A young woman walks through waist-deep water next to a flooded house in the North Fork of the Kentucky River in Jackson, Kentucky on July 28, 2022.
Leandro Lozada | AFP | beautiful pictures
National Guard-backed search and rescue teams searched for the missing on Friday record floods wiped out entire communities in some of the poorest places in America. The Kentucky governor said 16 people had died, a number he expected to grow as the rain continued to fall.
Jerry Stacy, director of emergency management at Kentucky Perry County was hit hard. “We still have the missing.”
Strong floodwaters swallowed towns embracing creeks and streams in Appalachian valleys and valleys, swept away homes and businesses, piled useless vehicles and wrecked escape equipment. and debris against the bridge. Landslides swept people on steep slopes and at least 33,000 customers were without power.
Governor Andy Beshear told The Associated Press on Friday that children were among the victims, and the death toll could double as rescue teams search the disaster area.
“The hard news is that 16 deaths have been confirmed now, and people will be much higher,” the governor said at a late-morning briefing. He said the dead were in four eastern Kentucky counties.
Emergency teams have performed nearly 50 air rescues and hundreds of underwater rescues on Thursday“This is not just an ongoing disaster, but an ongoing search and rescue,” the governor said. Water won’t be high in some areas until tomorrow.
“It is very difficult to determine the number of people without people with mobile service and power outages throughout the disaster area,” he said: “This number is so widespread, it is a challenge for us. even local officials to put that number together. “
Beshear said more than 200 people sought shelter. He has deployed National Guard troops to the hardest-hit areas. Three parks have set up shelters, and with the property damage so great, the governor opened an online portal to donate to the victims. Mr. Beshear said President Joe Biden had called for a show of support for what would be a protracted recovery effort, and predicted it would take more than a year to fully rebuild.
Biden also declared a federal disaster to direct relief money to more than a dozen Kentucky counties, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency has appointed an official to coordinate the recovery.
Beshear had planned to tour the disaster area on Friday, but postponed it because conditions at the airport where they were supposed to land were unsafe, his office said.
An aerial view of homes submerged under floodwaters from the North Fork of the Kentucky River in Jackson, Kentucky, on July 28, 2022. – Flash floods caused by torrential rain have killed at least eight people in the east Kentucky and left some residents stranded on rooftops and in trees, the governor of the south-central US state said on Thursday.
Leandro Lozada | Afp | beautiful pictures
More rain on Friday tormented the area after days of torrential rain. The storm caused water from hillsides to spill out of stream beds, flooding roads and forcing rescue teams to use helicopters and boats to reach those trapped. Flooding also damaged areas of western Virginia and southern West Virginia, in an area plagued by poverty.
“There are hundreds of families that have lost everything,” Beshear said. “And many of these families don’t have much to start with. And so it hurts even more. But we’ll be there for them.”
Poweroutage.us reported that more than 33,000 customers remained without power Friday in eastern Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia, with most of the outage in Kentucky.
Rescue teams have also been working in Virginia and West Virginia to reach people in places where roads are impassable. Governor Jim Justice declared a state of emergency for six counties in West Virginia, where floods toppled trees, lost power and blocked roads. Governor Glenn Youngkin also issued an emergency declaration, allowing Virginia to mobilize resources across flooded areas of southwestern Virginia.
“With more rainfall forecast over the next few days, we want to provide as many resources as possible to support those affected,” Youngkin said in a statement.
While some floodwaters receded after peaking on Thursday, the National Weather Service said flash flooding was still possible through Friday evening in parts of the area.
Brandon Bonds, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Jackson, said the worst-affected areas of eastern Kentucky received between 8 and 10 1/2 inches in the 48-hour period ending. on Thursday. Several areas with more rain overnight, including Martin County, were hit by another 3 inches leading to a new flash flood warning on Friday.
The North Fork of the Kentucky River broke records in at least two places. A river gauge recorded 20.9 feet (6.4 meters) in Whitesburg, 6 feet (1.8 meters) more than the previous record, and the river hit a record 43.47 feet (13.25 metres) ) in Jackson, Bonds said.
Homes along the Gross Loop off KY-15 were flooded with water from the North Fork of the Kentucky River.
Arden S. Barnes | Washington Post | beautiful pictures
Bonds said some places could see more rain Friday afternoon and start to dry out on Saturday “before things pick up again on Sunday and into next week.”
Krystal Holbrook had enough on Thursday, as her family raced through the night to move vehicles, camp, trailers and equipment as rapidly rising floodwaters threatened her southeastern Kentucky town of Jackson. “Higher land is a bit difficult to find,” she said.
In Whitesburg, Kentucky, floodwaters flooded the Appalshop, an arts and education center known for promoting and preserving the history and culture of the area.
“We’re not sure exactly the full extent of the damage because we haven’t been able to get into the building safely or actually get too close to it,” said Meredith Scalos, the firm’s communications director. “We know that some of our archives have spilled out of the building into the streets of Whitesburg.”
