UPDATE

GRANITE CITY A pastor who spent four rainy days on the roof of his church was lowered back down to solid ground by the Granite City Fire Department Saturday morning to the cheers of church members.

The Rev. Craig Stiefel was living in an 8 foot by 10 foot tent on the Tri-City Assemblies of God roof in an effort to raise money for the Boys and Girls Missionary Challenge, an Assemblies of God charity that raises money for feeding programs, water wells and Bible schools around the world.

About 150 people — most of them kids dressed as superheroes, hippies, firemen and wolves — chanted "Pastor Craig, Pastor Craig" as the 27-year-old children’s minister made his way down the GCFD Hook & Ladder Co. 1 ladder, waving to his flock with dirty hands.

"I’m happy to have him home," Stiefel’s wife, Cari, said, after an emotional hug in the church parking lot.



EARLIER STORY: GRANITE CITY -- A pastor who pitched a tent atop his church to raise money for missionaries in Africa has been washed in some of the patience of Job and the soggy endurance of Noah.

About 3.4 inches of rain have fallen in the St. Louis area since Tuesday, when the Rev. Craig Stiefel, 27, began living in his tent on the roof of Tri City Assembly of God. Most of that fell from midday Thursday to Friday afternoon, as a slow-moving storm stalled over the Mississippi Valley.

"I can't wait to take a shower," Stiefel said Friday. He meant the warm, soapy kind.

Since Oct. 22, three waves of heavy storms have dumped a total of 5.8 inches of rain, easily making this month the wettest October on record in St. Louis. Through Friday, 12.4 inches fell this month, swamping the record of 8.5 inches set 90 years ago.

The good news is that there's little chance of any more rain today.

While that is good news for Halloween trick-or-treaters, some of those same kids will not be playing soccer this morning. Many youth leagues canceled their schedules because of muddy or flooded fields.

With the ground so wet, the latest downpours rushed straight for the creeks and rivers. Peruque and Dardenne creeks in St. Charles County rose 20 or more feet, swamping a few roads. The Meramec, Cuivre and Big rivers rose quickly toward crests, and the Meramec threatens once again to flood Highway 141 at Interstate 44.

Low-lying roads, including Highways B and C near the Mississippi River in St. Charles County, were closed Friday. Flash-flooding near O'Fallon, Ill., washed over parts of Illinois Route 161 and U.S. Highway 50 near Scott Air Force Base on Friday morning.

The Cuivre crested Friday at Troy, Mo., just short of U.S. Highway 61 and was expected to flood some streets today in Old Monroe. Some time this weekend, the Meramec was forecast to crest at 30.2 feet at Valley Park, about 14 feet over flood stage. That is enough water to flood Highway 141 through the sewer drains at its notorious low spot beneath I-44. That always causes traffic headaches.

WATER RESCUE

In Missouri's old Lead Belt, where rainfalls were heavier than in St. Louis, a woman and small child had to be rescued when their car was stalled by rising backwater from Flat River, just east of Desloge. Fire Chief Larry Gremmenger said firefighters used a four-wheel-drive vehicle to rescue the two shortly after 1 p.m. Friday.

The Mississippi and Missouri rivers were expected to rise to slightly above their flood stages here on Monday. The Army Corps of Engineers reported high water and debris in the region's reservoirs. At Wappapello Lake in southeastern Missouri, high water has forced the closing of some campgrounds.

The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District reported receiving 131 calls Friday for sewer backups, with about 20 percent of them caused by overwhelmed or blocked sewer mains. Lance LeComb, MSD spokesman, said the calls were scattered throughout the system. He said the number of calls was fewer than MSD had received in previous heavy rains, and credited the district's recent efforts to regularly clear mains.

Scott Truett, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Weldon Spring, said a large low-pressure system over the Plains pulled swirling waves of heavy moisture from the Gulf of Mexico into the Midwest. Because the system moved eastward so slowly, it dumped more than 24 hours of steady rain across the two-state area before finally moving on.

Stiefel, the Granite City pastor, planned to return to earth this morning. He's been down only for nature's call, and has entertained three guests — two of his fellow ministers and his 5-year-old son.

"He thought it was cool," Stiefel said of his boy.

Shane Anthony and Terry Hillig of the Post-Dispatch staff contributed to this report.