TWO DIE IN FLASH FLOODING

Two people were killed early Sunday in their vehicles as they tried to cross rain-swollen creeks.

At 10 a.m., Dallas Landers, 60, of Patterson, Mo., tried to cross a flooded creek on Stony Battery Road, about five miles north of Patterson.

A spokesman for the Missouri State Highway Patrol said Landers' car was swept downstream by the current. He was pronounced dead at the scene after his car came to rest on an embankment.

At 10:30 a.m., Gary Freeman, 32, of Bernie, Mo., was swept downstream in his vehicle after trying to cross a private drive overrun by flash-floodwaters, about seven miles southwest of Fredericktown, Mo.

The Highway Patrol spokesman said that due to the depth and the swiftness of the current, Freeman's vehicle was carried about 60 feet down a culvert. Freeman was trapped inside the vehicle and drowned.