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Second day of water rescues on Big River in Jefferson County

Fire departments complete multiple rescues in 36-hour period

CEDAR HILL, Mo. — It's been an exhausting 36 hours for fire and rescue crews in Jefferson County. The Big River rose quickly Monday and barely dropped Tuesday afternoon. 

"This just about surpassed '93," reflects Cedar Hill Fire Protection Chief Mick Fischer. Looking over the flooding just outside of Station 1, Fischer says the only difference between '93 and '24 is that this flooding will go down much faster. 

Residents familiar with the Big River know this isn't the first or last time the river will overrun its banks. 

Hunter Stiern's grandpa is one of those homeowners. 

"I told him to head out, but he says he's been down here too long and seen too much so he's going to hang it out." Stiern said, adding that even though his grandpa's home is on stilts, there is still one inch of water in it. 

If you are not familiar with the Cedar Hill area, you probably could not pick out where the Big River actually is right now. A vast stretch of land between highways BB and B are covered by water. Closest to B is lush farmland now covered by muddy water. The Big River is closer to BB and is where the fastest moving water is. 

Reflecting on the past 36 hours of rescue work, Cedar Hill Fire Protection District Assistant Fire Chief David Jones shares a little fireman lingo: "We call these low frequency, high risk events." 

One of those high risk events on the Big River was captured by neighboring fire protection district Hillsboro's drone. "That Mammoth road rescue yesterday was impressive," recalled Hillsboro Fire Protection District Chief Brian Gaudet. "That gentleman is extremely lucky to have made it out of there alive."

While Hillsboro crews manned the drone, Cedar Hill crews launched to rescue the man clinging to a tree six feet above flood waters. 

"It was pretty stressful," Jones said. "That was some challenging maneuvers and stuff we had to do."

The Big River crested Wednesday evening and is forecast to drop over the next few days. 

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