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Twenty-one members of the urban search-and-rescue team packed up a boat and other rescue equipment before leaving Columbia at about 8 p.m. yesterday for Piedmont, said Gale Blomenkamp, division chief of the Boone County Fire Protection District, which manages the task force.

The task force was deployed as part of the statewide mutual aid plan, Blomenkamp said.

Swift-water rescue teams from Region C in St. Louis were sent to the area earlier yesterday and began search-and-rescue efforts before requesting additional help from the task force, Blomenkamp said. Task force members should be deployed for about two or three days.

Flash flooding in south Missouri has left four people dead and put hundreds of others out of their homes after parts of the area received more than 10 inches of rain, according to The Associated Press.