Man missing near Castor River in Bollinger County located, rescued

Bollinger County emergency officials sent out a search team Wednesday morning to look for a man in an isolated home near the Castor River.

Eventually boat crews with the Missouri Department of Conservation and the Zalma Fire Department found him, but his name hasn't been released yet.

The team responded to reports from the man's family that the last they had heard from him, he had water coming into his home. "We haven't been back there yet," Jim Bollinger, fire chief of Marble Hill and emergency operations coordinator for the county, said before the successful rescue. "The only way they are going to be able to reach it is by boat, and there is a certain amount of reluctance to put a boat in the fast water."

Overnight, approximately 40 residents of April Hills along County Road 710 were removed from their homes by boats, Bollinger said. "It is a very remote area," he said. "It is a lot like living in the mountains, but once the river gets up in that area it is virtually impossible to get out."

National Guard troops have joined responders from the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the Missouri State Water Patrol and the Missouri Department of Conservation to assist in rescue and recovery efforts in the county, Bollinger said. But because two water patrol boats and two conservation department boats in other parts of the state were overturned in fast water, "the word has come down that we are not going to jeopardize officers' safety," Bollinger said.

Bollinger County has already recorded one death in the flash flooding resulting from the two-day storm that continues to rain on Southeast Missouri. The body of Thurman Shelton, 69, of Jackson was recovered late Tuesday from his pickup truck that was swept Tuesday morning into Crooked Creek in Marble Hill.

The situation remains precarious in the county, Bollinger said. There are roads that remain flooded, especially along the Castor River, as well as numerous washouts, both along county roads and in Marble Hill itself, he said.

"We have a lot of roads that are completely impassable and washed away," Bollinger said.

A weather spotter reported 12.5 inches of rain through 9:30 a.m. in Marble Hill, according to the National Weather Service.

For updates, check back at www.semissourian.com or read Thursday's Southeast Missourian.