on and came and rescued us.

GARON P MOSBY: Just to give you an idea how quickly this water is still rising, maybe about two or three minutes ago, I was about 20 feet further than where I am extended out on that walkway, and now it is being overrun with water. And you can see how it's really coming up rather quickly. So this is going to be a brief broadcast, as I am going to need to relocate as well.

[MUFFLED VOICE OVER RADIO]

JENS PETERSON: You see the tops of people's cars over there. That is the only road out of this area, and it is impassable at the moment. The rain let up a little bit earlier, but now it is pouring at a steady pace. Everybody that's still here is on the second floor as, generally, if you're smart enough to know, you don't go out in this stuff. And there's my poor little car.