Live weather updates: Flooding continues in Kentucky from heavy weekend rains – Courier Journal
Source: Courier Journal
Editor’s note: This file reflects flooding updates from Sunday, Feb. 16.Click here for Monday flooding updates from Louisville and across Kentucky.
Several areas of Kentucky are experiencing catastrophic flooding Sunday after a storm system dumped large amounts of rain across the commonwealth, leaving drivers and homeowners stranded and many communities underwater.
Much of the commonwealth remains under flood watches or warnings Sunday morning after some areas received more than 6 inches of rain within a 48-hour period, according to the National Weather Service in Louisville.
Gov. Andy Beshear announced on X that a ninth person in the commonwealth has died as a result of flooding.
“I am sad to share some more tough news tonight, Kentucky. We just confirmed another weather-related death out of Pike County, bringing our total loss to 9 people,” Beshear posted on X.
Officials from Bullitt County Public Schools announced the district would shift to nontraditional instruction Monday due to floodwater impacting several areas in the county and making roadways impassable for buses.
“While snow is not an issue, floodwaters have not receded as expected, and conditions could worsen before improving,” officials said in a statement posted to Facebook Sunday evening. “The Salt River is being closely monitored and is expected to crest this evening at a level above the official flood stage, which may impact additional roadways.”
Staff will report to buildings as usual, officials said.
The city of Hazard in Perry County has seen its worst flooding in 40 years, officials confirmed Sunday.
The North Fork Kentucky River crested at 30.5 inches overnight, marking the largest flood in the city since 1984. The water level rose above the Gorman Bridge off Main Street, which crosses the North Fork Kentucky River downtown, making it impassable.
Hazard Mayor Happy Mobelini told WYMT-TV the town knew they would be flooded, but not to this extent.
“The one in 2022, it was awful but it only covered part of the county and town,” Mobelini told WYMT. “This one covers the entire county.”
The mayor said the fire and police departments have taken part in more than 100 water rescues.
In Middlesboro, Mayor Boone Bowling said mutual aid teams from other parts of the South set up a base to help dispatch crews to areas in need of assistance throughout east Kentucky. North Carolina Emergency Management said crews of 40-60 people, including the Winston Salm Search and Rescue, Asheville Search and Rescue and the Charlotte Search and Rescue team, will disperse across the commonwealth to the hardest-hit areas.
Crews from Ohio and Indiana are also expected to arrive in the commonwealth in the coming days, officials said.
In Floyd County, residents were asked to evacuate immediately in the city of Allen as floodwaters from Beaver Creek shut down roadways and inundated homes.
A photo posted to the WMDJ-FM and the Maggofin County News Network’s Facebook pages shows two Allen Fire Department members — identified as Jordan Chaffins and Isabella Harlow — walking through knee-deep water as they conducted a water rescue Sunday.
Waters were receding in Pikeville by Sunday evening, but plenty of work remains in the county that Gov. Andy Beshear said was probably hit hardest in Kentucky.
Pikeville Independent Schools Superintendent David Trimble and other district officials worked through Saturday night and into Sunday at Pikeville High School. The facility was briefly used as a shelter the previous night before it was also evacuated — by late Sunday afternoon, the water had receded, leaving a thick coat of mud inside the school that crews were working to clean up.
Mayor Jimmy Carter was a senior at the high school when it suffered its first flood in April 1977. It took days for the water to subside that year, and while this flood didn’t last as long, he knows the road to recovery will take some time. At least 100 human rescues in Pike County had been reported since about 3 p.m. Saturday, he said later Sunday.
Now, he said, the focus in the city is “clean up and assess the homes that were flooded, the businesses that were flooded.” Several water tanks in Pike County are currently dry after their lines were broken during the chaos, he said, though the city of Pikeville has clean water. Two deaths in the county were reported by Beshear.
The damage in the area was still evident Sunday evening. Several businesses along Highway 80, which snakes through town along the Levisa Fork, were still partially submerged.
E-Z Pay Auto, for instance, was swamped with several feet of water, with a car out front nearly completely submerged. Bobby Luster, a car shop employee, said he’d been called to the business that morning at 1 a.m. to retrieve some computers as the water rose — but by that point, he said, it was too late.
“I didn’t get home ‘til 6,” he said, as rising water blocked him at the intersection as he tried to leave. “You couldn’t go through there. I had to fight my way
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