Americas

Americas

Obama Declares Emergency in Flood-Struck Missouri

03 January 2016 04:38 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. US President Barack Obama has declared a state of emergency in the Midwestern state of Missouri as the death toll from severe flooding climbed to over 20 people, APA reports quoting US media.

The state of emergency authorizes the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to coordinate disaster relief in over half of the state’s 114 counties and the city of St. Louis.

Obama signed the order at the request of Governor Jay Nixon, whose state has been battling storms and flooding since December 22.

The death toll from the floods stood at 23 as of Friday, 15 of whom had died in Missouri and eight in neighbouring Illinois.

Four people – two in Illinois, one in Missouri and one in Oklahoma – were missing.

Hundreds of homes in the Midwest have been damaged as Mississippi, Meramec and Missouri rivers overflowed after heavy rainfall this week.