At least 25 people have died — including four children — in the devastating Kentucky floods unleashed by torrential rainfall that swept through homes, washed out roads and pushed rivers over their banks, state authorities said, warning more fatalities are expected.
Gov. Andy Beshear said Saturday that the number would likely rise significantly and it could take weeks to find all the victims of the record flash flooding. Crews have made more than 1,200 rescues from helicopters and boats, the governor added.
‘I’m worried that we’re going to be finding bodies for weeks to come,’ Beshear said during a midday briefing.
The rain let up early Friday after parts of eastern Kentucky received between 8 and 10 1/2 inches over 48 hours. But some waterways were not expected to crest until Saturday. About 18,000 utility customers in Kentucky remained without power Saturday, poweroutage.us reported.
‘We continue to pray for the families that have suffered an unfathomable loss,’ Beshear said. ‘Some having lost almost everyone in their household.’
Knott County Coroner Corey Watson confirmed on Friday 14 fatalities, up from 11 that morning, the New York Times reported. Perry County’s Emergency Management director, Jerry Stacy, said the county’s numbers rose from one to four victims by that evening. The coroner from Breathitt County, Hargis Epperson, said at least three in the county were confirmed dead, with at least a dozen missing in the floods.
Command Sergeant Major Tim Lewis of the Kentucky National Guard secures Candace Spencer, 24, while she holds her son Wyatt Spencer, 1, after being airlifted on July 30, 2022 from South Fork, Breathitt County, Kentucky
A home along KY-28 was moved off its foundation by the floodwaters in Chavies, Kentucky
Teresa Reynolds sits exhausted as members of her community clean the debris from their flood ravaged homes at Ogden Hollar in Hindman, Ky., Saturday, July 30, 2022
More rainstorms are forecasted in coming days, as rescue crews continue the struggle to get into hard-hit areas of eastern Kentucky, some of them among the poorest places in America.
It’s the latest in a string of catastrophic deluges that have pounded parts of the U.S. this summer, including St. Louis earlier this week and again on Friday. Scientists warn climate change is making weather disasters more common.
The floods marked the second major national disaster to strike Kentucky in seven months, after a swarm of tornadoes claimed nearly 80 lives in the western part of the state in December.
Receded water levels from the North Fork of the Kentucky River surround a truck in downtown Jackson on July 30. At least 25 people are confirmed dead and dozens more are missing
Volunteers from the local mennonite community carry tubfulls of debris from flood soaked houses for disposal at Ogden Hollar in Hindman, Ky., Saturday, July 30, 2022
Bonnie Combs, right, hugs her 10-year-old granddaughter Adelynn Bowling watches as her property becomes covered by the North Fork of the Kentucky River in Jackson, Ky.
Police and National Guard troops, including personnel from neighboring states, used helicopters and boats to rescue dozens of people from homes and vehicles in Kentucky’s Appalachian coal-mining region.
Video from local media showed floodwaters reaching the roofs of houses and turning roads into rivers.
As rainfall hammered Appalachia this week, water tumbled down hillsides and into valleys and hollows where it swelled creeks and streams coursing through small towns.
The torrent engulfed homes and businesses and trashed vehicles. Mudslides marooned some people on steep slopes.
President Joe Biden declared a federal disaster to direct relief money to more than a dozen Kentucky counties.
The flooding extended into western Virginia and southern West Virginia.
Volunteers from the local Mennonite community remove debris from flood damaged property at Ogden Hollar in Hindman, Ky., Saturday, July 30, 2022
Several inches of mud lie on the street outside Appalshop in Whitesburg, Kentucky on July 30
Patricia Colombo, 63, of Hazard, Ky., got stranded after her car stalled in floodwaters on a state highway.
Colombo began to panic when water started rushing in. Her phone was dead, but she saw a helicopter overhead and waved it down.
The helicopter crew radioed a team on the ground that pulled her safely from her car.
Colombo stayed the night at her fiancee’s home in Jackson and they took turns sleeping, repeatedly checking the water with flashlights to see if it was rising. Colombo lost her car but said others who were struggling prior to the floods had it worse.
‘Many of these people cannot recover out here. They have homes that are half underwater, they’ve lost everything,’ she said.
The water came into Rachel Patton’s Floyd County home so quickly that her mother, who is on oxygen, had to be evacuated on a door floated across the high water. Patton’s voice faltered as she described their harrowing escape.
‘We had to swim out and it was cold. It was over my head so it was, it was scary,’ she told WCHS-TV.
Kentucky National Guard helicopter crew members carry a victim of flooding, during their deployment in response to a declared state of emergency in eastern Kentucky
A Kentucky National Guard flight crew from 2/147th Bravo Co. flies over a flooded area in response to a declared state of emergency in eastern Kentucky
An NBC News reporter tweeted a heartbreaking photo of a 98-year-old woman who sat in her flooded home with her knees drawn up to her chest as she waited to be rescued.
Mae Amburgey of Whitesburg, Kentucky is pictured partially submerged in the muddy water, her belongings floating around her.
Amburgey’s granddaughter, Missy Crovetti, reports she was rescued and is safe.
Mae Amburgey of Whitesburg, 98, waiting to be rescued Thursday after floodwater entered her home. Amburgey’s granddaughter, Missy Crovetti, reports she was rescued and is safe
Reggie Ritchie comforts wife Della as they pause while clearing out their destroyed home destroyed by the flooding in Fisty, Kentucky on July 29
The death toll rose throughout Friday and Saturday as dozens of people are still unaccounted for, according to the governor’s office and local officials
Officials said that at least four children were among the victims and that the total number of lives lost could more than double as rescue teams reach more areas.
The four siblings drowned in the floods after being swept from their mother’s arms.
Brittany Trejo said her four young cousins – who were aged eight, six, four, and one and a half – were killed in the catastrophic downpours that have obliterated entire towns and submerged houses and cars in deadly flood water as emergency services desperately scramble to save those who are trapped.
The bodies of all four children had been recovered from the Knott County community of Montgomery, Trejo, who is the cousin of the children’s mom, told Lexington Herald Leader.
TRAGIC SIBLINGS: From left to right – Maddison Noble, eight, Nevaeh Noble, four, Riley Jr., six, and Chance Noble, one and a half, all drowned in the Kentucky floods, according to their mother’s cousin
KENTUCKY: A house is seen almost completely submerged off of the Bert T Combs Mountain Parkway on July 29 in Breathitt County, Kentucky. At least 19 people have been killed and hundreds had to be rescued amid flooding from heavy rainfall
The children’s parents, Amber Smith and Riley Noble, live in Montgomery, and their home began filling with water on Thursday before the family of six were washed off of their roof with a big tide.
They were holding onto a tree for hours – before another tide washed them all away and the parents lost sight of their children.
Little Riley Jr., six, and Nevaeh Noble, four, were found dead Thursday; the bodies of Maddison Noble, eight, and Chance Noble, one and a half, were found Friday morning, Trejo said.
DEADLY FLOODS: A shocking aerial view of homes submerged under flood waters from the North Fork of the Kentucky River in Jackson, Kentucky, on July 28. The Governor has warned that the death toll is expected to double and include children
KENTUCKY: Roads have turned into rivers and lakes in the unrelenting flooding plaguing the state of Kentucky this week
At least 33,000 utility customers were without power. The flooding extended into western Virginia and southern West Virginia, across a region where poverty is endemic.
‘There are hundreds of families that have lost everything,’ Beshear said. ‘And many of these families didn’t have much to begin with. And so it hurts even more. But we’re going to be there for them.’
Extreme rain events have become more common as climate change bakes the planet and alters weather patterns, according to scientists.
That’s a growing challenge for officials during disasters, because models used to predict storm impacts are in part based on past events and can’t keep up with increasingly devastating flash floods, hurricanes and heat waves.
KENTUCKY: Lexington Firefighters Jeremey Miller and Captain Scott Butler warm up the engine before heading up Troublesome Creek to rescue people that have been stranded since Wednesday night in Lost Creek, Ky.
A rescue team evacuate residents from their homes in a boat through flooded streets, in Breathitt County, Ky.
‘This is what climate change looks like,’ meteorologist and Weather Underground founder Jeff Masters said of flooding in Appalachia and the Midwest. ‘These extreme rainfall events are the type you would expect to see in a warming world.’
A day before the floods hit Appalachia, the National Weather Service had said Wednesday that there was a ‘slight to moderate risk of flash flooding’ across the region on Thursday.
The deluge came two days after record rains around St. Louis dropped more than 12 inches (31 centimeters) and killed at least two people. Last month, heavy rain on mountain snow in Yellowstone National Park triggered historic flooding and the evacuation of more than 10,000 people. In both instances, the rain flooding far exceeded what forecasters predicted.
The floodwaters raging through Appalachia were so swift that some people trapped in their homes couldn’t be immediately reached, said Floyd County Judge-Executive Robbie Williams.
Just to the west in hard-hit Perry County, authorities said some people remained unaccounted for and almost everyone in the area had suffered some sort of damage.
‘We’ve still got a lot of searching to do,’ said Jerry Stacy, the emergency management director in Perry County.
More than 330 people have sought shelter, Beshear said. And with property damage so extensive, the governor opened an online portal for donations to the victims.
A view of a wet downtown Jackson on July 30, 2022 in Jackson, Ky. At least 20 people have been killed and hundreds had to be rescued amid flooding from heavy rainfall
President Joe Biden declared a federal disaster to direct relief money to more than a dozen Kentucky counties.
The flooding extended into western Virginia and southern West Virginia.
Gov. Jim Justice declared a state of emergency for six counties in West Virginia where the flooding downed trees, power outages and blocked roads. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin also made an emergency declaration, enabling officials to mobilize resources across the flooded southwest of the state.
The deluge came two days after record rains around St. Louis dropped more than 12 inches (31 centimeters) and killed at least two people.
Last month, heavy rain on mountain snow in Yellowstone National Park triggered historic flooding and the evacuation of more than 10,000 people. In both instances, the rain flooding far exceeded what forecasters predicted.
Extreme rain events have become more common as climate change bakes the planet and alters weather patterns, according to scientists.
That’s a growing challenge for officials during disasters, because models used to predict storm impacts are in part based on past events and can’t keep up with increasingly devastating flash floods and heat waves like those that have recently hit the Pacific Northwest and southern Plains.