3 dead, 2 injured in Bollinger County flash flooding

A swift-water rescue team responded to multiple incidents Saturday in Bollinger County, where flash floods swept two different vehicles off of roadways, leading to three deaths.

The first incident occurred in the morning, when a vehicle traveling on County Road 356 was swept into Little Whitewater Creek with all four of its occupants entering the water at approximately 9:15 a.m., according to a boat/drowning incident report from the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

The report stated two Scott City children were fatally injured in the incident.

A fundraiser set up for the family identified the children as 5-year-old Brantley and 8-year-old Kayden Luttrull.

The driver of the vehicle, 33-year-old Jacob A. Luttrull of Sedgewickville, Missouri, suffered moderate injuries in the incident, and a 2-year-old occupant of the vehicle was transported by air ambulance to Cardinal Glennon Hospital in St. Louis with serious injuries, according to the report.

In a phone interview Sunday evening, Angela Thompson, who identified herself as a cousin of the deceased boys’ mother, said the 2-year-old had been released from the hospital and is doing well.

Cape Girardeau Fire Department battalion chief Randy Morris said the water rescue call was dispatched at 11:29 a.m. and Cape Girardeau responders arrived at the scene with boats at 12:17 p.m.

“When we got there, [floodwaters] were every bit of two and a half feet coming over the bridge and it was swift,” Morris said. “I have no doubt in my mind that any vehicle that would have tried to cross that would have been swept off.”

Morris said the vehicle was located about half a mile downstream from where it was swept off the road, and the victims were found farther downstream.

Thompson said she and her boyfriend were the first on the scene. She said Luttrull’s sister and mother called her and asked her to look for the family after not being able to contact them.

Luttrull, the driver, had difficulty walking because of a neck injury he received in a diving accident about three years ago, she said.

A fundraiser for the victims’ family was started by Thompson on Saturday night and received donations from more than 300 donors in less than 24 hours. As of Sunday afternoon, the fundraiser had been shared almost 7,000 times and was at about 55% of its goal of $20,000.

The fundraiser may be found at www.gofundme.com/f/funeral-expense-for-kaden-and-brantley.

Brantley, 5, and Kayden Luttrull, 8, died Saturday when the car they were in was swept off a road in flash flooding in Bollinger County.Courtesy of Angela Thompson

Morris said he did not know the exact sequence of events but speculated the driver of the vehicle made it out of the water with the 2-year-old passenger and called for help during the two hours and 14 minutes between the vehicle entering the water and the water rescue dispatch going out to local response agencies.

The water rescues were performed by the local Homeland Security Response Team (HSRT), which includes members of the Cape Girardeau Fire Department, Jackson Fire and Rescue and the Sikeston Department of Public Safety.

The HSRT team set up a nearby command post and deployed three inflatable Zodiac boats to make the morning rescue, according to Morris, and various trucks and utility task vehicles were deployed by local agencies to aid transportation along the waterway.

Weak signal strengths limited emergency responders’ access to topographical information about access points into the flooded waterway, Morris said.

Multiple local agencies also responded to the incident, including first responders from Sedgewickville, Marble Hill, Millersville Rural Fire Protection District, Woodland Fire Protection District and Bollinger County Ambulance, according to Morris.

The victims were pronounced dead at the scene by Bollinger County Coroner Charlie Hutchings at 1:56 p.m.

The coroner responded to another incident later in the afternoon, when a thick fog descended on the area and flash flooding claimed the life of another driver in Bollinger County.

Todd P. Dean, 48, of Mandeville, Louisiana, was traveling on County Road 234 when his vehicle was swept into Whitewater River, according to a separate boat/drowning incident report from the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

The afternoon incident occurred at 4:39 p.m. according to the report, and Morris said the vehicle was located by responders about 100 yards off of the roadway with the driver inside the vehicle.

The HSRT team responded to the afternoon incident, according to Morris, as well as local first responders from Sedgewickville, Millersville, North Bollinger County, Stoddard County and Scott County.

Hutchings pronounced Dean’s death at 6:13 p.m., and Morris said foggy conditions hindered first responders’ response times.

“You get into those low spots of rural areas and you get pockets of fog — especially when we have our lights on,” Morris said.

In the wake of Saturday’s fatalities, the Cape Girardeau battalion chief said his heart goes out to the victims’ families and urged citizens to always use caution during severe weather.

“Turn around, don’t drown,” Morris said. “I know it sounds like it’s repeated so often, but it’s important. These incidents don’t need to be happening.”